By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Cade McNamara continues to haunt the Iowa football program.

Once considered the toast of Iowa City and believed to be the savior for a struggling Iowa offense, McNamara has now been reduced to a punchline after mostly struggling in two injury-plagued seasons for Iowa in 2023 and 2024.

He is also proving to be costly as the NCAA announced on Tuesday that Iowa will have to vacate four wins in the 2023 season for tampering with McNamara when he was at Michigan.

The NCAA said that Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz and assistant Jon Budmayr both participated in 13 phone calls with McNamara and sent two text messages prior to McNamara entering the portal in November 2022.

McNamara then left Michigan where he had been on the roster since 2019 and transferred to Iowa a few days later.

McNamara started the first five games for Iowa in 2023 before suffering a season-ending knee injury against Michigan State. Iowa finished 4-1 in those five game, but now those four wins will have to be vacated, much to the dismay of Kirk Ferentz, who released a statement shortly after the news broke on Tuesday.

“I am disappointed by the NCAA’s decision today,” Kirk Ferentz said. “Throughout the process, our program has been open and honest about my mistake – contacting a potential player in the hours before it was permissible by NCAA rules.

“I felt it was important to make amends for the issue, which is why I voluntarily served a one-game suspension to start the 2023 season. I believe today’s decision by the NCAA vacating four wins in our 2023 season is overly harsh and inconsistent with the violation.

“As I tell our team and staff, it is how you respond and move forward that defines you. Our focus is on the 2026 season and that is how we are moving forward.”

Kirk Ferentz will now have his career win total as the Iowa head coach drop from 213 to 209 career wins, though that still keeps him on top of the Big Ten’s all-time wins list.

But having to vacate four wins after also having served a self-imposed one-game suspension to start the 2023 season is a blow, and yet another reminder with hindsight that recruiting McNamara from the transfer portal is one of the biggest mistakes that Kirk Ferentz has made as the Iowa head coach.

At the time, it seemed like a great decision as Iowa desperately needed an upgrade at quarterback, while McNamara had instant credibility after having led Michigan to the 2021 Big Ten title and to the college playoff that season as its starter.

McNamara, who is from Reno, Nevada, would go on to lose the starting position to J.J. McCarthy early in the 2022 season before suffering his first season-ending knee injury.

He then suffered a soft tissue injury in the 2023 Kids Day practice while at Iowa and was never really the same again from a mobility standpoint.

McNamara started a total of 13 games for Iowa over two seasons, including eight in the 2024 season. But he mostly struggled as a Hawkeye, passing for more than 200 yards in a game just once.

He suffered a concussion against Northwestern in the eighth game of the 2024 season, and never played again for the Hawkeyes.

McNamara transferred to East Tennessee State for the 2025 season, finally exhausting his eligibility after seven seasons.

It certainly isn’t McNamara’s fault that Iowa tampered with him.

Kirk Ferentz made a mistake and still is paying for it more than three years later.

Iowa’s veteran head coach has relied on the transfer portal to restock the quarterback position, but the results have been mixed.

Mark Gronowski led Iowa to a 9-4 record in his only season with the Hawkeyes last season, while also setting program single-season records for a quarterback in rushing yards (545) and rushing touchdowns (16).

So while Gronowski was largely considered a success in his only season as a Hawkeye, it still doesn’t erase what happened with McNamara.

Kirk Ferentz took a chance on McNamara and invested heavily in him, only to have it backfire.

And now it’s still backfiring.