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Kentucky QB Zach Calzada Sorry for Video Flaunting NIL Money
ESPN ^ | Nov 7, 2025 | Mark Schlabach

Posted on 11/07/2025 8:06:25 PM PST by nickcarraway

Kentucky quarterback Zach Calzada apologized Friday for sending a video to someone on social media in which he boasted about the amount of NIL money he has received from the Wildcats this season.

The video, which was posted to X by a different person, showed Calzada counting a large stack of $100 bills.

Calzada, who turns 25 on Saturday, said he sent the video to someone who had apparently criticized his play this season.

In the video, Calzada tells the fan, "Hey, what you need to do, Garrett, is your ass needs to stop hatin' and go get you some money. But since you ain't got nothing, you go ahead and you can count mine."

"Let's count," Calzada said, as he fanned the $100 bills.

"Don't lose count, Garrett," Calzada continued. "Straight hundreds."

A Kentucky spokesman told the Lexington Herald-Leader on Friday, "Zach has taken responsibility for his actions. He has done the right thing and apologized. Now, it's time to move forward."

Calzada, who is playing his seventh season of college football, started the first two games for the Wildcats in 2025. He was ineffective, completing 47.2% of his attempts for 234 yards with no touchdowns and one interception.

Calzada injured his throwing shoulder in the fourth quarter of a 30-23 loss to Ole Miss on Sept. 6.

Freshman Cutter Boley took over and has started the past six games, throwing for 1,376 yards with 10 touchdowns and 7 interceptions.

Calzada, from Buford, Georgia, started his career at Texas A&M in 2019. His best season came in 2021, when he replaced injured Haynes King and went 6-4 as the starter. He completed 21 of 31 passes for 285 yards with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception in the Aggies' 41-38 upset of then-No. 1 Alabama on Oct. 9, 2021.

Calzada transferred to Auburn in 2022 but never played in a game after undergoing surgery on his non-throwing shoulder.

He spent the past two seasons at FCS program Incarnate Word, where he was named the Southland Conference Newcomer of the Year in 2024 and Player of the Year last season, when he threw for 3,744 yards with 35 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.

The Wildcats (3-5, 1-5 SEC) host Florida (3-5, 2-3 SEC) on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network).


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Sports
KEYWORDS: college; ncaa; nil
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To: ZOOKER; pburiak
It used to be four playing years over five total years. Now there are all kinds of exceptions outside of COVID.

Cam McCormick is a Tight End who did nine season s in college football. He started in 2016 and finished and played his last game on December 28th, 2024. He wasn't drafted, now he's a scout with the Patriots. The strange thing is he was only at two colleges. He apparently has a lot of injuries, and got exemptions for that.

They might as well have given him a 10th year.

21 posted on 11/07/2025 10:12:39 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: Drew68; Round Earther; BookmanTheJanitor
I guess people didn't get my joke at the expense of, ahem, certain Freepers.


Zach Calzada is your standard issue white guy:


22 posted on 11/07/2025 10:16:12 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: Allegra; sport

Cam McCormick set the record last year, graduating after his ninth season on a college football scholarship. Des anyone want to beat that record?


23 posted on 11/07/2025 10:17:54 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Calzada, who is playing his seventh season of college football


This is everything that is wrong with college football in a nutshell.


24 posted on 11/07/2025 10:30:52 PM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: nickcarraway

Calzada, from Buford, Georgia, started his career at Texas A&M in 2019.


Talk about going from the penthouse to the outhouse.


25 posted on 11/07/2025 10:32:06 PM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: carikadon

My middle child was dealing with an incurable medical condition and needed a year to get their condition to a manageable place. After obtaining their Associates of Science, they paused their education because we were looking to sell our house and relocate to another state. Since we decided not to leave Texas after all, they are enrolled for the spring semester to finish their Bachelors of Science.

My youngest also took a year between high school and college because I was experiencing life-threatening seizures and could no longer drive or leave the house alone. He helped me continue working; since I was earning a six-figure salary, I paid him out of my earnings. Now that I am no longer working, he got a part-time job and is also starting college in the spring.

Sometimes life gets in the way.


26 posted on 11/07/2025 11:17:31 PM PST by TheWriterTX (🇺🇸✝️🙏🇮🇱)
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To: nickcarraway
In the video, Calzada tells the fan, "Hey, what you need to do, Garrett, is your ass needs to stop hatin' and go get you some money. But since you ain't got nothing, you go ahead and you can count mine."

I have nothing but disdain for these arrogant college boys, flaunting their sesquipedalian vocabulary and high-falutin' diction! Probably double-majoring in Ancient Greek and Physics!

Regards,

27 posted on 11/07/2025 11:31:50 PM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: TheWriterTX
My middle child was dealing with an incurable medical condition and needed a year to get their condition to a manageable place. After obtaining their Associates of Science, they paused their education because we were looking to sell our house and relocate to another state. Since we decided not to leave Texas after all, they are enrolled for the spring semester to finish their Bachelors of Science. My youngest also took a year between high school and college because I was experiencing life-threatening seizures and could no longer drive or leave the house alone. He helped me continue working; since I was earning a six-figure salary, I paid him out of my earnings. Now that I am no longer working, he got a part-time job and is also starting college in the spring.

I understand your desire for OpSec, TheWriterTX, and thus your reason for wanting to mask the sex of your middle child - but then, you could at least be consistent and do the same for your youngest!

/friendly ribbing

I dearly hope that your middle child's condition improves! All the best to you and your family!

Regards,

28 posted on 11/07/2025 11:41:56 PM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: nickcarraway
I guess people didn't get my joke at the expense of, ahem, certain Freepers.

Zach Calzada is your standard issue white guy:

Aha!

So his real crime was cultural appropriation!

29 posted on 11/07/2025 11:56:46 PM PST by Drew68
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To: nickcarraway

Seventh season of college football; this guy is now tied with Bluto. So will he end up being a US Senator as well? They love the money, too.


30 posted on 11/08/2025 12:30:54 AM PST by Bernard ("Nothing is as expensive as that which the government provides for free." - Ronald Reagan)
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To: pburiak

“One redshirt year (practice but don’t play in games)”

Unbelievably that rule is now 4 games can be played in and still redshirt. Conference Championship and Bowl games don’t count towards the four games. So a kid could conceivably play in six games and still get a redshirt year. Basketball is still the old system, play in one game, no redshirt short of injury redshirt.


31 posted on 11/08/2025 2:32:03 AM PST by DAC21
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To: pburiak

“One redshirt year (practice but don’t play in games)”

Unbelievably that rule is now 4 games can be played in and still redshirt. Conference Championship and Bowl games don’t count towards the four games. So a kid could conceivably play in six games and still get a redshirt year. Basketball is still the old system, play in one game, no redshirt short of injury redshirt.


32 posted on 11/08/2025 3:00:10 AM PST by DAC21
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To: nickcarraway

With all the massive money in big-time sports there has to be government-sponsored shenanigans in there somewhere. What better opportunity is there to hide your cash than to dump it into the coffers of the biggest secular religion out there?


33 posted on 11/08/2025 3:01:37 AM PST by ClarityGuy
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To: carikadon

If you were getting paid like that, you’d still be in college too.


34 posted on 11/08/2025 3:02:39 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: TheWriterTX
For me it was working full time the entire time I went to college to get a BS in computer science. Taking 2 or 3 courses per quarter. Plus a lot of my junior college courses didn’t transfer. Plus having epilepsy for most of my teens and twenties with my doctor saying that stress combined with lack of sleep triggered the seizures, thus I took no more than 3 courses. While marrying early to start a family early so the kids would be raised hopefully before the seizures caused severe damage, as the seizures grew in frequency and strength.

Then came the shift in my priorities in my prayers. Then my doctor saying it was a miracle that an MRI detected a microscopic scar tissue on my brain that caused the seizures. Then taking off college for 6 months after the brain surgery and working part time then full time by the time I resumed college, with a year left (taking 2 or 3 courses). Then me finally finishing the BS in CS with a healed brain a few months before I was finally finished being weaned off of the seizure meds that I hated about as much as the seizures. At 28 I was thanking God over and over for being able to think clearly for the first time since I was 14. Not one person criticized me for taking a long time to get a 4 year degree.

27 years later I still thank God just for the blessing of being able to think clearly. And my wife and I are financially set with her being retired and me quasi-retired.

35 posted on 11/08/2025 3:14:31 AM PST by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: nickcarraway

7th season?
That egghead has been in college 7 years?


36 posted on 11/08/2025 3:17:56 AM PST by 9422WMR
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To: nickcarraway
Calzada, who is playing his seventh season of college football,

And he finally learned how to count......

37 posted on 11/08/2025 3:20:10 AM PST by Hot Tabasco
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To: nickcarraway

I think I see the problem here.
12 years (presumably) of public education, 7 years of romper room (playing college, while being an athlete), and no one taught him how to be a man.
A bit of humility, humbleness, and thankfulness, mixed in with his years of “education”, could have gone a long way.


38 posted on 11/08/2025 3:42:46 AM PST by Fireone (1. Avoid crowds 2.Head on a swivel 3.Be prepared to protect & defend those around you 4.Avoid crowds)
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To: nickcarraway

NIL will favour major market teams and schools with major in-state businesses.

Vanderbilt is the best example of major market team finances. The SEC is about to expel South Carolina (three last place teams) for relegation and having no Fortune 500 companies able to fund the NIL that major markets have.


39 posted on 11/08/2025 3:55:46 AM PST by WhiteHatBobby0701
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To: 9422WMR
That egghead has been in college 7 years?

If I could be in college, debt free, while counting incoming stacks of hundreds year after year rather than living off Ramen and Mac and Cheese, I’d never want to leave.
40 posted on 11/08/2025 5:32:22 AM PST by mmichaels1970 ( )
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