From Iowa City to coast of California, Cade McNamara embraces leadership role on Iowa football

IOWA CITY — Cade McNamara was insistent on a small gesture from his new offense during spring practices.

“He demands everyone claps in the huddle,” wide receiver Diante Vines said in the spring.

Everyone.

“He didn’t get on me too much, but he got on a couple people about making sure they clap,” Vines said.

It’s part of the former Michigan quarterback’s efforts to be a leader as he prepares for his first season as the Hawkeyes’ QB1.

Most notably, that leadership was on display as McNamara organized a trip to California for him and several of Iowa’s wide receivers and tight ends after spring practices and before summer conditioning.

“Being a part of a new team, I want to get as close to these guys as possible and make it seem like second nature,” McNamara said Wednesday.

McNamara already was planning to train with his private throwing coach, Jordan Palmer, as he has usually done at least a couple times per year since eighth grade.

Previously, McNamara often threw to local athletes while in southern California.

“It could just be like JUCO guys that are just trying to get some extra work in,” McNamara said.

McNamara heard of Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, another of Palmer’s clients, bringing some of his receivers for his sessions. That sparked an idea.

“I was like, ‘Shoot, why don’t I just really bring as many guys as I can?’” McNamara said.

So he did exactly that, inviting Iowa’s wide receivers and tight ends and his brothers (so that he would not be the only one throwing).

Oh, and defensive lineman Joe Evans received an invitation, too.

“Me and (Evans) are usually a package deal,” McNamara said. “Anywhere we go, me and him are together.”

Evans was, among other things, “head of strength and conditioning for the week.”

“He would lead the conditioning while I was meeting with Jordan at the office,” McNamara said. “He was my right-hand man the entire time.”

Iowa’s Swarm Collective sponsored the trip in return for some marketing efforts by the players. A mix of scholarship and walk-on wide receivers, tight ends Luke Lachey and Erick All, Evans and McNamara’s brothers all made the trip to southern California.

That included Ohio State wide receiver transfer Kaleb Brown, who committed to Iowa earlier in the month and did not have the benefit of getting to know McNamara and Co. in spring practices.

“He’s fit in great so far honestly,” McNamara said.

McNamara and his receivers practiced together.

They went to the ocean together.

They ate together.

“We’re doing everything together,” McNamara said. “We even went surfing one day.”

Jack Johnson, McNamara said, was the best surfer.

At least with the people McNamara was staying with — the Hawkeyes were split up among a couple condos and a house — the early start times had some semblance to Iowa’s morning training schedule.

“We’d wake up at 6 a.m. every morning, go do a cold plunge in the ocean, then we’d go and start our day,” McNamara said.

The time together allowed Iowa’s new quarterback and his receivers “to get to know each other that much more.”

“Us being together on the football field is kind of where respect is earned,” McNamara said. “But then once you’re actually spending time with them away from the field, that’s where we actually get to know each other … really build a friendship.”

The idea of an Iowa quarterback working with his receivers outside of Iowa’s facilities is not entirely new. Spencer Petras had Nico Ragaini work with his private coach, Tony Racioppi, last year, but McNamara’s trip took that concept to another level.

Long before the California trip, McNamara’s leadership was evident as he had a little competition with All, his former roommate and fellow Michigan transfer.

“We would compete like who is the first to get into the (football) building,” All said in the spring. “I was beating him. I just would be in the training room and waiting for him like, ‘Hey, where you at, man? What took you so long?’”

All’s advantage didn’t last long, though, as McNamara arrived earlier and earlier.

“Erick can’t beat me,” McNamara said this week.

McNamara is instead competing with offensive lineman Mason Richman.

"Mason gets here very early,” McNamara said. “I’m still trying to catch up.”

Richman has been arriving before 5 a.m., McNamara said, “but Mason has a shorter drive than I do.”

Regardless of whether McNamara has the first or second parking spot outside the Hansen Football Performance Center, his insights from 16 starts have helped fellow quarterback Joe Labas catch “certain stuff that I would not see.”

“I would go somewhere for a play, and then he would tell me, ‘Hey, this guy is over here … just watch out for that,’” Labas said. “And then I would think, ‘Oh yeah, you’re right.’”

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said after the open spring practice the team has “really embraced” McNamara since his arrival.

“To me, he has a lot of the characteristics and qualities you're looking for in a quarterback,” Ferentz said. “You can see why he was successful where he was before. … He's got a confidence that I think is earned. He's helped bring that to our football team.”

McNamara’s leadership, whether it be on the beaches of California or during Iowa’s spring practices, is far from a surprise to those who have known him for a long time.

Shawn Dupris, the former head football coach at McNamara’s high school in Reno (Nev.), had a split locker room because he chose then-freshman McNamara as his starting quarterback instead of an upperclassman coming off an all-conference season.

“He fought through it and battled hard and obviously won the locker room because he was the better quarterback,” Dupris told The Gazette in December. “What Iowa is going to get is a guy that is going to step in right away and demand excellence and demand a lot from his teammates.”

As for the clapping, the Iowa offense “sounds like an actual team breaking the huddle” and “more of a unit,” Vines said in the spring.

“Just that little bit of leadership right there goes a long way,” Vines said.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com