Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz pushed back against the idea that it was a “demotion” on Saturday for Cade McNamara.
Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz pushed back against the notion that Saturday’s move to junior backup quarterback Brendan Sullivan was a demotion for graduate signal-caller Cade McNamara.
Including Saturday versus Northwestern, McNamara has started every game for Iowa this season.
After the way Iowa’s 40-14 win over Northwestern played out, that doesn’t figure to be the case moving forward.
Sullivan relieved McNamara and proceeded to direct four Iowa touchdown drives after McNamara threw an 85-yard pick-six to Northwestern’s Theran Johnson.
It wasn’t immediate for the Hawkeyes with Sullivan running the show, but after three straight three-and-outs, Sullivan provided a clear spark.
Afterwards, Ferentz praised McNamara’s leadership during his time in Iowa City and said the decision to give Sullivan a more extended look at quarterback was preplanned.
“Yeah, he’s been great. Can’t say enough about that. He’s been really good. It was maybe an adjustment here last year. He was never healthy. He’s been great this entire year, going back to January. Never got on track a year ago, so that’s hard. That’s really hard. But he’s been tremendous.
“I don’t know about we sent him to the bench. Again, this was preplanned. We communicate with everybody, especially the parties involved, just what our plan was and why.
“I didn’t see it as a demotion as much as like Brendan has been doing a good job, we want to learn more about him. We feel like we can win with both of them. Keep our fingers crossed.
“To that point, a week ago Monday, I know it was a big topic. Two weeks ago Monday it wasn’t a topic about who our quarterback was. That’s the nature of football. You can’t worry too much about that. Our job as coaches is to try to do what’s best for the team,” Ferentz said.
Sullivan finished his day 9-of-14 passing for 79 yards and added 41 yards and a 6-yard score on the ground. Meanwhile, McNamara finished 7-of-13 passing with 73 yards and the pick-six.
Ferentz wasn’t ready to name Sullivan Iowa’s permanent starter moving forward after the win.
“Yeah, we’ll see on that. Permanent’s a strong word. It’s like super glue or whatever. We had already made the decision during the week that we were going to rotate Brendan in a little bit. Thought third or fourth series depending on how it played out, so it just worked out that way. And then he did a really nice job. Cade was shook up also after the hit he took,” Ferentz said.
Ferentz was asked if Iowa could rotate quarterbacks moving forward.
“We did it in ’81. You weren’t alive. It worked out OK. I mean, yeah, we’ll do what’s best for the team. Going back to the point earlier about the rotation. It wasn’t we were benching Cade, we were going to give Brendan a chance, too. He’s done some good things. Gives us a chance to look at him.
“He did a lot of really good things today, a lot of things he’ll get better at, too. That’s encouraging. Hopefully we have two guys we can win with,” Ferentz said.
Ferentz also discussed what Sullivan’s mobility provides the Hawkeyes and praised his overall performance against the Wildcats.
“Yeah, that’s the clear contrast. I think that’s one of Brendan’s strengths is he’s a really good athlete and really good at that. And then the other thing is, he commanded the game, which is, no matter what your style is as a quarterback, you have to do that. It was a really good outing and I think we got into a little flow in the second half.
“That was certainly encouraging. There’s give and take with everything you do, but really, really happy with the way he stepped in. I thought he played with great poise. I didn’t think too much about it, but, playing his former team, you always worry about emotions a little bit. Didn’t worry too much about it, but it didn’t seem to be a factor either,” Ferentz said.
Iowa will return to action with a rivalry date versus Wisconsin next Saturday from inside Kinnick Stadium.
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