By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Here we go again.

You know the college football season is in full swing when Iowa fans start clamoring for a quarterback change.

Iowa fell to Iowa State 20-19 on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium and the performance of Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara was a big reason why the Cyclones were able to overcome a 13-0 halftime deficit.

McNamara only threw for 19 yards in the second half, and he misfired on 16 of his final 20 pass attempts.

McNamara wasn’t solely to blame for the loss, but his performance left much to be desired, especially in the second half.

And with Northwestern transfer Brendan Sullivan now Iowa’s backup quarterback, the question is how long will Kirk Ferentz stick with McNamara if McNamara continues to struggle?

“They made it tough, and we probably missed some plays, maybe some misreads or missed some plays where maybe we could have averted that,” Kirk Ferentz said. “But that’s going to be part of football, and we’ll have to ride that a little bit.

“But as I’ve been saying for a while now, he’s (Cade) working his way back. He’s still trying to get back in game shape, if you will, or game mode, and he’s working hard. He’ll do just fine.”

Kirk Ferentz was then asked where he sees things standing at the quarterback position with McNamara and Sullivan moving forward.

“Probably the way I did coming into the stadium today,” Kirk Ferentz said., “I think we expect him (Cade) to be our quarterback. I expect some ups and downs. I’ve been saying it pretty consistently. He’s still working his way back into shape, as is our whole team with the offense and whatever.

“But we’ll get better. We’ll improve.”

Some fans probably rolled their eyes when hearing that answer from Kirk Ferentz, who has been criticized for being too loyal to some of his starting quarterbacks, and too stubborn to admit that he made a mistake with picking his starting quarterback.

McNamara started the first five games last season before suffering his second straight season-ending knee injury in the fifth game against Michigan State.

He was replaced by former backup Deacon Hill, and to say that Hill struggled in nine games as the starter would be an understatement.

Hill has since transferred to Utah Tech, a decision that was almost certainly impacted by the addition of Sullivan, who started eight games for Northwestern.

The Iowa offense performed so poorly last season that former offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, who is Kirk Ferentz’s son, was fired with four games left in the regular season.

Tim Lester was hired as the new offensive coordinator and then Sullivan joined the program in June.

The addition of Sullivan probably caused some to assume that McNamara’s leash would be shorter this season, although Kirk Ferentz gave no indication after Saturday’s loss that he is considering making a quarterback change.

McNamara passed for 251 yards and three touchdowns in the 40-0 victory over Illinois State in the season opener.

However, any goodwill that McNamara might have earned from that performance was erased with his poor performance against Iowa State.

Iowa had the ball inside the Iowa State 5-yard line twice in the first half on Saturday, but then settled for two field goals by Drew Stevens.

Making matters worse is that Iowa wasted a 187-yard rushing performance from junior Kaleb Johnson, who also scored both of Iowa’s touchdowns.

Kirk Ferentz chose to go for two points in the third quarter after Johnson score his second touchdown, but McNamara’s pass fell incomplete.

That decision would prove costly in the end, but that was due mostly to the struggles at quarterback.

The Iowa defense performed up to its high standard in the first half, but then struggled at times in the second half as Iowa State scored all its points after halftime.

Iowa’s defense is known for limiting big plays, while the Cyclones are known for making big plays and they did just that in the third quarter when quarterback Rocco Becht connected with receiver Jaylin Noel for a 75-yard touchdown pass.

There was obviously a rare breakdown in pass coverage and Iowa State made Phil Parker’s defense pay for it.

Becht played better as the game wore on, while McNamara steadily got worse.

McNamara missed some open receivers, and he made some questionable decisions and poor reads in the second half, something you wouldn’t expect from a sixth-year player who led Michigan to the 2021 Big Ten title as its starting quarterback.

“Going in at halftime we felt pretty good,” McNamara said. “As an offense we were still a little frustrated because we knew we missed some opportunities out there. But ultimately, we weren’t able to overcome some of our setbacks.

“This hurts a lot.”

Hawkeye fans are more than a little frustrated because they’ve had to endure poor quarterback play since the start of the 2022 season.

And while it’s silly to think that Kirk Ferentz plays favorites or that he refuses to make a quarterback change because he is too stubborn to admit that he was wrong, something will have to change at quarterback or Iowa could be in trouble this season.

McNamara simply will have to play better.

He benefitted from a productive ground attack against Iowa State, but he failed to take advantage of the situation.

It’s hard to know without seeing Iowa practice how Sullivan has staked up against McNamara.

The only evidence we had heading into the season was the Kids Day practice on Aug. 10 and Sullivan was clearly the better quarterback that day, even though he was just average at best.

McNamara performed horribly in the Kids Day practice, and he was awful in the second half against Iowa State on Saturday.

Sullivan obviously didn’t leave Northwestern because he wanted to sit on the bench at Iowa.

He must truly believe that he has a chance to get on the field this season.

And if Saturday’s game was any indication Sullivan’s chance might come sooner than later.

Iowa will be a heavy favorite when it faces Troy next Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

It could be the kind of game in which McNamara excels partly because of the opponent.

At some point, though, McNamara will have to rise to the occasion against a formidable opponent, or we might see sooner than later why Sullivan transferred to Iowa.