Bohnenkamp: Cade McNamara Speaks Up

Iowa QB Works on Team Unity After Tough Loss

Iowa's Cade McNamara prepares to throw a pass downfield against Iowa State during a game on Sept. 9, 2023 at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

It’s become a weekly question for Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara.

How’s the creative writing class going?

McNamara isn’t free for the usual players’ media availability on Tuesday mornings because he’s taking a creative writing course, so he’ll show up early afternoon to answer questions before coach Kirk Ferentz’s press conference.

The answer is usually the same, and certainly understandable given McNamara’s penchant for words — the class is going great.

His speech to the Hawkeyes after Saturday’s 31-0 loss at Penn State was something that stuck with his teammates.

McNamara didn’t go into detail about what he said — “I think that’s more important for the guys in the locker room,” he said — but the gist of it was clear. The Hawkeyes are only four games into the season, and giving up after the first loss of the season — even if it was a deep and embarrassing cut — wasn’t going to be acceptable.

“The season’s not over yet,” McNamara said. “We’re continually evaluating every single week. This isn’t even close to a finished product. There’s a reason why you play 12 games in a season. There’s a reason why there are four quarters in a game. If we just shut it down right now based on what’s already happened, that’s not a good mindset.”

McNamara hasn’t been shy about speaking up since arriving at Iowa in the winter after his transfer from Michigan. He carried himself as a leader of the team long before he stepped onto the field for a game, and it’s something he said he felt not long after arrival.

“I felt like I earned it pretty early here, just based on the amount of respect my teammates were showing and expressing to me,” McNamara said. “For me to be able to have that so early in my career here, it puts me in such a more comfortable position as a leader, and as a player.”

So he had to speak up after Saturday’s loss, something he sensed after the Hawkeyes were shut out for the first time since the 2000 season.

“I just get a feeling that something needs to be said,” McNamara said. “And usually I have a pretty good feeling about what needs to be said, and when. I won’t do it unless I’ve earned that right to say something.

“I’m never going to say anything to put anyone down. Everything is focused on us getting better, making sure we’re all in the right place. I think it’s more of a natural thing.”

Whether what he said can be a rallying point, though, remains to be seen.

“I think it's positive,” Ferentz said. “Turning points are …we'll know those at the end of the year. We'll go back and look. But it's a positive, certainly. That's what you hope everybody's thinking, everybody's feeling.

“The words that he spoke were pretty much what I jotted down in terms of what I wanted to share with the team, too. I think we're all on the same page. I think we all know what we need to be doing and what we want to be doing. Now the trick is can we go out and do it and do it better week by week here.”

Iowa’s offense is back near the bottom of the FBS rankings in every category. The numbers this year — 129th in total offense, 125th in passing offense, 104th in rushing offense — look similar to the ones quoted so much last year.

“I think every single week has been unique,” McNamara said. “Different parts of our games have shown well, different parts of our game haven’t. A lot of this is coming down to some mental things, and we’re cleaning those up.”

McNamara’s arrival was supposed to revive the moribund digits, but he’s been hampered by a quadricep injury that has affected him since early in August camp. He’s thrown for 459 yards with a 50.6 completion percentage. He has four touchdown passes and three interceptions.

The quad, he said, is feeling better every week.

“I think all of my pocket movement is at 100 percent,” McNamara said. “It’s just when I open it up, run out in the open field, is when I still feel it a little bit. But other than that I feel great.”

Eight games remain in the Hawkeyes’ regular season, including all six against Big Ten West opponents. It’s why McNamara chose to speak up, and it was a message he kept delivering on Tuesday.

And asked what the goal was for the Hawkeyes in those eight games, McNamara didn’t need a thesaurus.

“To play our best,” he said.