By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Kirk Ferentz said a lot about his quarterbacks in his weekly news conference on Tuesday, but he left out one important thing:

Who does he expect to start at quarterback against Maryland on Saturday?

The closest Ferentz came to answering that question is saying that walk-on transfer Jackson Stratton would start at quarterback if Iowa had a game today.

Ferentz confirmed the news that junior quarterback Brendan Sullivan, who started the last two games, will miss the Maryland game due to an injury. Ferentz also said that redshirt freshman quarterback Marco Lainez has returned from the broken thumb that had sidelined him for several weeks.

As for the status of graduate quarterback Cade McNamara, the head Hawk seemed more uncertain.

“Everything is cloudy right now,” Kirk Ferentz said. “That’s kind of our forecast.”

McNamara has been cleared from concussion protocol, and he started lifting weights again more than a week ago. He is also listed as the starting quarterback on this week’s depth chart.

But Kirk Ferentz stopped short of naming him the starter for Saturday’s game.

“He’s still processing back,” Kirk Ferentz said of McNamara, who started the first eight games this season, along with five games last season. “He’s been cleared to play, and whether or not he can play effectively, we’ll see how the week goes.

“But we’re prepared for anything, quite frankly.”

No disrespect to Jackson Stratton because his story is inspiring, but it would be asking a lot for him to start a Big Ten game on the road given how little experience he has playing quarterback at this level.

This is somebody that just a few weeks ago was playing scout team linebacker.

He then switched to quarterback apparently after injuries started to deplete the depth, and now Iowa is lucky to have him.

But unless McNamara suffers a setback of any kind this week, he will be the starter against Maryland.

That’s my prediction, and I’m sticking with it.

Stratton would be available just in case, and maybe even Lainez could play, but this will be McNamara’s game to win or lose.

Because a lot can happen between Tuesday and Saturday morning from a recovery standpoint, and from a practice rep standpoint.

“He’s been cleared to play,” Kirk Ferentz said of McNamara. “But whether or not he can play effectively, we’ll see.”

That is hardly a rousing endorsement, but there hasn’t been much for McNamara to build on from a positive standpoint.

Even when healthy this season, McNamara hasn’t played very well.

He has been inaccurate at times, and no threat to run, or even to scramble much from the pocket.

McNamara still has a chance to help a program that rolled out the black and gold carpet for him after another program had demoted him and moved in another direction at quarterback, that program, of course being Michigan, which McNamara led to the Big Ten title in 2021.

However, that was three years ago, and McNamara has been through a lot since then, including suffering two straight season-ending knee injuries.

His body isn’t what it used to be.

But if McNamara is healthy enough to play on Saturday, and he proves it with his performance in practice, he will be the starter against Maryland.

McNamara has been a team captain for much of his time as a Hawkeye, and that says something about a player that transferred into the program so late in his career.

Predicting that McNamara will start against Maryland is one thing.

Predicting that he will finish the game is another.

Kirk Ferentz and Iowa offensive coordinator Tim Lester both have certainly put a positive spin on Stratton’s improbable climb up the depth chart, and that’s what you would expect, because even if Ferentz and Lester were in a panic behind the scenes, it would do no good to show it publicly.

Stratton actually held his own when pressed into duty against UCLA, competing 3-of-6 passes for 28 yards.

The California native also led a scoring drive in the second half against the Bruins.

“We’ve seen him play now,” Kirk Ferentz said. “He was out there. And I thought he did a real admirable job for a guy who has not had a lot of work. I thought he did a good job. He can throw it. He seemed composed and he’s got a week to go.”

Even if McNamara were healthy enough to be named the starter right now, it makes more sense for Kirk Ferentz to sit on the news.

Force Maryland to prepare for multiple quarterbacks, though a cynic, or a smart aleck, would say it doesn’t matter who plays quarterback for Iowa.

Just hand the ball to Kaleb Johnson and get out of the way.

But it does matter who plays quarterback.

It’s hard to be elite, or a contender, if your quarterback is mediocre at best, which has been the case for Iowa since the start of the 2020 season.

McNamara has had plenty of opportunities to prove himself, but more times than not, his performance as a Hawkeye has left something to be desired.

At the most, McNamara has three games left as a Hawkeye, including a bowl game.

The chance to do something special is no longer a possibility with Iowa already having four losses.

But the chance for McNamara to sort of flip the script and end his career on a high note still is within reach.

Kirk Ferentz has invested a lot of time, energy and resources in first landing McNamara from the transfer portal, and then building the offense around him.

Kirk Ferentz wanted McNamara so much that he committed a recruiting violation by contacting McNamara before he had entered the portal in 2022.

McNamara’s decision to be a Hawkeye was greeted with enormous hype and optimism.

He supposedly was just what the ailing Iowa offense needed to end its misery.

But it just hasn’t played out the way fans had hoped, though it’s not over yet.

Cade McNamara still has a chance to redeem himself, or prove himself as a Hawkeye is probably a more accurate description.