By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Assuming he has performed at a respectable level in practice, it would make sense to give Iowa backup quarterback Brendan Sullivan at least a series or two against Troy on Saturday.

The easy way would be for Iowa to build a huge lead and then have Sullivan replace Cade McNamara for the fourth quarter.

But what if it doesn’t come easy on Saturday?

What if the offense picks up where it left off against Iowa State?

That seems unlikely because Iowa State is vastly superior to Troy, at least on paper. But still, you just never know.

This isn’t suggest that McNamara’s job as the starter should be in jeopardy this early in the season.

But he certainly didn’t help his cause with how poorly he played in the second half of last Saturday’s 20-19 loss to Iowa State, passing for just 19 yards.

Kirk Ferentz was reminded at his weekly press conference on Tuesday that people from the outside, meaning the fans, aren’t happy about the situation at quarterback after what happened against Iowa State.

The head Hawk then come to McNamara’s defense.

“I’ll stay on the same page I’ve been on. I think he just needs to play,” Kirk Ferentz said of McNamara. “He needs to learn from those experiences. The faster you learn, the better, obviously. He’s missed a lot of time. I think he needs that. It is a new offense for him.

“Probably, whatever it’d be, his third one in three years, something like that. There’s some learning going on there. He can play better and I think he will play better. It’s just a matter of working at it.”

McNamara finally as a Hawkeye had some positive momentum heading into the Iowa State game after having thrown for 251 yards and three touchdowns in the 40-0 shellacking of Illinois State in the season opener. However, it didn’t last long and now the critics and naysayers are chirping again.

“There’s nothing magic we can do,” Kirk Ferentz said. “Maybe eliminate some things, lean this way, lean that way, that type of thing. But otherwise just counting on him to play a little better. And we need to help him more in all positions.”

While it would obviously help McNamara to play well against Troy, at some point, he has to rise to the occasion against Big Ten opponents because that’s what he was brought in to do.

Nothing against Illinois State or Troy, but they are without question the two least dangerous opponents on Iowa’s 2024 schedule.

If McNamara were to play well against Troy, he would maybe silence his critics for a week, but the jury would still be out on whether he is the long-term solution at quarterback.

Some seem convinced that he is not the long-term solution and they want Sullivan to have a chance, and the sooner the better.

It seems a little premature after just two games to say that McNamara should be demoted, partly because all we’ve seen from Sullivan was a mediocre performance in the Kids Day practice.

He was better than McNamara in the Kids Day practice, but that was mostly because McNamara performed horribly in the Kids Day practice.

Iowa missed an opportunity to play Sullivan in the Illinois State game, though some would argue that McNamara needed as many snaps as he could get after having played so little in each of the past two seasons.

Kirk Ferentz doesn’t like using multiple quarterbacks, and will sometimes go out of his way not to use multiple quarterbacks.

Remember the 2012 season when James Vandenberg took every single snap for Iowa at quarterback?

To this day, it’s one of the strangest statistics and storylines to occur under Kirk Ferentz, a true head scratcher.

There is no way of knowing at this early stage if new offensive coordinator Tim Lester can convince Kirk Ferentz to be more receptive to using more than one quarterback, or if Lester even wants to do that.

McNamara started the first five games for Iowa last season before suffering a season-ending knee injury against Michigan State in the fifth game.

And while he didn’t play very well in any of those games, his backup, Deacon Hill, played even worse while starting the last nine games.

Hill has since transferred to Utah Tech as it appeared that Iowa had sort of moved on from Hill when Sullivan became a Hawkeye in June.

Hill was given an extended opportunity to show what he could do as the starter last season, but it just didn’t work out for him.

The problems on offense last season weren’t all his fault, but Hill was also a big part of the problem if that makes sense.

The decision to add Sullivan made sense for multiple reasons, including the uncertainty with McNamara’s health status, and because of the lack of depth at quarterback.

Take away Marco Lainez’s mop-up duty in the fourth quarter of Iowa’s 35-0 loss to Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl, and McNamara was the only quarterback on the roster with any game experience until Sullivan arrived with eight starts for Northwestern under his belt.

Sullivan started four games last season and appeared in six for the Wildcats. He completed 63 of 99 passes, with two interceptions, for 714 yards and six touchdowns. He also ran 75 times for 160 yards and two touchdowns.

It seems hard to believe that Sullivan with just two seasons of eligibility would have transferred to Iowa if he felt he had no chance of playing this season.

The Iowa coaches must have convinced Sullivan that the competition would be open and ongoing and that he would be given a fair shot to compete.

And just because McNamara has kept the starting position to this this point doesn’t mean the competition has been unfair or pre-determined.

Given McNamara’s recent history of being injury-prone, it would make sense to give Sullivan some game snaps, so if McNamara were to go down, Sullivan would at least have some playing time as a Hawkeye to fall back on.

Practice is one thing. Playing in a game is totally different.

It was easy to see why Kirk Ferentz stuck with McNamara through five games last season, even though McNamara had struggled and was less than 100 percent from a health standpoint.

Because Deacon Hill wasn’t ready to lead a Big Ten offense, nor apparently was Joe Labas, who has since transferred to Central Michigan.

Sullivan, on the other hand, has led a Big Ten offense, and has had his moments.

He was nowhere close to being a star for Northwestern, but he is battle tested and is a threat to run, whereas McNamara’s mobility now seems limited coming off two knee injuries.

Kirk Ferentz made a surprising decision by going for two points in the third quarter against Iowa State.

The decision backfired, but it still showed that Kirk Ferentz is willing to step out of his comfort zone.

So, perhaps he will do that with Sullivan and give him some snaps on Saturday, maybe even some meaningful snaps.

 

Troy (0-2) vs. Iowa (1-1)

When: Saturday, 3:05 p.m.

Where: Kinnick Stadium

TV: FS1

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network

All-time series: This will be the first meeting between the two teams.

Honorary captain: Former Iowa receiver Jordan Cotton will serves as the honorary captain for the Troy game.

 

 

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