It seems that each passing week features a new storyline with the Iowa Hawkeyes‘ quarterback room and depth chart. It is an ongoing merry-go-round of injuries, new starters, and depth chart shuffling.
This week, in a bit of good news, Iowa head football Kirk Ferentz provided a positive update on redshirt freshman quarterback Marco Lainez, who had previously been sidelined with a broken thumb per reports.
“Then getting guys back, Lachey and Ostrenga have both been cleared and they’ve been able to practice and will be back. I think Marco Lainez will be back. After that, we’ve got a few guys who are clearly cloudy right now. We’re going to see how the week plays out and go from there,” Ferentz said in his opening statement of his weekly press conference.
Ferentz was asked about Lainez’s ability to truly get reintegrated into the offense with minimal practice time.
“Marco started back. That’s the good news. Somebody told me yesterday that Brendan had been pronounced done for the season, which I chuckled because at that point it was a 12-day season. Talk about headlines, I guess you try to grab attention. Not that you guys write the headlines. I understand that.
“But yeah, he’s out this week. We’ll see what next week brings. I’m not optimistic. But I would assume the bowl game. But nothing is broken, so hopefully we get him back,” Ferentz said about Lainez and junior quarterback Brendan Sullivan.
Lainez’ return to the depth chart and practice field is a very welcome sight for the Hawkeyes as their quarterback depth chart remains extremely thin.
Sullivan is expected to miss the remainder of the regular season with an ankle injury while graduate quarterback Cade McNamara is still unclear if he will play following a concussion suffered a few weeks ago versus Northwestern.
If those two are out, it leaves Lainez and redshirt sophomore Jackson Stratton as the two healthy quarterbacks.
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