CBS Sports commentator Gary Danielson still sees Cade McNamara ‘getting comfortable’ in Iowa offense

IOWA CITY — After “four or five years” as an NFL quarterback, Gary Danielson was so “comfortable making quick decisions” that he was not too concerned about his job security.

“The only person that could really beat me out was a No. 1 draft choice that they gave the job to because I just knew so much,” said Danielson, now the CBS Sports lead college football game analyst, on a video call this week.

As Danielson prepares to call No. 24 Iowa football’s game against No. 7 Penn State, the retired quarterback considers Iowa’s Cade McNamara to be a “very good football player.”

But Danielson has not seen the necessary level of comfort yet from McNamara in his first three games as a Hawkeye.

“That comfort has to get to Cade where everything doesn’t have to be memorized,” Danielson said.

The “one, two, three” quarterback progression is not quite like “one, two, three,” Danielson explained.

“We say it on TV to make it easy,” Danielson said. “You don’t have time to go one, two, three. You just automatically go to the third guy.”

After four years in Michigan’s program, McNamara is “not a quarterback that has a lot of experience under center,” Danielson said.

“I still see Cade getting comfortable with under center and the underrated part of the game — ball handling skills, pay-action pass skills,” Danielson said. “I don’t think he’s quite there to the level that Iowa needs him to be. I think he’s coming along.”

McNamara has completed 53.5 percent of his passes through three games. It is noticeably below predecessor Spencer Petras’ 57.3 percent in 2021 or 55.9 percent in 2022.

It is far below what McNamara did as Michigan’s starting quarterback. He completed 60.6 percent of his passes in his when he appeared in four games in 2020 and 64.2 percent of his passes in his full season as the starter in 2021.

“To start at Michigan at quarterback — and he was a very good quarterback — if he can get to that level for Iowa, he’s more than good enough to have a really good season for Iowa this year,” Danielson said.

McNamara missed two weeks of practice during fall camp because of a quad injury, which also affected his workload in the first few weeks of the season. He finally was “fully back” in practice without any limitations for the first time last week.

“When guys can't practice or they can't practice full speed it impacts everything,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “And that's players at all levels. NFL guys are no different. If they're not on the field getting the work they need to get at some point, it catches up. ... Hopefully, with each week at practice, we’ll see better execution out there.”

Danielson’s analysis of McNamara’s situation comes with the caveat that he takes a different approach to game preparation from what many of his counterparts might take.

“I don’t listen to anybody else’s sound when they do a game,” Danielson said. “I don’t know what Joel Klatt has said. I don’t read a lot of the articles. I study the players and their backgrounds. ... I try to make up my own mind.”

Calling Iowa-Penn State will be a “big thrill” for Danielson.

"I’ve been lucky enough to do national-consequence football games for the SEC,“ Danielson said. ”We get first pick every week, and this feels like a first-pick game.“

For Iowa to pull off the upset, Danielson emphasized the need for Iowa to “be Iowa” in Saturday’s game.

“You try to be something you’re not and say, ‘OK, we’re going to open it up here against Penn State’ — I would not think that would be a very smart idea,” Danielson said.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com