By John Bohnenkamp

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The time Deacon Hill spent working with Iowa’s offense in August originally appeared as a classwork for the inexperienced quarterback.

It may mean a lot more in the coming weeks.

Hill stepped in when Cade McNamara was injured in the first half, and ran Iowa’s offense the rest of the way in Saturday’s 26-16 win over Michigan State at Kinnick Stadium.

Hill was 11-of-27 passing with a touchdown and an interception after McNamara went down on the second play of Iowa’s second series of the game.

“It was a very quick turn of events,” Hill said. “We prep all week, that even if you’re not the starter, you prepare like you’re the starter. It’s all about doing my job. So when Cade went down, if he’s in or I’m in, we have to do our jobs to help the team win.”

While Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz wouldn’t speculate on the severity of the injury to McNamara’s left leg, his comments left no doubt that Hill was going to have to run Iowa’s offense for a while.

Ferentz didn’t seem to have a problem with that. Hill ran the offense in August after McNamara sat out with a quad injury, and that kind of experience made a big difference, Ferentz said.

“Deacon, unfortunately, has gotten more practice,” Ferentz said. “I don’t mean that in a negative way, but he’s practiced more than a normal No. 2 guy would because of Cade’s first issue.

“I think that benefited him a little bit tonight. But it’s one thing to practice. It’s another thing to step in there when the game is on the line, which it was. We had a lot of football to play. I thought he showed good poise out there. Played with confidence. And his teammates, you can see they rallied around him, made some good throws and had some other ones we can probably improve on, but I feel like he did a good job for the first time in a really critical time.”

Hill was the clear No. 2 all summer, because Joe Labas, who started for the Hawkeyes in the Music City Bowl on December 31, had missed significant time with an injury.

“Joe missed a lot of time, too, if you remember, coming into camp,” Ferentz said. “Right now Deacon will clearly be 1, and Joe will be 2, and we’ll keep pushing forward.

**********

THE CHANT: Iowa’s offensive struggles led to a “Fire Brian” chant in the second half, directed at offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz.

The Hawkeyes had just 222 yards of offense and had the ball for just 26 minutes, 12 seconds, and after last week’s 31-0 loss to Penn State, the simmering frustration started boiling again.

“Well, I mean, 3-and-out isn’t any fun for anybody,” Kirk Ferentz said when asked about the chant. “I get that. We’re working hard to improve that and that’s what we’re going to do. That’s what we do every year, every season.”

**********

THE VIEW FROM THE OTHER SIDE: Michigan State was playing its first game since the official firing of head coach Mel Tucker.

Acting head coach Harlon Barnett said he appreciated how his team handled the events surrounding Tucker’s firing, which began with his suspension on September 10.

“You cannot fault their effort,” Barnett said.

The four turnovers and 10 penalties for 94 yards, though, did bother Bennett.

“I have been saying this the last couple weeks, we have to play with more discipline concerning the penalties, the turnovers and things like that,” he said. “That is what we must clean up if we want to come out on the other end of what we have been coming out on here lately.”