Bohnenkamp: Cade McNamara Status Up in Air

Iowa's New Starting QB Still Recovering from Camp Injury

Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara speaks with reporters on Aug. 29, 2023 at the Hawkeye Practice Facility in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

WATCH FULL MCNAMARA INTERVIEW

IOWA CITY, Iowa - If Cade McNamara is indeed going to start his first game at Iowa when the Hawkeyes play Utah State on Saturday, he wasn’t committing to that on Tuesday.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz was similarly noncommittal. There was no need to make a decision now because there’s no game now.

It’s been a few weeks since McNamara suffered from what was described as a “soft tissue injury” — translation: muscle pull — during the Hawkeyes’ Kids’ Day open scrimmage at Kinnick Stadium on August 12.

He was back on the practice field late last week — the highly-dissected practice photos from last Saturday’s workout at Kinnick concluded that — but whether McNamara trots out onto the field for that first Iowa offensive series remains to be seen.

“Honestly, I’m just progressing every single day,” McNamara said Tuesday when he was surrounded by reporters at the first media availability of the regular season. “I’m feeling a lot better. Really, I’m excited to get out there with my teammates.”

Asked if he expected to play Saturday, McNamara said, “I mean, honestly, I’m just getting better every single day. It’s really going to come down to the coaches and the medical staff.”

“My intention, and my goal, is to play as many games as I possibly can. I mean, of course I want to be out there with my teammates.”

Ferentz wasn’t ready to commit to a decision, but he was, at least, positive.

“He's been cleared medically,” Ferentz said. “That's the good news. Then the thing we have to judge as we go along is how effective can he be and can he go out and perform in a way that's representative of the kind of player he is.

“(He) looked good in practice today. It's kind of day by day. We'll see how sore he is tomorrow and see how he's feeling. Obviously we'd love to have him out there, but we also want to make sure he can perform at a high level.”

In the end, that will be the determining factor of whether McNamara plays. It is just one game of 12 on the schedule, and Ferentz sees the bigger picture.

“There's no right answers on these, and in all due respect, just about every guy on the team that's been practicing is a little bit sore and has issues,” Ferentz said. “Nobody is at full strength.

“But what it boils down to is can he play effectively, and then second thing is, to your point, is that going to knock him out for three weeks if he does play. We have to be smart about that.”

If McNamara can’t go, Deacon Hill, at No. 2 on the depth chart, likely will be the starter.

“He’s just a very impressive young guy,” Ferentz said of Hill. “He's got a different personality, night and day between Cade, very different personality. Throws the ball extremely well.

“I think with each practice, we've seen him gain confidence. There's a big difference there. Cade played a lot. Deacon didn't.”

It is easy to understand the queasiness about McNamara’s status. The Hawkeyes’ offense was one of the worst in FBS play, and the thought of the new quarterback who was expected to at least put a little life into that offense sitting out led to a lot of nervousness outside of the Iowa football complex this week.

McNamara has been at ease in the role of starter since he got to Iowa, and he is more than ready to play.

“Honestly, from a preparation standpoint, I feel really well,” he said. “At this point of my career, I understand what I need to get done from a film standpoint."

The determination for McNamara’s status won’t be about Saturday as much as it will be about 12 Saturdays, and maybe more.

“What you don't want to do is just, first of all, again, have a guy out performing where he can't perform and doesn't look about or just isn't able to get the job done, quite frankly, and that's not fair to him,” Ferentz said. “It's not fair to anybody. Then you have to consider what's it going to be like the day after, two days after, all those kinds of things.”

It’s day-to-day, Ferentz would repeat. On that kind of timetable, Saturday is a long way away.