After seeing two touchdowns on two deep red zone possessions last week utilizing Northwestern transfer Brendan Sullivan at quarterback, it is a fair question to wonder if the Iowa Hawkeyes could utilize the package more.
Cade McNamara saw success last weekend completing over 80% of his passes, but he did not register a touchdown. Sullivan was 1-1 on the day with a two-yard pitch pass to tight end Addison Ostrenga.
Ahead of the Hawkeyes’ Big Ten opener against the Minnesota Golden Gophers, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz was asked about integrating the package into the game plan more moving forward.
He was asked if this package could be used in short-yardage situations in addition to the goal line usage.
“We’ll see. Right now we haven’t given it a lot of thought, but we’ll see. Just happy to get him involved. He’s practiced well, done some good things. Certainly gives us a little different dimension. Those are things we might consider as we move forward,” Ferentz said.
As expected, Ferentz was rather tight-lipped and kept his cards close to his chest and didn’t give much of an answer one way or another to give insight on an increase in Sullivan’s snaps.
The fact that Iowa revealed the package against Troy does add another wrinkle to their offense. After years of game planning for the same offense, Minnesota was already going to be adjusting their scouting to Tim Lester’s scheme but now has one more thing on their plate to keep track of.
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