By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – At some point, better sooner than later, Iowa offensive coordinator Tim Lester will have to decide if Brendan Sullivan is the answer at quarterback for next season.

Sullivan obviously isn’t the long-term answer since he only has one season of eligibility remaining.

But is he the answer for next season?

Can he play his position well enough for Iowa to play winning football?

Can he be reliable and can he stay healthy given his aggressive running style for a quarterback?

Sullivan only started two games for Iowa this season against Wisconsin and UCLA before he was injured in the third quarter of the UCLA game.

He took a vicious hit near the sideline and injured his ankle.

Sullivan, who transferred from Northwestern, played winning football in the win over Wisconsin, but he struggled against the Bruins, committing three first-half turnovers.

So, the jury is still out on Brendan Sullivan being the answer at quarterback.

That’s what Lester, with help, of course, from Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, has to figure out while Lester also searches in the transfer portal for other quarterback options.

Iowa has been mentioned as a possible landing spot for USC quarterback Miller Moss, who has one season of eligibility remaining, and for Texas A&M quarterback Connor Weigman, who has two seasons of eligibility remaining.

The risk in pursuing a quarterback of that stature is that it might cause Sullivan to look elsewhere, and Iowa could end up with none of them.

Iowa could also bring in a younger and less established quarterback to compete with the other quarterbacks for the backup spot behind Sullivan next season.

Lester and Kirk Ferentz are walking a tight rope in that they want to upgrade the position, but they also don’t want to push Sullivan out the door.

But Iowa also doesn’t owe Brendan Sullivan anything more than just the chance to compete for the starting position.

If Lester is able to land a more talented and a more established quarterback from the portal, then Sullivan would just have to deal with it.

Sullivan could either stay and compete for the starting position, or he could transfer to another school.

Kirk Ferentz was asked at Iowa’s national signing day press conference on Wednesday if quarterback is a position that Iowa plans to address in the portal.

“Yeah, we’re definitely going to look and just see,” Kirk Ferentz said. “Probably at every position, but there are certain things that are a little bit more important.

“Anything we can do to help our football team, we’re going to do that. But I’ve said this many times,  we’re not trying to build through the portal. If we can supplement our team, we’ll do that.

“Quarterback is a unique position, clearly, nationally so. We would be fools not to at least see what’s available and see what might be of interest, both ways. Yeah, as it stands right now, we should have Brendan back. He should be full speed here for the bowl game. He could have played the other night. I don’t know how effectively, but he could have played. He practiced.”

With Cade McNamara having announced his decision to enter the transfer portal, Iowa currently has Sullivan, sophomore walk-on Jackson Stratton and redshirt freshman Marco Lainez as its top three quarterbacks.

Florida native James Resar came to Iowa as a quarterback on scholarship in the 2024 class, but he switched to receiver midway through this season and is now in the transfer portal.

So, that was a miss on the part of the Iowa coaches.

But in fairness to Lester, he wasn’t on the Iowa staff when Resar committed.

Stratton started the final two regular-season games, but now he has to withstand Sullivan’s push during bowl preparation to keep the starting position.

Iowa will also add two quarterbacks from its 2025 recruiting class as Indiana native Jimmy Sullivan signed on Wednesday, as did Illinois native Ryan Fitzgerald, who is the son of former Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald.

Sullivan will be on scholarship next season, while Ryan Fitzgerald will start his Iowa career as a walk-on.

One thing seems certain in that there will be four or five quarterbacks on the roster next season. It always works out that way, even with the transfer portal.

Tim Lester and Kirk Ferentz just need to make sure that at least one of them can play the position at an acceptable level and play winning football because Iowa fans are tired of watching their quarterbacks under-perform.

The two-year Cade McNamara experiment was mostly a failure, some of it due to injuries, but a lot of it was due to poor performances.

Iowa will also be without star running back Kaleb Johnson next season as he already has declared for the 2025 NFL draft.

That could make playing quarterback more difficult next season, as could losing three starters on the offensive line and a multi-year starter at tight end.

The 2025 schedule also looks imposing, and that’s even more reason why Lester has to figure out the quarterback position.

Iowa only has so much NIL money to use, and if Iowa were to spend a bunch on one quarterback, that could leave little money for other positions.

Nobody ever said being the Iowa offensive coordinator under Kirk Ferentz would be easy.

But if Lester could just fix the quarterback position, his job would probably be a lot easier.