By John Bohnenkamp

INDIANAPOLIS — Don’t put a whole lot of stock in Iowa’s depth chart, especially at quarterback.

The Hawkeyes’ two-deep heading into fall camp was released on Wednesday before the appearance of Kirk Ferentz and selected players at Big Ten Football Media Days at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Cade McNamara, as expected, was No. 1 on the depth chart at quarterback, with Marco Lainez at No. 2 and Brendan Sullivan at No. 3.

Ferentz, though, said the rankings don’t mean a lot. And really, they usually don’t this time of year.

“Yeah, I would say everything is fluid right now,” he said during his morning press conference. “Hopefully it won’t be in the fall, but right now everything is fluid.”

Sullivan, a former starter at Northwestern who transferred to Iowa in the spring, has more experience than Lainez and said during an availability last week that he was ready to compete for any opportunity.

Ferentz said Sullivan’s ranking was more for the fact that he hasn’t been a part of a full workout with the team.

“We could have listed Brendan too,” he said. “He hasn’t put a helmet on yet for us. When we see him on the field, maybe he’ll be in competition with the other three guys.

“I expect it to be three guys competing. Cade has more experience than any of them. He has more demonstrated success. That gives him a huge advantage. But, yeah, all three guys will compete. It’s the same for every roster spot right now. We don’t have anybody that’s set. Nobody’s entitled to positions. It just doesn’t work that way.”

Ferentz said McNamara has the most impressive resumé of the three.

“He’s done it, done it successfully, and directed his teams to wins, which is what a quarterback is supposed to do,” Ferentz said. “I don’t think he’s looking in the rear-view mirror. He’s looking straight ahead, and I encourage all three guys to do that.”

THE NEW TEAMS: Iowa shared the second-day session with Big Ten newcomers UCLA and USC.

Ferentz was asked how those teams, along with fellow former PAC-12 teams Oregon and Washington, will fare in their new conference, and whether style of play will make a difference.

“You know, I think that’s probably over-hyped, or over-storied, if you will,” Ferentz said. “Football is football, and I think one of the great things about college football, and why it’s so popular, is it’s such a diverse game, and it has been for a long time. Styles of play are more based on your program than regions, typically. You just kind of recruit to your style of play. Some schools can recruit anybody, so they can choose who they want. But I think it’s more about figuring out strategically and what you can do well, and do consistently.”

Ferentz said he thought the biggest challenge for the new schools will be travel.

“That’s not easy coming east a lot,” Ferentz said. “I equate it to pro football — when you’re in the NFL, when you have travel issues, it can be a factor in how the week goes.

“Selfishly, if we’re going to play a West Coast team, I’d rather play them in November at home any time. And I hope it’s rotten, miserable. That’s a 50-50 shot in Iowa City.”

DECEMBER IN KINNICK: Iowa athletics director Beth Goetz said if the Hawkeyes would be a host team for the first round of the expanded College Football Playoff, Kinnick Stadium would be ready.

Not that it would be easy — the four first-round games that will be played on campus will be December 20 or 21, and given what the temperatures would likely be that day, there would have to be some winterization done to the stadium, Goetz said.

“There was certainly a lot of work on our end to do, because to have the opportunity to host that, we want to do that to the best of our ability,” she said.

Kinnick has been the site of one December game in recent seasons. The 28-7 win over Wisconsin in the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season was played on December 12. A game scheduled a week later against Michigan in Iowa City was canceled.

Goetz said the CFP committee sent out a lengthy survey to determine if a school could host a game.

“It is no small survey — you make it sound like a five-question thing,” she said. “But it was a book of questions that were asked.”

Goetz said another challenge would be Iowa’s graduation ceremonies for the winter semester.

“We did have some navigating we had to do with December graduations on our campus, which really trickles down to parking, and how you navigate all of those things,” she said. “A little bit of that, a little bit of making sure we could winterize appropriately the stadium in what we need. Again, any of those events are heavy lifts, but we feel like we’re prepared to do it.”