Iowa’s Cade McNamara feels healthy enough to be ‘participating in everything,’ recognizes need for improvement

IOWA CITY — It has been a long last 12 months for quarterback Cade McNamara from an injury standpoint.

He first had to deal with knee surgery last fall, which prompted him to set “short-term goals” for himself that would seem easy for a healthy person.

“I’m not worried about football,” McNamara said retrospectively. “I’m just worried about if I can bend my knee to 60 degrees by next week.”

Then in August, he suffered a quad injury on a non-contact play during fall camp.

Fortunately for Iowa football, though, McNamara told reporters Tuesday he is finally "fully back“ and healthy.

“This is the most healthy I’ve felt in a month,” McNamara said while still wearing a sleeve over his right leg.

McNamara said this marks his “first full week of practice, of not missing anything and participating in everything.”

As McNamara tries to get up to speed after missing two weeks and being limited for another two weeks after that, Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said his past experience can be a “big difference.”

“When older guys get hurt, miss time, for whatever reason, their road back is a little quicker, a little smoother,” Ferentz said, “because they have experience, as opposed to a guy who is just doing it for the first time. It's a little different.”

Any improvement from McNamara will surely be welcome news for Hawkeye fans after the first two weeks.

McNamara’s numbers so far at Iowa — despite going up against teams picked to finish eighth in the 12-team Mountain West and 10th in the 14-team Big 12, respectively — have not been up to par with what he did at Michigan.

McNamara’s completion percentage — 55.8 percent — is at pace to be the worst of his career.

When he started all 14 games on a College Football Playoff-bound Michigan team in 2021, he completed 64.2 percent of his passes and threw 15 touchdowns versus six interceptions.

“I definitely think it should be higher,” McNamara said, when reminded of his completion percentage. “It’s a combination of a lot of things. … It could be my footwork. It could be where the ball is going. It could be a lot of different things.”

Looking across the country this season, McNamara’s 55.8 percent completion rate ranks 104th among the 124 FBS quarterbacks with at least 15 passes per game. His 10.8 yards per completion ranks 82nd in the FBS. His 115.3 passing efficiency rating is 98th.

Spencer Petras, in comparison, completed 55.9 percent of his passes, averaged 11.0 yards per completion and had a 109.8 passing efficiency rating as last year’s starting quarterback.

“I’ve had to throw the ball away maybe a couple more times than I would like to when I would usually scramble,” McNamara said. “But yeah, I got to improve on that (completion percentage).”

The McNamara-led Iowa offense has shown spurts of potential early in games before cooling off. Iowa has scored 24 of its 44 points this season on the first two drives of games.

“It’s just coming down to execution,” McNamara said. “We’re getting the looks that we want.”

McNamara mentioned the offense’s work to “get closer with one another and get more comfortable with one another.” However, the Hawkeyes have hesitated to use McNamara’s injury as an excuse for the subpar production.

“That’s football,” wide receiver Nico Ragaini said. “We’ll play a team, and who knows, their quarterback is probably banged up, too. … If everyone was 100 percent healthy, of course we would be better, but that’s the game.”

Saturday’s game against Western Michigan will serve as one final tuneup before Iowa begins Big Ten competition. The Broncos allowed Syracuse starting quarterback Garrett Shrader to go 19-of-30 for 286 yards before his backup took over in the 48-7 rout.

Then, the competition stiffens significantly with a trip to No. 7 Penn State looming on Sept. 23. The Nittany Lions have limited opposing quarterbacks to only a 50 percent completion rate and still have not allowed a passing touchdown this season.

“There were multiple times that we’re like a foot away from having a big play,” McNamara said. “We’re really close to the score being a lot different than what it is. … Once this thing starts clicking, we’re going to be really dangerous.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com