When the Hawkeyes (6-4, 4-3 Big Ten) take the field on Saturday at Maryland (4-6, 1-6 Big Ten), Iowa will likely do so with its third different starting quarterback this season.
As Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz indicated on Tuesday, the expectation remains that walk-on, redshirt sophomore quarterback Jackson Stratton will get the nod at quarterback for Iowa at Maryland.
During his weekly radio show appearance alongside Iowa play-by-play voice Gary Dolphin on Wednesday night, Ferentz again said that Stratton looks like Iowa’s starter against the Terps.
“We’re not playing yet, but Jackson looks like the guy that will be going. He’ll get the start. Just confident that he’ll do a great job. He stepped in, did a really nice job in our last ball game. And he’s got a good ability to throw the football, and he’s learning every day. So, if he’s our guy, we’ll go with him and see what we can do,” Ferentz said.
After junior quarterback Brendan Sullivan exited with an ankle injury, Stratton directed two series in Iowa’s 20-17 loss at UCLA on Nov. 9.
Stratton guided Iowa into the end zone on his first possession under center. UCLA helped by extending the drive with a personal foul on an Iowa field goal attempt from the Bruins’ 39-yard-line.
But, that allowed Stratton to convert a pair of third downs with completions to junior receiver Jacob Gill on 3rd-and-8 and 3rd-and-14 before redshirt freshman running back Kamari Moulton capped the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.
The 6-foot-4, 193 pound signal-caller finished 3-of-6 passing for 28 yards in his two series of work. Stratton also had a 14-yard rush.
During the 2022 season at Colorado State, Stratton completed 4-of-17 passes for 78 yards with one touchdown and a pair of interceptions.
During his Tuesday press conference, Ferentz said the bye week in between the UCLA date and this trip to Maryland should pay dividends. Plus, Stratton has now gotten serious reps away from the scout team following Iowa’s trip to the Rose Bowl.
“A heck of a lot more comfortable. If he knew what we knew about the last time, just because of the lack of…I’m not saying this in a negative way toward Jackson at all, but he hadn’t gotten any reps. Once we started doing game prep, two guys get the reps, and that was obviously the first two guys. Even Marco (Lainez) was watching. He was holding a clipboard and watching and Jackson was working the scout team.
“I thought he did some good things out in that last ball game, Jackson did. And he has talent. He can throw the football. You guys saw that.
“Now, it’s a matter of thank goodness we got a bye week and got a chance to get him more comfortable and schooled, and if he ends up being our guy, we’ll try to put a plan together that features what he can do and keep him out of the danger areas maybe and not have him doing calculus problems out there if he’s not ready for that,” Ferentz said on Tuesday.
Iowa kicks off at 11 a.m. CT from SECU Stadium in College Park, Md.
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