Northwestern transfer Brendan Sullivan embraces niche role as Iowa’s goal line quarterback

IOWA CITY — Brendan Sullivan has a task from his family this week away from the football field.

Find tickets for his family. The Davison, Mich., native is up to around 20 tickets, as of Tuesday morning, ahead of this weekend’s game at Michigan State.

“My mom said if I can get 30, get 30,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan’s several family members, barring any unforeseen circumstances, will have the chance to see their 6-foot-4 quarterback continue to fill a niche role for Iowa football’s 2024 offense as the Hawkeyes’ goal line quarterback.

“He has some attributes that maybe Cade (McNamara) doesn’t have, which we thought would be potentially impactful and helpful for us,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Happy about what he’s doing so far. We’ll see if his role can grow and increase.”

The difference in skill set between McNamara and Sullivan largely boils down to mobility. Excluding sacks, Sullivan had 51 non-sack rushing attempts for Northwestern despite only starting four games (and appearing in another four as a reserve).

“I think I’m an athletic guy that can kind of run the ball and give a little bit of a threat of pass, too,” Sullivan said. “My athleticism and my ability to make guys miss and maybe run through some guys is kind of what the advantages are.”

Iowa introduced the Sullivan-led package a week after the Hawkeyes had to settle for field goals from the opposing 3- and 5-yard line in their 20-19 loss to Iowa State.

Since then, Sullivan has come in for six goal line situations. Five of them have resulted in touchdowns — three Kaleb Johnson touchdowns, one Sullivan rushing touchdown and one Sullivan passing touchdown. The one exception was when Sullivan and center Logan Jones had a botched snap exchange on third-and-goal against Washington (and Iowa settled for a field goal).

He also entered the game against Washington in a third-and-1 situation and had a five-yard gain before handing quarterback duties back to McNamara for the rest of the drive.

The goal-to-go role is “definitely a different role and something that I still got to get used to,” but it’s also a role he has fully embraced.

“It’s also a struggle to try and stay warm on the sideline because you kind of never know when you’re going to go in, but I’m going to continue to embrace it and try to execute to the best of my abilities.”

This is not the first time a team has supplemented McNamara with a more mobile second quarterback. Michigan did something similar with J.J. McCarthy in 2021 (before McCarthy won the starting job over McNamara in 2022).

McNamara has “helped tremendously,” Sullivan said, with either a “word of encouragement” or “word of advice.”

“He’s always there to give that to me,” Sullivan said. “Whether it’s wanted or not, he’s going to do it. And so I appreciate that out of him.”

Sullivan transferred to Iowa in the spring after appearing in eight games (and starting four times) for Northwestern last year. He started another four games in 2022. Over three seasons in Evanston, he completed 68.7 percent of his passes while throwing 10 touchdowns versus five interceptions.

Sullivan — whether it be in goal line situations or at the end of out-of-reach games — is 2-for-2 passing this season for 14 yards and one touchdown. He also has 34 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown on eight attempts.

The success in Sullivan’s limited sample size prompts the question of whether the Northwestern transfer will see a larger role in the future.

“You’re always looking for things that might be able to threaten the defense a little bit more,” Ferentz said. “Brendan does some things that at least will give them some things to think about. Hopefully we can just expand on that a little bit.”

First, though, Sullivan needs to get (or negotiate) another 10 tickets from his teammates for this Saturday’s game.

“Some guys want some for a different week,” Sullivan said. “OK, I got you for Maryland. And then it kind of works like that.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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