Tag: cade mcnamara

Social media shares well-wishes for Iowa QB Cade McNamara as he exits with injury

Social media shared its well-wishes for Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara after he exited with injury against Michigan State.

Iowa’s night against Michigan State and the rest of its season seemingly took an abrupt turn on the second play of the Hawkeyes’ second drive.

Iowa starting quarterback Cade McNamara scrambled out of the Hawkeyes’ end zone looking to avoid the safety. In the process, the senior signal-caller went tumbling down to the Duke Slater Field turf before he was hit.

McNamara needed help leaving the playing field and couldn’t put weight on his left leg before being carted off into the locker room.

It’s a devastating sight to see anyone get injured. For someone as important to Iowa as McNamara, it had Hawkeye fans feeling all sorts of ways.

Most importantly, though, it was nice to see the outpouring of support from Hawkeye fans and opposing fans alike for McNamara to get well soon.

Cade McNamara exits Michigan State game with injury

Cade McNamara exited after another apparent non-contact injury on a scramble versus Michigan State.

Early on in its contest versus Michigan State, things just went from bad to worse for the Iowa Hawkeyes‘ offense.

After a promising first drive that led to a 40-yard field goal from Iowa kicker Drew Stevens, the injury problems flared back up for starting Hawkeye quarterback Cade McNamara.

With the Hawkeyes backed up near their own goal line, McNamara scrambled out of the end zone on a passing down looking to avoid a safety. As he made his way out of the end zone and across the goal line, the senior quarterback stumbled and went down on his own accord with another apparent non-contact injury.

McNamara had been plagued by a non-contact quad injury that he sustained during Iowa’s Kids’ Day at Kinnick back in early August.

That sidelined him throughout a significant portion of Iowa’s fall camp. Though he was listed as questionable on the season’s first two injury reports, McNamara played.

His mobility was clearly hampered, though.

As McNamara exited Duke Slater Field tonight, he needed help from the training staff and couldn’t put weight on his left leg. The 6-foot-1, 205 pound quarterback from Reno, Nev., was then carted to the locker room for further evaluation.

At this point, it’s unclear what his official injury prognosis is. But, judging from the initial response, it didn’t look good.

McNamara left the Michigan State game 3-of-5 passing for 46 yards. On the season, McNamara has completed 46-of-90 passes for 505 passing yards and four touchdowns on the season.

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Cade McNamara defers lack of WR involvement queries to OC Brian Ferentz

Asked how to get the Hawkeye receivers more involved, Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara deferred to the offensive play-calling.

After being shutout in Happy Valley, questions, critiques and national commentary about the Iowa Hawkeyes‘ offense is as loud as ever before.

The Hawkeyes mustered up just four first downs and only 76 yards of total offense in its 31-0 shutout loss at No. 7 Penn State.

One of the storylines that has gained traction in the days since is the inability of Iowa to get its wide receivers involved in the offense. Iowa wide receivers have just 14 catches for 148 yards with two touchdowns through the season’s first four games.

While that’s not necessarily something new in Iowa City, the hope this offseason was that a pair of transfer portal additions in Seth Anderson and Kaleb Brown along with the return of Diante Vines and Nico Ragaini would mean improved production from the Hawkeye receivers.

Instead, it’s been more of the same. Iowa starting quarterback Cade McNamara was asked on Tuesday if the lack of involvement by the Hawkeye receivers was due to game plan or if there was a way to get the group more involved.

“I mean, I’m just a quarterback. I’m not calling the plays or doing any of that. That’s not my decision. I’m just going to run the play, and I’m going to throw it to the open guy,” McNamara said, deferring any explanation to his embattled offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz.

 

Perhaps the most puzzling development with Iowa’s receivers is Kaleb Brown’s inability to impact things. The Ohio State transfer has seen only 41 total snaps this season per Pro Football Focus and has only two targets.

McNamara was asked what the best way to get Brown individually more involved would be.

“Whatever Brian thinks is the best way to get Kaleb Brown involved, I’m all for it,” McNamara said.

Despite the frustrations from this past weekend and the slow start to the season, McNamara reiterated that he has complete trust in his receivers.

“I mean, I’m extremely confident in them. They know how confident I am (in them), and I know that they’re confident in me. I don’t really care about anything other than me and theirs relationship and I know how we both feel about one another,” McNamara said.

Iowa’s next chance to shore things up comes on Saturday night as the Hawkeyes welcome in Michigan State for a 6:30 p.m. CT kick on NBC.

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Cade McNamara ‘feeling really good,’ ‘most healthy’ he’s been in a month

Iowa starting quarterback Cade McNamara said he’s “feeling really good” and feels the “most healthy” he’s been in a month.

Though he’s been listed as questionable on each of the season’s first two weekly availability reports, Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara has started and played versus Utah State and Iowa State for the Hawkeyes. The Reno, Nev., native has been nursing back to health a quad injury he sustained during Kids’ Day at Kinnick back in early August.

McNamara has performed well, too. Against Utah State, he threw a pair of touchdown passes on each of the season’s first two drives. Then, against Iowa State, he and wide receiver Seth Anderson just missed on another deep shot that would have been a 91-yard touchdown connection.

Over the course of the first two games, the Michigan transfer has completed 29-of-52 passes for 314 yards. But, the lingering question was just how healthy is or was he?

Listening to him ahead of this week’s final nonconference showdown against Western Michigan, McNamara is definitively on the mend.

“It’s feeling really good. I mean, this is the most healthy I’ve felt in a month, so this will be my first full practice, first full week of practice of not missing anything and participating in everything. I’m excited to just be fully back in and it’s a relief,” McNamara told reporters.

As illustrated by his near-miss with Anderson versus the Cyclones, the 6-foot-1, 205 pound quarterback believes Iowa’s offense isn’t far away from delivering more of those big plays either.

“Yeah, I mean, there are multiple times that we’re like a foot away from having a big play, and I think some of that stuff is just like, you know, I just think we’re that close. Whether it was the first game or last game, we’re really close to the score being a lot different than what it is and I think the guys are recognizing that, we’re seeing that and I think it’s just going to come down to us closing that gap. I think we’re all aware that we’re very close and that we’re gaining strides, but, of course, again, it’s just really coming down to the execution part,” McNamara said.

McNamara and the offense should have a great opportunity to impress in its final home nonconference date versus Western Michigan for its Gold Out Game at 2:30 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

Western Michigan’s defense is ranked 96th in total defense and 110th in scoring defense. The Broncos are surrendering 286.5 passing yards per game, which ranks 112th nationally.

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Iowa releases Cy-Hawk availability report

Iowa just released its weekly availability report ahead of the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series showdown with Iowa State.

The Iowa Hawkeyes just released their Week 2 availability report ahead of this afternoon’s Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series showdown versus Iowa State.

Like last week, an important name is listed as questionable.

For the second straight week to start the season, Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara is listed as questionable. Of course, the Reno, Nev., native played last week until the game was in hand in the fourth quarter.

McNamara finished Iowa’s opener 17-of-30 passing for 191 yards with a pair of touchdown passes. Each of those came on the Hawkeyes’ two opening drives. McNamara opened by connecting with sophomore wide receiver Seth Anderson for a 36-yard touchdown on Iowa’s second play from scrimmage. Then, he found senior tight end Erick All on a 3-yard touchdown strike on fourth down.

Redshirt freshmen wide receivers Jacob Bostick and Reese Osgood, senior defensive lineman Chris Reames, junior cornerback Jermari Harris and senior defensive tackle Noah Shannon were all listed as out.

Shannon is currently appealing his yearlong suspension from the NCAA for his involvement in sports gambling. Meanwhile, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz updated Harris’ status immediately following the Hawkeyes’ season-opening win over Utah State.

“He is going to be out next week, and then we’re looking forward to having him return,” Ferentz said of Harris.

As far as McNamara’s status is concerned, it just seems like his quad injury could be a nagging one throughout the next several weeks or even the entirety of the season.

“He has an injury, so we’re managing it all season long. That’s my guess, or at least until it heals. We’ll manage it and try to be smart about it. He’s looking okay. He’s sore, I can tell you that. Predictably, he’s sore,” Ferentz said of McNamara earlier this week.

Iowa kicks off against Iowa State in the annual Cy-Hawk rivalry game from Jack Trice Stadium in Ames, Iowa, at 2:30 p.m. CT on Fox.

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Cade McNamara ‘excited’ Iowa faced offensive adversity in season opener

After some highs and lows in the opener, Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara said he’s “excited” his group faced some offensive adversity.

Cade McNamara is happy it wasn’t just easy sledding offensively throughout the entirety of the Iowa Hawkeyes‘ season opener against Utah State.

“I mean, overall, I think we left a lot out there to be honest. I think there’s a lot of guys on this team that feel that we left something out there. Just playing the game, we started off really hot and then we had a pretty long stall.

“This is still like the first time that all of us are in a game situation. There’s so many new guys on this team that this is our first game playing together, for us to have a feel. To be honest, I’m kind of excited that we were able to see some adversity for the first time. I didn’t want it to be just a cakewalk and for us to just see a bunch of success,” McNamara said.

After a pair of touchdown passes to wide receiver Seth Anderson and tight end Erick All on their first two drives, Iowa had a turnover on downs, a pair of punts, a field goal to end the first half and then two more punts on its next six drives.

McNamara elaborated on why it’s important for this group that Iowa went through these mid-game offensive doldrums in its opener.

“It’s important for us as a new group that’s trying to connect even more in game situations for us to have to deal with things like that. And I think at the end of the day, we could feel that we need to score on this drive. Like, it’s been, the defense has been on the field for too long.

“For a guy like Mason Richman to bring the guys up and get us motivated and for a guy like Luke Lachey to come up with just a huge catch when this team needed it most, I think, yeah, we struggled a little bit, but I also think there was a lot of good that came out of that,” McNamara said.

Thanks to Lachey’s big catch on 3rd-and-11, Iowa extended the aforementioned fourth quarter drive. The Hawkeyes capped the 10-play, 68-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run from Kaleb Johnson that effectively iced the contest.

The Hawkeyes can hang their hat on that response. They can also take something positive away from the early offensive explosion.

“Gosh, I was so fired up. I mean, we had the exact look we wanted. And, to be honest, I was kind of surprised that that play was called that early. I was expecting maybe a play-action or something, but, when Brian called it and we got the look that we wanted, I was just so fired up to be able to hit that and Seth made a great play on it,” McNamara said.

McNamara ended his day 17-of-30 passing for 191 yards with two passing touchdowns. He and the Hawkeyes will be looking for more of the explosives and less of the lulls as they shift forward into their annual rivalry date.

It’s an Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series Showdown that McNamara says he understands the importance of.

“Yeah, I mean, there’s been plenty of discussion that I’ve had with my teammates, especially the guys that are from Iowa and I know how much this game means to us,” McNamara said.

Iowa kicks off from Jack Trice Stadium against Iowa State at 2:30 p.m. on Fox.

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Cade McNamara, Seth Anderson make Hawkeye history with opening-drive TD connection

Iowa struck fast versus Utah State with a 36-yard touchdown pass from Cade McNamara to Seth Anderson. It was historic for several reasons.

The Iowa Hawkeyes‘ 2023 hopes have been attached at the hip to senior quarterback Cade McNamara’s ability to revitalize its offense.

After leading Michigan to a Big Ten title in 2021, McNamara arrived in Iowa City with a championship pedigree and a track record that indicated he could be the piece to revamp the Hawkeye offense.

Early on, he didn’t disappoint. After a 54-yard kickoff return from sophomore running back Kaleb Johnson set Iowa up with prime real estate, McNamara went to work.

On the second play from scrimmage, McNamara went over the top and connected with fellow transfer and sophomore wide receiver Seth Anderson.

The 36-yard touchdown strike was significant for a number of different reasons. Obviously, first and foremost, it was a flash of offensive electricity that’s been sorely lacking in Iowa City.

But, it also represented some Hawkeye history, too. It’s the first time in the Kirk Ferentz era that a season-opening Iowa drive has resulted in a touchdown pass for the Hawkeyes. It was the 10th season-opening touchdown drive in the Ferentz tenure.

The last time the Hawkeyes began the season with an opening-drive touchdown pass was in 1991 when Matt Rodgers connected with Danan Hughes versus Hawaii.

McNamara’s 36-yard touchdown pass to Anderson came on his first career attempt as a Hawkeye. The last quarterback to have a touchdown pass on their first completion of the season was legendary Iowa signal-caller Chuck Long’s 24-yard touchdown pass to Norm Granger at Iowa State in 1983.

The 36-yard touchdown pass from McNamara was also longer than any Iowa touchdown pass last season. The Hawkeyes’ longest in 2022 was a 29-yard strike from Spencer Petras to Nico Ragaini in a 24-3 win over Purdue.

McNamara added another touchdown pass in the first half on a 4th-and-3 connection with fellow Michigan transfer tight end Erick All. The Hawkeyes didn’t tally their second passing touchdown until the fifth game last season.

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Cade McNamara ‘questionable,’ Jermari Harris listed as ‘out’ in initial availability report

Iowa released its availability report, which lists quarterback Cade McNamara as “questionable” and starting corner Jermari Harris as “out.”

With the 2023 college football season set to boot off from Kinnick Stadium this morning, the Iowa Hawkeyes released their first availability report in accordance with the new Big Ten rules.

Iowa starting quarterback Cade McNamara is officially listed as “questionable.” The 6-foot-1, 205 pound quarterback has been working his way back from a non-contact injury that he sustained in Kids’ Day at Kinnick.

On multiple occasions leading up to today’s season opener versus Utah State, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz has been optimistic about his star quarterback’s chances to play. On his radio show “Hawk Talk” with Hawkeye play-by-play voice Gary Dolphin, Ferentz again indicated that he was anticipating McNamara playing.

“We’ll take it right up to game time, but we’re expecting him to go,” Ferentz said. “Based on what I’ve seen the last two days, I’m optimistic.”

Of course, Noah Shannon is currently suspended by the NCAA for the entirety of the 2023 season due to his involvement with sports gambling. Shannon is appealing the ruling from the NCAA. The Hawkeyes listed Shannon as “out” on its initial availability report.

Starting cornerback Jermari Harris is also listed as “out.” Fellow defensive back Jamison Heinz is “out” as well. Backup right guard Beau Stephens is the other key name on the depth chart that’s listed as “out.”

Defensive lineman Chris Reames and wide receivers Jacob Bostick and Reese Osgood are all listed as “out.” Finally, linebacker Jayden Montgomery is also “questionable.”

The Hawkeyes kick off the 2023 season at 11 a.m. versus Utah State on FS1 from inside Kinnick Stadium.

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Kirk Ferentz expecting Cade McNamara to go in opener

In an update on “Hawk Talk,” Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz said he expects quarterback Cade McNamara to go versus Utah State.

The story every Hawkeye fan has been monitoring over the past few weeks has been the status of starting quarterback Cade McNamara. One of the most exciting transfers in school history, Iowa fans are hopeful that the former Michigan Wolverine can help elevate their fledgling passing attack.

Few things are scarier than an offseason injury, especially for McNamara who spent much of last season recovering from a knee injury. He suffered an unrelated soft tissue injury at Kids’ Day at Kinnick, throwing his status for the season opener against Utah State into question.

The good news for Hawkeye fans: it appears that Cade McNamara will be ready to go come game time. On his radio show “Hawk Talk” with Iowa play-by-play voice Gary Dolphin, Hawkeye head football coach Kirk Ferentz gave a good indication that McNamara will start.

“We’ll take it right up to game time, but we’re expecting him to go,” Ferentz said.

Ferentz revealed at his weekly press conference earlier this week that McNamara had been medically cleared, but he was still questionable. The Hawkeye coaching staff wanted to see how he continued to respond physically.

It sounds like that’s been positive.

“Based on what I’ve seen the last two days, I’m optimistic,” Ferentz said.

 

With vague updates on the quarterback, there was a deep fear among some that the injury could be more severe than any of us had previously thought. That’s a terrifying proposition, considering how important McNamara will be to this campaign. The way he goes is really how the season will go for the Hawkeyes.

While they do start off the season with three nonconference games, don’t forget they struggled out of the gates last year. They split the first two games, barely edging out South Dakota State and falling to Iowa State at Kinnick. Both games were easily winnable with a competent offense.

And then, the fear with McNamara potentially missing time is with that first Big Ten contest. Iowa will need all hands on deck if they’re looking to wrestle a win from Penn State in Happy Valley.

Hopefully, the good news continues regarding McNamara’s status come Saturday. The Hawkeyes open up their season against Mountain West opponent Utah State at home on Saturday, Sept. 2, at 11 a.m. on FS1.

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Iowa Hawkeyes select season-opening captains

The Iowa captains versus Utah State are set.

One of the greatest honors a player can be bestowed by their fellow teammates and from their coaches, the Iowa Hawkeyes have their captains for Week 1.

Quarterback Cade McNamara, tight end Luke Lachey, defensive end Joe Evans and linebacker Jay Higgins will represent the Hawkeyes as captains versus the Utah State Aggies.

The talented mix of players is actually a nice portrayal of the hopes for Iowa’s 2023 season.

Outside of Evans, there’s a relative lack of production from the group. At least in Iowa City anyways. Yet, that’s the story of the 2023 Hawkeyes. How much production will Iowa get from new faces and from faces that have been in the program but haven’t been placed in key roles here yet.

Of course, McNamara passed for 2,576 yards and 15 touchdowns while leading Michigan to the 2021 Big Ten championship. Obviously, that wasn’t at Iowa, though.

Lachey flashed in a big spot last season, reeling in 12 receptions for 166 yards with a score during the Minnesota and Nebraska games when Sam LaPorta was sidelined with an injury.

Then, there’s Higgins. He slides in to replace Jack Campbell at middle linebacker. Though Higgins tallied 39 tackles last season, including an 11-tackle performance versus Northwestern, he’s only started once in his career. Now, he’s a full-time starter and expected to be one of the Hawkeyes’ best players.

While there’s only one transfer portal addition among that group, the trio is symbolic of Iowa’s offseason shift toward a number of new leaders and hopefully stars in a number of different places.

Lastly, there’s Evans. Unlike the other three captains to start, Evans has been one of the Hawkeyes’ most productive defensive players each of the past two seasons.

The 6-foot-2, 252 pound defensive end has tallied 75 tackles, 15.5 tackles for loss and 13.5 sacks over the last two years.

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