By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa  – Don Patterson always makes sense when talking about Hawkeye football, and that was the case again on Monday as he addressed the quarterback situation on the Hawk Fanatic radio show and podcast.

Patterson believes with this being a bye week that Brendan Sullivan and Cade McNamara, assuming both are healthy, should have an open competition in the next two weeks of practice to determine who should start against Maryland on. Nov. 23 in College, Park, Maryland.

Sullivan started the last two games against Wisconsin and UCLA, while McNamara stated the first eight games before suffering a concussion against Northwestern.

Sullivan also was injured in last Friday’s 20-17 loss to UCLA in Los Angeles after taking an accumulation of hits.

He was replaced by walk-on Jackson Stratton, who had recently switched back from linebacker to quarterback.

Iowa is also without No. 3 quarterback Marco Lainez, who recently injured his thumb in practice.

Patterson also believes that McNamara should have to perform better in practice than Sullivan to regain the starting position, but that Sullivan should start if the competition is even because Sullivan has another season of eligibility, while McNamara only has three games left in his Hawkeye career, including a bowl game.

To have Sullivan start would help to prepare for next season.

Some might think that isn’t fair to McNamara, but Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, and offensive coordinator Tim Lester, can’t afford to worry about hurt feelings.

They have to do what is best for the team, and if Sullivan and McNamara are performing at an equal level in practice, it would make more sense to play the quarterback who has more eligibility remaining.

Neither Sullivan nor McNamara have played well enough to have separated from each other, but McNamara has been given way more opportunities with 13 starts as a Hawkeye.

Iowa’s three coordinators will meet with the media on Tuesday, so, it’ll be interesting to hear what Lester says about the quarterback competition.

Patterson also likes the idea of playing both Sullivan and McNamara in the last two regular-season games. See which quarterback has the hot hand and go from there.

Patterson coached under Hayden Fry at Iowa for 20 season from 1979 to 1998, and was Fry’s the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach from 1992 to 1998.

Patterson was also the head coach for Western Illinois from 1999 to 2009.

So, obviously his opinion means something.

So, let Sullivan and McNamara battle it out in practice and may the best man win.

Patterson’s 70-minute segment starts at the beginning of the podcast.