Why not Beathard then? Well, it's Beathard now

IOWA CITY — You guys saw Jake Rudock play for Michigan on Thursday. No, it didn't go well. He threw three interceptions, including a pick six, in a 24-17 loss at Utah.

You know where this is going, but don't get too far ahead of yourselves. The Utah Rudock faced Thursday is two heads taller than the Illinois State new Iowa starting quarterback C.J. Beathard wrangled in the Hawkeyes 31-14 season-opener victory Saturday.

Rudock missed on a couple of long passes that likely would've turned into touchdowns. Beathard didn't try any deep passes, but he didn't have to. The offense in front of him rushed for 210 yards and he generally managed 15 of 24 for 211 yards and a TD.

Still . . .

Yes, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz was asked the question. You know what it is. The 'why didn't Beathard start last year?' question.

'We do this with every position, every player,' Ferentz said. 'All we can do is base things on what we see, what we witness as coaches, and we put the players out there on the field in every situation . . . that we think give us the best chance to win at that time . . . that's the way it's always been, that's the way it'll always be, I imagine.'

VIDEO: Rudock throws three interceptions in first start with Michigan

Basically, that means the Iowa staff thought Rudock was the better QB for two seasons and then thought Beathard grew enough to be handed the keys. That's what that means.

So, now that that is out of the way, let's talk about Beathard, who came right out and said Saturday that, no, he didn't have to force things and try to make big, deep plays happen because the O-line and the running game (mainly running back LeShun Daniels) had it going.

Daniels rushed for 123 yards on 26 carries (he had 184 in his two previous seasons). The Hawkeyes averaged 4.8 yards on 44 carries.

'With the way we were going, if you don't like it (what his reads where), you just check it down,' Beathard said. 'What we were doing was working. When the running game is doing so well, that makes any quarterback's life easier.'

Beathard's arm did come through on a couple of third and fourth downs. On fourth-and-1 from ISU's 14, he zipped a 5-yarder to wide receiver Tevaun Smith. The drive ended with Beathard rushing for the first of his two TDs and gave Iowa a 7-0 lead. Then, on third-and-10 on Iowa's next drive, Beathard hit wide receiver Matt VandenBerg for a 17-yard gain. This was Iowa's 99-yard TD drive, finished off by a 5-yard Jordan Canzeri run.

'Those were big conversions, especially the fourth down,' Beathard said. 'You don't convert that, the drive is over and we were in field goal range. It was the right call, the coaches allowed me to actually throw on a fourth-and-1, and we converted.'

CJ Beathard gets September 5, 2015

CJ Beathard gets @HawkeyeFootball's first TD of 2015 on the QB keeper. http://t.co/yJzQyrDQ4a

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork)

It wasn't a flashy day for Beathard. Iowa will need more of that later on. By the way, this was just his second career start, a fact lost on pretty much everyone but Ferentz.

'Just what he's done since January, especially this summer, really embracing being a leader,' Ferentz said. 'I think that showed through today's start, the leadership group voting him to be a game captain and then certainly his play today I thought was really impressive for a guy who hadn't played a lot.'

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