‘He’s been a pro:’ Dillingham backtracks from no comment on Cutter Boley’s reaction to benching

TEMPE — Arizona State quarterback Cutter Boley has handled getting benched in consecutive weeks like “an absolute pro,” head coach Kenny Dillingham said Tuesday.

Boley was benched at halftime of ASU’s 53-25 loss to Texas Tech and again after four unsuccessful drives in relief of an injured Mikey Keene in ASU’s comeback win against Kansas State last weekend.

He was replaced by sixth-year Keene in the first game and by freshman Jake Fette in the second. Keene is questionable for Saturday at No. 8 BYU, and Fette will get the start if Keene is unable, according to Dillingham.

The head coach said “no comment” two times while speaking to reporters Monday, notably when asked about how Boley has handled the difficult situation. He then clarified his thoughts the next day.

“Cutter’s been awesome, by the way,” Dillingham said Tuesday. “I was referring to some other things in that context that he’s having to deal with. He’s a competitor. … He’s handling it as good as you could possibly handle it. But he wants to be out there, who wouldn’t want to be out there?

“But he was the first guy to celebrate with Jake, the first guy to celebrate with Mikey. He’s still out there with everybody every single day.”

Dillingham said maybe he shouldn’t have said “no comment” the way he did, but he was hoping to avoid a “rabbit hole of conversations.”

“He’s been an absolute pro when it comes to this. Absolutely handling it as good as he could with a competitive spirit.”

Boley was 6 of 15 for 131 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions (one returned for a touchdown) across the roughly three quarters played in two games.

Boley was the No. 15 quarterback in last offseason’s transfer portal out of Kentucky, according to 247 Sports. He’s someone that Dillingham had long-term familiarity with dating to when he was the offensive coordinator at Oregon trying to recruit Boley out of high school.

What else did ASU’s Kenny Dillingham say ‘no comment’ to?

Dillingham’s first “no comment” on Monday was regarding whether NIL makes booing college athletes more acceptable.

The head coach backed Boley postgame following the boos that came when he first entered, as well as after each unsuccessful drive, essentially admonishing the fans who took part.

“I’m just always going to defend our players,” Dillingham said Saturday. “My players are first. Like, don’t boo. My players are first, I protect my players. That’s to my core. So, it’s me and my team versus everybody who’s against us. Everybody. Like that’s how I view it.”

Boley is among if not the highest-paid player on ASU’s roster with reported NIL valuations from $1.5–1.8 million.

Related

Julian Hugo is doing something no ASU freshman since Terrell Suggs has doneNew bowl game prediction has Arizona in Alamo Bowl, ASU in Poinsettia BowlMikey Keene considered ‘honestly questionable’ for ASU-BYU, Jake Fette will start if he can’t goCam Skattebo goes beast mode with several punishing runs vs. TexansKenny Dillingham says he almost broke his hand trying to get more passion out of ASUBYU upset by UCF for first loss of the season, hosts ASU next