Hawkeyes needed offensive maestro, so now they’re Cade McNamara’s Band

IOWA CITY — Cade McNamara. The man, the myth, the legend.

I can’t speak for the several hundred other people at Kinnick Stadium Saturday who witnessed the Iowa football team’s final spring practice in the April cold, but McNamara was the only reason I spent part of my Earth Day here.

It wasn’t for Iowa’s two units that are solid and substantiated, the defense and special teams. It wasn’t to discuss the Hawkeyes of last season who will be NFL draftees in the week ahead.

By the way, 6-foot-5, 275-pound first-rounder-to-be Lukas Van Ness played hockey as a youth, and his Barrington (Ill.) High team reached the state tournament semifinals before the pandemic ended the season.

While playing for the Barrington Broncos in 2017-18, defenseman Van Ness had zero goals and 56 penalty minutes over 27 games. A tough guy, but he wisely came to the conclusion football was his meal ticket.

Van Ness is almost sure to make a lot more money and noise in the NFL than McNamara, but it’s all about McNamara here now.

When Kirk Ferentz pulls a quarterback out of the NCAA transfer portal and instantly installs him as The Man, it’s as if nothing in this life remains a constant.

“He is clearly our starter right now,” Ferentz said Saturday. “Right now, it’s not a debate.”

Getting fully inside the Ferentzes’ circle of trust takes years for a quarterback, not minutes. But this is no normal time here.

Iowa athletic director Gary Barta has, in a highly unusual AD move, put statistical “demands” on offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz for the coming season.

Twenty-five points per game and a seven-win season? Most teams score 25 points per game before falling out of bed in the morning. Playing a Big Ten West schedule after Utah State and Western Michigan at home doesn’t make a 7-5 record and 25 ppg seem like a quixotic quinella.

Nonetheless, the Hawkeyes can’t play the ‘23 season without a quarterback who shoots off sparks, no matter how many games they win with their defense outscoring their offense.

McNamara, meanwhile, didn’t want to again be No. 2 at Michigan behind J.J. McCarthy. That’s understandable given McNamara proved himself as a top-shelf college QB in 2021 for the Wolverines team that beat Iowa 42-3 in the Big Ten championship.

“We had great respect for Cade and the way he played going into (that game),” Ferentz said, “and certainly had even more after that.”

McNamara threw a touchdown pass to tight end Erick All in that game, something Iowa wouldn’t mind seeing a time or 10 this year. All followed McNamara to Iowa City.

“He’s an unbelievable player,” McNamara said. “That’s why I pushed really hard for him to come and join me.” Alas, Michigan’s offensive line stayed in Ann Arbor.

McNamara is from Reno, Nev., where gambling resorts are the No. 1 employer. He’s rolling the dice at what has become an offensive football boneyard.

He is in the last part of his recovery from November knee surgery. He threw passes Saturday in 7-on-7 drills, including one for a touchdown to All. He left 11-on-11 scrimmage action to understudies Joey Labas and Deacon Hill.

Almost five months after making Iowa his new home, McNamara said “I do not regret my decision at all and I couldn’t be happier to be a Hawkeye.”

To put it mildly, the feeling is mutual.

“To me,” said Ferentz, “he has a lot of the characteristics and qualities you’re looking for in a quarterback. You can see why he was successful.

“I think the fact that he’s been on the field and done it, there’s something to be said for doing it, and he’s got that on resume. So he’s got a confidence that I think’s earned, and he’s helped bring that to our football team.

“He’s got a little edge to him, which is good.”

It’s an offense that needs a swagger leader, a football Caitlin Clark if you’ll forgive the obligatory mention of her these days in all things Hawkeye.

“This entire time,” McNamara said, “I’ve been trying to earn the respect of my teammates.”

If his teammates can earn the respect of a guy who passed for 2,576 yards and completed 64.2 percent of his throws for a team that went to the College Football Playoff two years ago, the Hawkeyes may have an actual offense again.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com