Howe: Can Cade McNamara Fix Iowa Offense?

Hawkeye Coaches Hoping Michigan QB Transfer Cures What Ails Attack

Iowa's Lukas Van Ness (91) pressures Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara during the Big Ten Championship Game on Dec. 4, 2021 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

IOWA CITY, Iowa - What a week in Hawkeye Nation. And we're only four days into it. Hang on to your heinies. We're just getting started on this crazy new landscape of major college football..  

Thursday proved especially eventful. It began with sophomore receiver Keagan Johnson announcing he was entering the transfer portal. The early evening brought news of Iowa Football landing Michigan transfer quarterback Cade McNamara. 

Thursday served as a microcosm for the 2022 season, riding the emotional roller coaster. Rest easy that it ended up on a high note. Well, rest at least for tonight. Who knows what Friday will bring. 

Let's get one thing out of the way before diving into the direct Iowa angle. Student-athletes should have this freedom of movement and compensation. McNamara serves as a great example that. 

In 2021, the fourth-year senior from Nevada led the Wolverines to the College Football Playoff and a Big Ten Championship, which included a 42-3 victory against Iowa in the title game. He started a season-opening, 51-7 victory against Colorado State in September. Sophomore J.J. McCarthy opened up the Week 2 game against Hawaii and won the starting job. McNamara threw one pass the rest of '22. 

McNamara has eligibility remaining. He wants more time in college to impress pro scouts. He should be able to go somewhere other than Michigan to do that. 

And Iowa is where he'll chase his goals. He's motivated because he's a competitor. It could end up being a coup for the Hawkeyes. As we know, quarterback production must improve. 

McNamara led a conference foe, albeit one considered a blue blood, to the promised land, completing 64.0 percent of his passes for 15 touchdowns with six interceptions last year. He's not been a runner, but showed he can move and throw on the run. 

It's hard imagining Iowa doing better than McNamara if the portal was the route coaches were traveling, especially considering the last two seasons' offensive struggles. That said, this dude needs some help. 

Iowa must improve on the O-Line and at receiver. It will be replacing its best offensive player in tight end Sam LaPorta. Running back is in good shape as are the defense and special teams, pending all-Big Ten punter Tory Taylor's decision. 

Maybe progress comes from the portal. Maybe it's current players stepping forward. Maybe true freshmen contribute. It likely will be all three avenues. It has to be. That's the deal these days in high-stakes college athletics. 

There's a bottom line this offseason for Iowa Football. The offense must be much better for the program to reach its potential. That responsibility falls on the coaches. 

They're paid, well, to evaluate, acquire and development, individually and as a team. The staff promises that to student-athletes' families. It commits to their progress socially and educationally as well. 

The coaches can do better putting their pupils into positions to succeed than they have on offense the last few years. It's the Jimmies and the Joes, no doubt, but it's also the Xs and Os. 

The sky was never falling around here even though it's been damn cloudy at times. Iowa is solid in two of the game's three phases. The next step is getting the offense to average and go from there. 

Iowa loses Laporta, all-world linebacker Jack Campbell, perhaps Taylor, Riley Moss, Kaevon Merriweather and a lot of talent after this month's yet-to-be determined bowl game. A solid foundation remains, led by Cooper DeJean, Lukas Van Ness, Kaleb Johnson, Luke Lachey, Mason Richman, Jestin Jacobs and others. 

Adding McNamara countered the losses of backup quarterback Alex Padilla, receiver Keagan Johnson and reserve offensive lineman Josh Volk to the portal this week. That's a 3-for-1 trade that likely wins in the Iowa fan court of public opinion. Time will tell how it plays out. 

It's a situation where the coaches and the Hawkeye faithful are in agreement on who they want as their quarterback in '23. That doesn't happen too often around here. That has to be a good thing, right?