By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Cade McNamara’s much-anticipated career as an Iowa quarterback couldn’t have started much better than it did on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

His first pass against Utah State, which came on the second play of the game, resulted in a 36-yard scoring strike to sophomore receiver Seth Anderson.

On Iowa’s next possession, McNamara completed a 3-yard touchdown pass to fellow Michigan transfer Erick All with 7 minutes, 44 seconds left in the first quarter.

The fans were thrilled to witness this early offensive outburst after having suffered through last season when Iowa combined to score just 14 points in the first two games and only had seven touchdown passes for the entire season.

Iowa’s work in the transfer portal had paid instant dividends as both touchdowns in the first quarter were scored by players that had come to Iowa via the transfer portal, along with McNamara.

It couldn’t have been scripted any better, but then the narrative quickly changed as the Iowa offense struggled throughout the second and third quarters, and for most of the fourth quarter.

Iowa would go on to prevail 24-14, and as Kirk Ferentz so often says, there is no such thing as a bad win.

But Iowa’s performance on offense still left much to be desired, especially the running game, which only produced 88 rushing yards on 36 attempts for a 2.4 yards per carry average.

The hope was that the offensive line, with four upperclasssmen now starting, would be better than it was last season when Iowa only averaged 94.9 rushing yards per game.

But that was hardly the case on Saturday with regard to run blocking.

“I’m really happy to get the win, obviously, and just proud of our team’s effort,” Kirk Ferentz said. “I think they did a good job in camp and they did a good job this week in preparing for the game and gave a good effort today certainly.

“First and foremost, the objective is to win a game, and hopefully, our guys understand it’s rarely easy. Sometimes, it is, but not too often, that’s for sure. And the most importat thing is there’s going to be a lot of good teaching things from this whole game.”

McNamara appeared to be in some pain in the second half and was replaced by Deacon Hill in the fourth quarter.

McNamara missed over a week of preseason practice due to a soft-tissue injury, and there were times when he limped noticably in the second half of Saturday’s game.

The former Michigan quarterback completed 17-of-30 passes for 191 and two touchdowns.

It was obvious, however, that McNamara and the offense still are very much a work in progress.

The offensive line simply has to be better at run blocking than it was on Saturday, or it might not matter who is behind center against tougher competition.

McNamara had the luxury of playing behind arguably the best offensive line in the country when he led Michigan to 2021 Big Ten title, and to the four-team college playoff.

He doesn’t have that luxury as a Hawkeye as Saturday’s peformance showed.

It is just one game, but Utah State was also a 24-point underdog playing on the road and had 59 newcomers on its roster.

Kirk Ferentz chose not to kick a field goal in the closing seconds of the fourth that would have given Iowa more than 25 points.

And good for him because it shows that the performance incentives that were added to Brian Ferentz’s contract as offensive coordinator, which include scoring at least 25 points per game, won’t impact the way his father makes decisions nor should they.

Kirk Ferentz has bigger things to worry about than Brian Ferentz’s contract, and it starts with his team’s running game.

In fairness to the offensive line, it performed much better in pass blocking as McNamara had plenty of time to survey the field in the pocket.

McNamara made a point in his post-game press conference to praise the offensive line for its pass protection.

But he also stated the obvious.

“Overall, I think we left a lot out there, honestly,” McNamara said.

One of the bright spots for Iowa on offense was the play of the tight ends.

Junior Luke Lachey had seven catches for 73 yards, while All finished with three catches for 15 yards and the one touchdown.

Lachey had two critical catches in the second half that kept drives alive and helped to shift field position.

“That tight end group is extremely elite,” McNamara said. “We have some of the best players in the country in my opinion. The more we can have those guys involved, the better position this offense is going to be in.”

And while that is a true statement about the Iowa tight ends, the best way to put the offense in a good position is to run the ball effectively.

Iowa was facing an opponent on Saturday that had a new defensive coordinator and 31 newcomers on defense, and Kirk Ferentz thinks that might have contributed to the rushing woes.

“The run game, it wasn’t clean,” Kirk Ferentz said. “We need to get cleaner on that deal. It was a tough preparation. I’m not making excuses. But it was a tough preparation with their coordinator.”

Utah State 0 3 3 8 – 14

Iowa 14 3 0 7 – 24

I – Seth Anderson 36 pass from Cade McNamara (Drew Stevens kick)

I – Erick All 3 pass from McNamara (Stevens kick)

U – William Testa 32 FG

I – Stevens 20 FG

U – Elliott Nimrod 45 FG

I – Kaleb Johnson 3 run (Stevens kick)