Despite a rough final three quarters in Iowa’s 20-19 rivalry loss on Saturday versus Iowa State, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz said the expectation is for Cade McNamara to remain the Hawkeyes’ starting quarterback.
“Probably the way I did coming into the stadium today. I think we expect him to be our quarterback and expect some ups and downs. I’ve been saying it pretty consistently. He’s still working his way back into shape, as is our whole team with the offense and whatever. But, we’ll get better. We’ll improve. Our guys have a great attitude, he’s got a great attitude, and we’ll work through this,” Ferentz said.
McNamara, a graduate signal-caller for the Hawkeyes, completed just five of 18 passes for 27 yards with a pair of interceptions during the game’s final three quarters.
Ferentz was asked if something went awry with McNamara over the game’s final three quarters and what he saw there.
“Football is a game of momentum and swings. They’ve played good defense ever since Coach Campbell and Coach Heacock got there, so they made it tough on us. They made it tough, and we probably missed some plays, maybe some misreads or missed some plays where maybe we could have averted that. But, that’s going to be part of football, and we’ll have to ride that a little bit.
“But as I said last week, too, I think I’ve been saying it for a while now, he’s working his way back. He’s still trying to get back in game shape if you will, or game mode, and he’s working hard. I’m confident he’ll do just fine,” Ferentz said.
The 6-foot-1, 210 pound quarterback’s first interception came early in the second half with Iowa leading 13-0 and in possession of the football with a drive starting at the Iowa State 42-yard line.
On the Hawkeyes’ first play of the series, McNamara tried to force a throw to senior tight end Luke Lachey back across his body. It was intercepted by Iowa State redshirt senior defensive back Darien Porter.
The Cyclones responded with their first scoring drive of the contest, a 9-play, 75-yard drive that culminated with senior wide receiver Jayden Higgins’ 3-yard touchdown grab from redshirt sophomore quarterback Rocco Becht.
“Yeah, so we were planning on taking a shot. It was more of like a, kind of a trickeration play that we were hopefully going to fool them going one way and then throw back the other. Their corner did a really good job of coming up to the line of scrimmage and then bailing out of it. I just made a dumb decision. I should’ve just thrown it away. I just can’t force a ball in that situation,” McNamara said.
Though Iowa added junior quarterback Brendan Sullivan as a transfer from Northwestern, at least for now, the plan is for McNamara to remain the Hawkeyes’ starting quarterback.
Iowa (1-1) returns to action on Saturday at 3 p.m. CT on FS1 as the Hawkeyes host Troy (0-2).
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