When Stoops hired then-Boise State offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan to take over the Cats’ offense, Saunders was familiar with the newcomer. Saunders trains with 3DQB, a Huntington, California-based quarterback preparation organization. According to Saunders, Hamdan was well-connected with the 3DQB personnel. “(Hamdan) came to see me after he got the job. He was a very straight shooter. “Family guy,” Saunders remarked. “He welcomed me into his family right away.” I just felt at ease with it right immediately.”
The quarterback that Kentucky kept is a Pennsylvania high school legend. Pennsylvania has produced NFL quarterback luminaries Joe Montana (Monongahela), Johnny Unitas (Pittsburgh), Dan Marino (Pittsburgh), Jim Kelly (East Brady), and Joe Namath (Beaver Falls), as well as University of Kentucky quarterback icons George Blanda (Youngwood) and Babe Parilli (Rochester).
However, Stone Saunders (Harrisburg) is the Keystone State’s all-time high school leader in passing yards (13,719), passing touchdowns (204), and pass completions (781). However, Saunders believes the Pennsylvania individual records he established are less important to him than the state titles he led Bishop McDevitt High School to in 2022 and 2024. “The state championships are the things, I look back and watch the videos and it makes me happy,” Saunders told the crowd.
Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mark-story/article301340669.html#storylink=cpy When the Kentucky football program made their new 2025 players public to the media for the first time last week, true freshman quarterback Stone Saunders was the first name I looked up. One of the most renowned high school football quarterbacks ever signed by Kentucky, the Pennsylvania native maintained his commitment to the university despite circumstances that would have driven many others to flee. “I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some doubt after Liam (Coen) left,” Saunders stated last Tuesday at the Nutter Field House in the United Kingdom. “Just because you don’t know what is going to happen.”
When the class of 2025 quarterback committed to play for UK on August 4, 2023, the following facts influenced his decision: Liam Coen, a rising coaching star, led the Wildcats’ offensive. Saunders had known Coen for the majority of his life because the coach is a friend of the quarterback’s father, former Baltimore Ravens strength and conditioning coach Steve Saunders. Based on the success that now-Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis had while playing under Coen at Kentucky in 2021, coming to Lexington appeared to be an ideal avenue for an aspiring quarterback to take to the NFL. At the time Saunders committed, the Kentucky football program was seven years into what would become an eight-year run of consecutive bowl games.
Unfortunately, even before Saunders could officially sign with UK on December 4, 2024, the circumstances that had led to his commitment to Mark Stoops’ Wildcats had shifted dramatically. Coen departed the UK after the 2023 season to join the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he would serve as offensive coordinator in 2024. With Coen — now the recently chosen head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars — leaving in 2024, the Kentucky passing attack appeared to be anything but a quarterback’s path to pro football.
Last season, UK ranked 112th out of 133 FBS teams in passing yards per game, averaging only 184.8 yards. If that wasn’t enough, Kentucky suffered a competitive collapse last autumn, ending their bowl streak after finishing 4-8 overall and 1-7 in SEC play. Despite having 20 scholarship offers from big conference colleges, Saunders chose Kentucky over Georgia, Miami (Fla.), and Michigan, among others, to be true to the blue. Saunders claimed to have received a phone call from Stoops shortly after Coen’s departure. “He said, ‘Stay committed to me. “You are our highest priority.” Saunders stated. “(Stoops) desired me, and deep down, I wanted to stay here. Even on my first recruiting visit, I felt like a member of the family.
In this fall’s UK quarterback room, Incarnate Word transfer Zach Calzada, a former SEC quarterback at both Texas A&M and Auburn, and former Lexington Christian Academy star Cutter Boley are slated to start at the top of the depth chart. Calzada, 6-4, 230 pounds, began his college career in 2019 and threw for 3,791 yards last season at Incarnate Word. Boley, a 6-foot-5, 214-pound redshirt freshman, appeared in four games for Kentucky last season as a true freshman.
He showed significant promise in second-half duty against Murray State and Texas, and he looked like a true freshman after starting in Kentucky’s season-ending defeat to Louisville. As a true freshman, Saunders’ ability to compete with those two as quarterback remains to be seen. “I’ve got a handle on the weight room,” Saunders says about his adjustment to college football. “I’m starting to understand the playbook. “Obviously, it will take time.” Finally, Saunders claims he maintained his dedication to Kentucky even after his initial link to UK football, Liam Coen, left because he realized he was supposed to be a Wildcat. “I really never thought about going anywhere else, even with coach Coen leaving,” stated the player. “I believe (Coen) opened the door so that I could observe everything positive that happened here. “I believe God had a plan for me to come here.”
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