When the Iowa Hawkeyes open the 2024-25 college football season, long-time head coach Kirk Ferentz won’t be on the sidelines. The program has suspended Ferentz and wide receivers coach Jon Budmayr for the Week 1 matchup against Illinois State for a potential Level II recruiting violation connected to the courting of quarterback Cade McNamara in the transfer portal.
McNamara spent the first four years of his college career at Michigan before entering the transfer portal following the 2022 campaign. Shortly after the portal opened, McNamara was already committed to Iowa. The agreement coming together so quickly sparked suspicion, and now the program is self-imposing a suspension as a way to get in front of any potential NCAA punishment.
Cheating in college sports is obviously extremely serious business worthy of a stern response (lol), but there is something particularly amusing about Iowa’s offense getting busted for cheating. The Hawkeyes’ passing attack was just dreadful last year — both with McNamara as its Week 1 starter, and with other QBs after he got hurt. Iowa ended the season with nine passing touchdowns to 11 interceptions, and only 1,661 passing on the year. That was good for 4.8 yards per attempt.
Iowa’s offense was so bad that Ferentz actually had to fire his son, offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, ending one of the most shameless cases of nepotism in all of sports. McNamara is now back for his sixth (!) season of college football, but he still hasn’t fully locked up the starting job, even if he’s the favorite.
On the football front, Kirk Ferentz said he’s let both QBs get snaps with the ones. Both guys are more comfortable now. “If we’re playing tomorrow, Cade would be one.”
— Scott Dochterman (@ScottDochterman) August 22, 2024
Maybe part of Iowa’s punishment is having to play Cade McNamara at quarterback again this year. We kid, but obviously the problems with the Iowa offense are institutional at this point and go far beyond any one player. Ferentz consistently fields a team whose best and most used player is its punter, yet the Hawkeyes have still a decent track record of success under him mostly thanks to an always ferocious defense.
Ferentz addressed his suspension on Thursday:
The fans have better ideas on how Iowa should handle his absence in Week 1:
We need to go full Michigan and pretend Kirk died. Make shirts, have Seth Wallace give a tearful interview after the game, punt on the first play of the game, things of that nature
— adam s (@ADSohn) August 22, 2024
The only thing more pathetic than Iowa’s passing attack last season is the fact that they broke some rules just to achieve that. The Hawkeyes are ranked No. 25 in the preseason polls. It’s certainly not because of the offense.
