Zach Calzada (born November 8, 2000) is an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

for the

Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30, ...

. He previously played for the

Texas A&M Aggies The Texas A&M Aggies are the students, graduates, and sports teams of Texas A&M University. The nickname "wikt:aggie#Etymology 2, Aggie" was once common at land-grant or "ag" (agriculture) schools in many states. The teams are also simply referr ...

, the

Auburn Tigers The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University, a public four-year university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Auburn Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) a ...

, and the

Incarnate Word Cardinals The Incarnate Word Cardinals, also known as UIW Cardinals, are composed of 25 teams representing the University of the Incarnate Word in intercollegiate athletics, including men and women's basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming & div ...

. Calzada attended and played high school football at Lanier High School in

Sugar Hill, Georgia Sugar Hill is a city in northern Gwinnett County in the U.S. state of Georgia, included within the Metro Atlanta area. The population was 25,076 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Gwinnett County. It is in close proxim ...

and began his college career at

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

before transferring to Auburn in 2022.

Early life

Calzada grew up in

and attended Lanier High School. He missed a large portion of his senior season after suffering a cracked rib and a punctured lung in the third game of the year. Calzada eventually returned to play and finished the season with 122 completions on 240 pass attempts for 14 touchdowns and was named an Under Armour All-American as Lanier reached the state semifinals. He finished his high school career with 3,429 yards and 29 touchdowns on 238 of 467 passing. Calzada was rated a three-star recruit and committed to play college football at Texas A&M over offers from

North Carolina State North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina sy ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

College career

Texas A&M

As a freshman, Calzada completed 12 of 24 pass attempts for 133 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Calzada did not see any playing time during the

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

season. Calzada competed for the starting quarterback spot going into the

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

season, but Haynes King was ultimately chosen. Calzada was named the Aggies starter following an injury to King in the second game of the season. He completed 21 of 31 passes for 285 yards with three touchdowns and one interception in a 41–38 upset victory over top-ranked Alabama. Following the game, Calzada was named the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

Offensive Player of the Week, the

Davey O'Brien Award The Davey O'Brien Award, officially the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award, named after Davey O'Brien, is presented annually to the collegiate American football player judged by the Davey O'Brien Foundation to be the best of all National C ...

Player of the Week, and the

Maxwell Award The Maxwell Award is presented annually to the college football player judged by a panel of sportscasters, sportswriters, and National Collegiate Athletic Association head coaches and the membership of the Maxwell Football Club to be the best all ...

Player of the Week. Calzada finished the season with 2,185 passing yards, 17 touchdowns, and 9 interceptions in ten starts. On December 13, 2021, Calzada announced he would be transferring from Texas A&M, via social media.

Auburn

On January 6, 2022, Calzada announced he would transfer to

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...

. On December 5, 2022, Calzada announced he would enter the transfer portal again.

Incarnate Word

On January 11, 2023, Calzada announced he would transfer to The University of the Incarnate Word, an FCS school located in

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

. He was named the Cardinals' starting quarterback entering his first season with the team.

Statistics

Personal life

Calzada is a

Cuban American Cuban Americans ( or ) are Americans who immigrated from or are descended from immigrants from Cuba. As of 2023, Cuban Americans were the fourth largest Hispanic and Latino American group in the United States after Mexican Americans, Stateside ...

References

External links

Texas A&M Aggies bioAuburn Tigers bioIncarnate Word Cardinals bioKentucky Wildcats bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calzada, Zach 2000 births Living people American sportspeople of Cuban descent Players of American football from Gwinnett County, Georgia American football quarterbacks Auburn Tigers football players Incarnate Word Cardinals football players Texas A&M Aggies football players Hispanic and Latino American players of American football