One of the most seasoned quarterbacks in college football has been selected by Kentucky football to start with redshirt freshman Cutter Boley in the next campaign. Zach Calzada, a former quarterback for Texas A&M, Auburn, and Incarnate Word, made his UK commitment on Thursday during a visit to Lexington. Calzada will play his seventh and final season on a college roster at UK in 2025 after receiving a medical hardship waiver that extends his eligibility by one year.
Calzada’s visit began shortly after the UK concluded visiting Maalik Murphy, a former quarterback for Duke and Texas. Murphy did not offer the dual-threat option that UK offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan has preferred, despite throwing a school-record 26 touchdown passes for the Blue Devils the previous season and being rated as one of the top five quarterbacks in the portal by several national outlets.
Given the high demand for transfers at the majority of the roster’s positions, it is also probable that Murphy’s acquisition would have consumed a bigger share of the UK’s NIL budget. Last season, Calzada passed for 3,791 yards, 35 touchdowns, and nine interceptions while rushing for 332 yards and five touchdowns for FCS Incarnate Word. Now, the 6-foot-4, 200-pound native from Georgia will be back in the SEC, where he played his first four years of college. In order to prevent a situation where Boley was pushed into a starting role before he was ready with just two freshmen as scholarship depth behind him, UK coach Mark Stoops and Hamdan were open about their intention to build around Boley in the final stretch of the 2024 season. Stoops later acknowledged that the staff needed to pursue a veteran transfer at the position. Calzada is the clear favourite to start the UK’s 2025 opener, but expect UK coaches to keep giving Boley a chance to start next season. What you need know about the newest quarterback for the Wildcats is provided below.
Zach Calzada has already contributed to one significant SEC victory for his club. During a redshirt season at Texas A&M in 2019, Calzada made his collegiate debut by playing in three games. As a third-year sophomore in 2021, he started 10 of 12 games for the Aggies after Texas A&M lost starter Haynes King to injury. He did not play in any games in 2020. When Texas A&M upset No. 1 Alabama that season, he had one of his best games, completing 21 of 31 passes for 285 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. King was expected to return from injury and likely recover his starting position the next season, so Calzada entered the transfer portal after completing 55.7% of his throws for 2,318 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. After arriving to Auburn, Calzada suffered a non-throwing shoulder ailment that kept him out of spring practice. Before ultimately choosing to have shoulder surgery to curtail his season, he started the season ranked third on the depth chart at quarterback. Calzada returned to the transfer portal after spending a season at Auburn. He joined offensive powerhouse Incarnate Word, which also produced current Miami star quarterback Cam Ward, after transferring down to the FCS level this time. During his two seasons there, Calzada completed 66% of his passes and passed for 6,144 yards and 53 touchdowns.
Following last week’s playoff defeat, Calzada bid Incarnate Word farewell with sadness. Calzada became tearful during his postgame press conference after Incarnate Word’s FCS playoff loss to South Dakota State on Saturday. Calzada requested if he might say one final thing before the news conference moderator threw the Incarnate Word reps off the podium. Calzada commended offensive coordinator Conner McQueen and Incarnate Word coach Clint Killough for giving him a chance when he thought his football career would be over, after admitting that at first he laughed at the prospect of playing for the FCS program. According to Calzada, “I was working in a warehouse.” “When no one else had faith in me, Coach Killough did.” Killough was referred to by Calzada as “the best head coach in the country.” Calzada declared, “I wouldn’t want to play for anybody else.” “He will always be remembered as my greatest coach.” Many people took Calzada’s remarks as his farewell to college football because his medical waiver had not been made public. However, it now seems that he may have just been emotional because he would be returning to an FBS program for his final chance to prove himself against elite opponents. Regardless of his performance at Kentucky, Calzada is unlikely to soar up NFL draft boards given that he will turn 25 in the 2025 season, but he at least gets an opportunity to demonstrate that his early success at Texas A&M was no accident.
The reason for Zach Calzada’s nickname, “Cuban Missile” Because of his playing style and family background, Calzada’s pals nicknamed him the “Cuban Missile” when he was in middle school. Hector and Maria, Calzada’s paternal grandparents, left Cuba in 1960. They arrived in the United States and settled in St. Louis after spending six months in Panama. Zach’s father, Hector Calzada Jr., excelled as a swimmer at Tulane. Carolyn, Zach’s younger sister, started 54 games at Texas A&M before transferring to Notre Dame for her final season of collegiate soccer. In 2021, Hector Sr. told OurEsquina.com, “I always wanted to give them responsibility so they know it doesn’t matter what type of work you do.” We taught them to put their best effort into whatever they wanted to accomplish and to do their best work, regardless of the type of work they did.
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