Homeboy, ‘Sunshine,’ guy’s guy

C.J. Beathard is your homeboy.

It really does, quite simply, boil down to that. He was the No. 2 quarterback and then he was No. 1, leading the Hawkeyes to a comeback victory last week in Pittsburgh. With junior starter Jake Rudock slowed this week by a hip injury, Beathard looks to be on deck today as the Hawkeyes (3-1) open their Big Ten season against Purdue (2-2) at West Lafayette, Ind.

It wasn't an enormous sample size that Beathard put out for the world against Pitt, but Iowa came back from a 17-7 halftime deficit. He completed 7 of 8 passes for 98 yards. He led three scoring drives in the second half. That made Beathard everyone Iowa's homeboy.

'I talk about his hair and he talks about how skinny I am,” wide receiver Damond Powell said. 'We're just homeboys, that's all it is.”

So, there. Beathard, the laid-back sophomore, son of a country songwriter, Nashville native with the long, curly blond hair that has earned him the nickname 'Sunshine” from the movie 'Remember the Titans,” is your homeboy.

But don't mistake that for a character from the 'Big Lebowski.” This is a serious quarterback who is all business when it's time to get down to business.

'I might be laid-back off the field,” Beathard said, 'a guy's guy, a cool guy with the other guys, but in the huddle, you've got to take control and be confident and lead them.”

During the Kirk Ferentz radio show Wednesday night, it was reported that Rudock practiced that afternoon. His status remains undetermined for today's game. How Iowa proceeds from here is delicate. Ferentz knows that and has been cautious with quarterback questions since Rudock's injury and Beathard's performance.

'I'm not saying I'm comfortable, because I'm not comfortable right now,” Ferentz said. 'I'm confident that C.J. is going to be well-prepared and he'll play well. I was confident last week he would when he went in. He had a bad practice [last Thursday] and that happens. . . .”

Everyone wants to skip ahead to 'quarterback controversy.” (Say that and pretend you're in a room with an echo, it sounds much more dramatic.) Let's examine what is and what has gone on.

Ferentz and offensive coordinator Greg Davis said during spring practice that Beathard had worked his way into consideration for regular playing time in games. It was never defined, it was just a general idea that Ferentz and Davis, in no uncertain terms, put out there.

Up until Rudock's injury, Beathard's playing time amounted to one series in the first quarter against Ball State. Beathard completed 2 of 3 passes and dropped a would-be perfect 38-yard TD pass that Powell bobbled and that was ultimately ruled incomplete. This is the same scenario that played out in 2013. Rudock suffered knee sprains in three games. Beathard replaced him.

There was no timeshare then and there wasn't again this year. You don't get the feeling that Iowa QB is being reconsidered and, thus, the word 'controversy” doesn't fit.

'If Jake (Rudock) had sputtered, it probably would've maybe played out the way that one did [the QB change between Jake Christensen and Ricky Stanzi in 2008], but Jake really didn't sputter,” Ferentz said. 'I thought he kind of took control of things.

'Now, we're in a situation just by fate more than anything else, where C.J.'s been able to play when Jake's been hurt, and we were able to discover some good things about C.J. without having the ‘do we, don't we' stuff.”

Ferentz downplayed the idea that Beathard's presence in the second half sent a charge of 'try harder” through the offense. Tight end Ray Hamilton accentuated that thought quite nicely, his point being that both QBs have command of and respect in the huddle.

'They both got a lot of [bleep] to them. Am I allowed to say that?” Hamilton said. 'They both have the ‘it' factor that you talk about with big-time players you need in your huddle.”

Rudock has started 17 straight games going into today. Beathard has guided 24 drives in two seasons (nine of which ended up in points). Other documented differences: The hair, obviously. Beathard has a whip for a right arm. Rudock knows the Iowa playbook so well he can translate it in Icelandic. The zone read is a little more in play with Beathard than Rudock.

Here's about as good of a breakdown as you're going to get. This has kind of, not entirely, played out in Iowa's first four games. This at least shows you what the red flags were in regard to handing the keys to Beathard over Rudock.

This is what Davis said about Beathard before Iowa's August camp: 'He's got the ability to make plays off schedule. The biggest thing is some consistency and being able to take care of the football. We all like it when a guy runs around and dodges four guys and throws the ball down the field for a first down. None of us like it when he does that and throws it to the other team. Just some consistency.”

OK, that. And then this: 'In C.J. I see a guy who's much more mature right now than he was. He's gotten into playbook and the little things, looking the safeties off, fake audibles. He's really playing the position more. I think part of that is because that's what Jake does. He's been able to see the way Jake prepares for a ballgame and the way he goes about handling himself at the line.”

And then Davis, who coaches the quarterbacks, on the differences between the two: 'They're probably more similar than dissimilar. If you ran them in a 40, they would be really close. C.J. probably has a little more short-area quickness. Jake is a little quicker at going through the reads and getting the ball down to a back or whatever if it's not there. C.J. still has, because he has a big arm, he wants to sit and wait and wait.”

It's kind of but not entirely played out that way. Beathard charted his growth while he's been at Iowa. He talked about slinging it in high school and not sweating coverages or blitzes. He also talked about the importance of . . . you're not going to like this . . . checkdowns.

'When I got here, every time I saw a one-on-one matchup, I wanted to throw it up and try to see if we had a chance at it,” Beathard said. 'That's a big part of my game I've tried to work on since I've been here, checking the ball down.

'Just because we get a good look, doesn't mean we want to throw it all the time. Sometimes, the checkdown is the best play we have. I've been trying to work on that. . . . If it's third-and-long, you don't want to force it. Maybe a checkdown will get it [the first down]. Maybe it'll help our punter out.”

If he throws the checkdown a lot, will Beathard still be your homeboy? Don't answer that. You still don't know who starts today.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@sourcemedia.net