At Mark Stoops' Monday press conference the Cats' head coach made some headlines, including this one, when he announced that Cutter Boley has earned the start against Louisville to end the season.

In spite of Kentucky's struggles the second half of the season the Cardinals are still only a 3-point favorite in this weekend's Governor's Cup matchup with the Wildcats, so oddsmakers clearly see this one as almost too close to call.

Giving a freshman the opportunity in a game that could help Kentucky salvage something in an otherwise disappointing season is a big call and is due to Boley's performances against Murray State and, more impressively, against Texas over the weekend.

Stoops said Boley earned the right to start and that he saw progression from his game experience against Murray State to the game against Texas when he found some success throwing in the second half. Boley was 10/18 for 160 yards and a pick against the Longhorns, which are widely regarded to have the best secondary in America.

Boley did take a number of sacks, which Stoops has attributed to his inexperience, but the move to the freshman opens up a number of possibilities for the situation behind center next year.

Kentucky brought Brock Vandagriff in from Georgia to be a two-year starter but he struggled, sometimes mightily, behind an offensive line that didn't give him much protection.

In SEC games Boley completed 49.5% of his passes with six touchdowns and 12 interceptions, and by every metric Kentucky has had one of the worst passing offenses in the country in Bush Hamdan's first year as the Cats' offensive coordinator.

UK opened up the playbook with Boley as his average depth of target was 17.2 yards downfield.

PFF gave Boley the second-highest grade of any offensive player against Texas with fellow freshman and tight end Willie Rodriguez scoring high as well.