Whatever you do, don’t label Beathard a ‘game manager’

IOWA CITY - Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz passed on chances to answer the Hawkeyes' critics on their record, their championship viability and the lack of style points from Saturday's 31-15 victory over Maryland.

There was, however, one thing that he went off on, in, you know, his understated kind of way.

Someone out east somewhere called Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard a 'game manager” this week. A copy of the story landed on Ferentz's desk last week. It got his attention, to say the least.

'Called him a ‘game manager,' which is like one of the worst terms you can give anybody, I think, as a quarterback,” Ferentz said. 'But I'll tell you what, he's got a pretty live arm. I think he's done a great job. He's leading our football team, and he threw a couple really good balls out there today again.”

Where was that written?

'Somewhere from the East Coast,” Ferentz said. 'I get a lot of stuff on my desk, so I was kind of chuckling about that. I needed a little comic relief at the end of the week. I got it. It was perfect.”

That was a fairly animated moment for Ferentz. Given Beathard's health issues (hip and groin injuries) and the fact that he's showing up for work every week, Ferentz isn't putting up with any nonsense when it comes to criticizing his junior starter.

Who wrote it?

'It was somebody who hasn't watched a lot of our football,” Ferentz said. 'Put it that way.”

You know Beathard is limited because Iowa didn't call any naked QB rollouts, a staple in Iowa's play-action passing game. Ferentz said don't expect to see many if any of those soon. In Ferentz's pregame radio interview, he said Beathard likely won't be 100 percent until January.

'Yeah, you may not see too many of those (naked bootlegs) in the next month or so I'm just guessing, but we'll see,” Ferentz said. 'He's not 100 percent, won't be, so we'll try to be smart about what we do that way.”

The numbers say that as the game goes, Beathard's health wavers. He finished 12 of 23 for 183 yards against Maryland Saturday after completing 10 of 18 in the first half for 160 yards. Maryland sacked Beathard four times and because sacks count against a player's rushing totals, it was the first time in his career that Beathard finished in negative yardage for rushing (minus-14).

In second halves of their four Big Ten games, the Hawkeyes have scored less than two TDs in three, with a low of zero at Wisconsin and a high of 24 at Northwestern.

Iowa's offense generated just 53 yards in the second half and only three points. But Iowa also did have a 21-0 halftime lead and was content just to run the clock out on the Terrapins.

It's a pattern and it might be a symptom of a quarterback who probably leads the nation in questions about what percentage he would put his health.

'I don't know, it's hard to tell,” Beathard said about his health percentage (not an official stat, by the way). 'I'm still coming down right now from my adrenaline. Right now, I'd say I feel pretty good. I'd say maybe 85 or 90? I don't know.”

Here's one Beathard number that is definite: He's 9-0 as Iowa's starting quarterback. He became the first Iowa QB to win his first eight starts and now he's padding that number.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com