Iowa Hawkeyes Insider Drops Bombshell About QB Cade McNamara

It's been a tough season for the Iowa Hawkeyes football team this year. They currently sit at 6-4, which, while good enough for sixth place in the B1G Ten overall, is still underscored by bad losses to Iowa State, Ohio State, UCLA, and Michigan State.

Once again, the Hawkeyes can't get consistency at the quarterback position. Michigan transfer Cade McNamara was supposed to provide stability at the position, but instead, was objectively terrible. Despite winning five of his eight starts, McNamara was completing barely 60% of his passes with six touchdowns and five interceptions before being benched for backup Brendan Sullivan.

With Sullivan confirmed to be done for the year with an ankle injury, many assumed McNamara would reclaim the starting job. However, it's looking like McNamara might've played his last snap in the black and gold. A new report from a Hawkeyes insider was a bombshell regarding McNamara's physical and mental readiness to step back into the starting lineup.

This came during a recent episode of the Legends & Listeners podcast with Chad Leistikow and Scott Dochterman. Dochterman revealed that Iowa Hawkeye Head Coach Kirk Ferentz didn't name McNamara the starter against Saturday's matchup against the Maryland Terrapins because McNamara isn't ready:

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It will be interesting to see if he travels. Let me put it that way. I don’t know what they’ll be able to say. I don’t know 100 percent the truth, but I don’t think that he is mentally ready to play. I think that’s the main reason. He’s just not mentally ready to play, and I don’t think it’s from the concussion. - Scott Dochterman, per the Legends & Listeners podcast

Dochterman added that it seems "pretty obvious that this is the end of the road with Cade McNamara."

This week, Ferentz announced that Colorado State transfer Jackson Stratton would start at quarterback against Maryland. He relieved Sullivan during Iowa's matchup against UCLA, completing only three out of six passes for 28 yards in the 20-17 loss.

McNamara transferred from Michigan following the 2022 season, and was expected to elevate the starting quarterback position for the Hawkeyes. Instead, he struggled through five games before tearing his ACL in 2023.

If this is really the end of McNamara's time in Iowa City, it was a tumultuous tenure that ends with a lot of questions regarding exactly what the benching did to the quarterback's psyche. Read more on Sports Illustrated's website.