Former Auburn Tigers quarterback Zach Calzada, who never started a game on the Plains and left after Bryan Harsin's final season, may have blew his last chance to be a QB1 in the SEC.
On Saturday, Calzada left the Kentucky Wildcats' 30-23 loss against the Ole Miss Rebels with a shoulder injury. KSR's Tyler Thompson sees the contents postgame presser in Lexington, Kentucky, as a potential sign Calzada's done, likely replaced with Cutter Boley, regardless of his injury status.
"Stoops’ frustration with the offense before Calzada’s injury suggested that Boley has a good chance at taking over the job," Thompson said.
Mark Stoops sounded angry at Calzada's missed opportunities against the Rebels.
“No, because the plays were there, and again, not easy, and not wide open, or things of that nature. But when you drop back and pass, and you’ve gotta throw the ball. And some of it was there," Stoops said.
“And listen, it’s not easy. Those are big guys coming at him, and you don’t know what the vision’s like and what his windows are like, but as we’re looking, I was interested in that, and Bush was, we were looking at that, and I was looking at that after and in-between series. And, there were some opportunities there that we got to be more efficient.”
Calzada, who started out with the Texas A&M Aggies before transferring to Auburn, then the Incarnate Word Cardinals, before landing at UK and winning the starting job in August, has one year of eligibility left.
Assuming Stoops, or heaven forbid his interim replacement, pivots to the future, the Lexington Christian Academy product Boley is unquestionably the move.
That leaves Calzada out in the cold. After being sold an Austin Davis dream at AU before Davis resigned and Eric Kiesau was promoted to lead play-caller/QB coach instead, Calzada's story is a college football tragedy -- though his 41-38 victory over the 2021 Alabama Crimson Tide as Texas A&M's QB1 cannot be forgotten by history.