Kirk Ferentz updates thought on Cade McNamara as starting quarterback

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz is willing to weigh all options, but he hasn’t lost faith in quarterback Cade McNamara. The Hawkeyes starter had a rough outing, to say the least, this past weekend in a 32-20 loss to Michigan State.

McNamara finished the game 11-of-23 passing for 150 yards and a touchdown and an interception. But Ferentz chose to stick with him through the struggles, even with Iowa having failed to score at halftime.

Speaking in his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Ferentz acknowledged a need for McNamara to improve but also stated the he will remain the team’s starting QB for now.

“Cade has to play better, certainly, the first half in particular,” he said. “Really nothing on offense was good enough for us to be — we dug a hole that was too deep. Everybody had a hand in it, but offense certainly has a responsibility.

“Cade’s gonna have to throw the ball a little bit more accurately and I mentioned about the makeables, whether it’s him or anybody else. If he’s got a chance to give us better production, that’s what we need. So we’ll just keeping pushing forward here and see what happens.”

Iowa has been dismal offensively for a number of years now and hasn’t looked much better this year to rank 103rd in the country in yards per game. McNamara has thrown for only six touchdowns this season and his lack of explosiveness has caused many to wonder whether a change is necessary.

Northwestern transfer Brendan Sullivan has played in five games so far this season but has not really played meaningful snaps. Ferentz admitted the team will have to remain “open minded” about giving Sullivan a chance if Cade McNamara continues to struggle to put up points, but didn’t seem to indicate that was something that is close to happening right now.

“It’s easier to just talk about putting somebody in the game than just doing it, especially at that position,” he said. “We’ve seen enough good things out of Cade to feel like he gives us our best chance out there, so that’s really, it’s like any position, but obviously there’s more eyes on this position. I think he’s enough good things that we have confidence where he’ll play well Saturday, but we’ll also keep an open mind. You have to.

“We have to do better than we did the first 30 minutes the other night. We can’t wait ’til the second half to start going here. So we’ll keep an open mind, but I have confidence in both of them quite frankly and when Brendan gets an expanded role, or if he gets an expanded role, I think he’ll do well.”

Iowa kicks off against Northwestern, Sullivan’s former team, at 2:30 p.m. CT on Saturday.