By Hawk Fanatic

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa football team will have to vacate four wins from the 2023 season for tampering with quarterback Cade McNamara before he entered the transfer portal, the NCAA announced Tuesday.

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 and transferred to Iowa a few days later.

He would go on to play two injury-plagued seasons for Iowa in 2023 and 2024 before transferring to East Tennessee State where he played last season.

Iowa Athletic Director Beth Goetz and Kirk Ferentz both released statements on Tuesday expressing their disappointment with the ruling.

“We are very disappointed in today’s ruling by the Committee on Infractions,” Goetz said. “Throughout this nearly two-and-a-half-year process, the University has fully cooperated with the NCAA enforcement staff. More importantly, when the facts revealed that violations had taken place, the institution and the head coach publicly accepted full responsibility and self-imposed several significant sanctions, something few others have done. We believe the decision of adding the penalty of the forfeiture of wins is unwarranted. The matter is now closed, and we have moved forward.”

By having to vacate four wins in 2023, Kirk Ferentz’s career win total will drop from 213 wins to 209, still making him the all-time winningest coach in Big Ten history.

Kirk Ferentz voluntarily served a one-game suspension to start the 2023 season as part of Iowa’s punishment for tampering with McNamara.

But it doesn’t appear that the NCAA took that much into consideration based on its ruling.

“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.”

McNamara started five games for the Hawkeyes in 2023 before suffering a knee injury against Michigan State. Iowa finished 4-1 in those five gams. However, the NCAA ruled that McNamara was ineligible for those wins over Utah State, Iowa State, Western Michigan and Michigan State, which will now be vacated.