Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz will let the bowl prep play out, but he has an idea of who will likely be under center for the Hawkeyes when they take the field against the Missouri Tigers in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl on Monday, Dec. 30.
Ferentz said this week that he will let redshirt junior Brendan Sullivan and redshirt sophomore Jackson Stratton compete over the next several weeks to determine who Iowa’s starting signal-caller will be. But, the edge is with Sullivan right now.
“Yeah, we’ll let that go. Yeah, we’ll let them both practice and see what happens. If I had a guess right now, I’d probably say Brendan will be the starter, but we’ll see. We’ll let them both work and see how it all goes,” Ferentz said.
Sullivan has played in nine games this season and started for the Hawkeyes against Wisconsin and UCLA. In Iowa’s 42-10 win over Wisconsin, Sullivan completed 7-of-10 passes for 93 yards with a touchdown pass. Sullivan also carried nine times for 58 yards against the Badgers.
Then, in Iowa’s 20-17 loss against UCLA on Nov. 8, Sullivan completed 6-of-9 passes for 157 yards and was intercepted twice before exiting with an ankle injury.
Sullivan suited up but didn’t play in Iowa’s regular season finale against Nebraska.
Ferentz said that Sullivan is much better physically now than he was during the Hawkeyes’ regular season finale against the Huskers.
“He’s a week better than he was for the Nebraska game and he moved around just fine on Friday. This time is really valuable for him. I say this somewhat jokingly, but hopefully nobody steps on him or does something stupid there. We’ll try to keep him out of harm’s way, but this is really valuable time for him.
“He’s a great young guy, a great young prospect. He hasn’t played a lot still, that’s the reality of it. So, this window of opportunity is really big for him just like it is for Jackson. Really looking forward to having a chance where they can get some really quality reps in and hopefully keep moving forward,” Ferentz said.
Stratton relieved Sullivan in Iowa’s loss at UCLA and directed a touchdown drive. The walk-on transfer from Colorado State started each of Iowa’s final two regular season games at Maryland and versus Nebraska.
Stratton completed 10-of-14 passes for 76 yards in Iowa’s 29-13 win at Maryland and 8-of-15 passes for 115 yards in the Hawkeyes’ walk-off win over Nebraska. That included Stratton’s 72-yard touchdown pass to junior running back Kaleb Johnson.
With graduate Cade McNamara, redshirt freshman Marco Lainez and freshman James Resar all entering the transfer portal, Iowa’s quarterback room is down to just Sullivan and Stratton against Missouri.
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