Arizona State needed a new quarterback fast this offseason after Sam Leavitt, the guy who led the Sun Devils to a Big 12 title and a College Football Playoff berth in 2024, bolted for LSU following a foot injury that cut his 2025 season short. That left Kenny Dillingham running a wide-open quarterback battle all fall camp, and the answer is in: Cutter Boley is QB1 in Tempe.
Sources: Arizona State has named Cutter Boley the school’s starting quarterback, and the Kentucky transfer will debut for ASU against Morgan State on Sept. 5. (ASU travels to No. 8 Texas A&M the next week). He won a battle with veteran Mikey Keene and freshman Jake Fette.
Per Pete Thamel, Boley won the job over 2 real competitors, not just camp fodder. Mikey Keene is a well-traveled veteran who went from Fresno State to Michigan, where he barely sniffed the field behind five-star Bryce Underwood in 2025. Freshman Jake Fette was the other name in the mix. Losing that job stings for Keene in particular, a guy who transferred to Michigan hoping for a shot and instead landed on another bench.
Boley's path here is its own story. He took over at Kentucky last season after starter Zach Calzada went down with a shoulder injury against Ole Miss, and he never gave the job back, starting 11 games over 2 years in Lexington. When Kentucky fired Mark Stoops and hired Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein this offseason, Boley decided Lexington wasn't the fit anymore and hit the portal looking for what Thamel's sourcing calls the best system for him.
Boley started 11 games over two years at Kentucky, throwing for 2,489 yards and 17 touchdowns and rushing for two more scores. He completed 65.8% of this passes last year, a record for a Kentucky freshman. ASU QBs were informed last night.
The numbers back up why Dillingham chased him. Boley threw for 2,489 yards and 17 touchdowns across his 2 seasons at Kentucky, added 2 rushing scores, and completed 65.8% of his passes last year — a Kentucky freshman record. That's not just a guy stepping in to hold the seat warm; that's a proven SEC starter walking into a Big 12 program that just lost its franchise quarterback.
The schedule doesn't ease him in gently, either. Boley gets a tune-up against Morgan State on Sept. 5, but the very next week Arizona State is on the road against No. 8 Texas A&M — as tough a road test as exists in Week 2 of the season. How Boley looks against a top-10 Aggies defense will say a lot more about whether this quarterback battle was won by the right guy than anything that happens against Morgan State.
For Dillingham, this is the second straight offseason he's had to replace his starting quarterback on the fly, and the program's ceiling next season rides almost entirely on whether Boley can be even a fraction of what Leavitt was in that 2024 run. Keene and Fette aren't going anywhere either — this battle isn't over just because it's been decided once.