Iowa quarterbacks seem to be getting injured more frequently these days. Coincidence? I doubt it.
The Iowa football program has faced numerous adversaries during Kirk Ferentz’s tenure as head coach. Some of these challenges have ebbed and flowed over the years—think Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Iowa State—while others have remained constant obstacles, like Ohio State, road trips to the West Coast, and the ongoing struggle to implement a modern offense. However, for any die-hard Hawkeye fan over the past quarter-century, one foe stands above the rest in its ability to inspire dread: the Angry Iowa Running Back-Hating God (AIRBHG). This mythical figure terrorized Iowa’s offense for more than 15 years, wreaking havoc in ways that included injuring every scholarship running back in 2004, forcing the team to start a former walk-on fullback after a mass exodus of running backs in 2010-2011, and countless other calamities.
In 2015, AIRBHG appeared to make a final push by inflicting injuries on Iowa’s running back corps before the team miraculously completed an undefeated regular season. By 2016, the curse seemed broken when two Hawkeyes each rushed for over 1,000 yards, and since then, Iowa’s running back room has largely avoided serious injuries (knock on wood). A few years ago, it seemed AIRBHG had shifted tactics, focusing instead on preventing talented running backs from committing to Iowa. High-profile decommitments like Melvin Gordon, Eno Benjamin, and Karan Higdon lent weight to this theory. But with Iowa enjoying a few years of relative stability and standout performances from players like Tyler Goodson and Kaleb Johnson, it looked like AIRBHG might have finally moved on.
Unfortunately, it seems this vengeful spirit has not left Iowa altogether. Instead, there’s compelling evidence to suggest AIRBHG has found a new target: the Hawkeye passing game.
For much of Ferentz’s tenure, Iowa’s quarterbacks had generally been fortunate with their health. Although injuries occasionally forced starters like Drew Tate and CJ Beathard to play through pain or miss games, major injuries were rare. The most notable exception was Ricky Stanzi’s high ankle sprain in 2009, which cost Iowa a shot at the conference title. Otherwise, the team’s starting quarterbacks largely avoided serious setbacks.
That luck has changed in recent years. In 2021, Spencer Petras missed parts of several games due to injuries, leading to an uninspiring quarterback battle with backup Alex Padilla. In 2022, Petras suffered a shoulder injury during the Black Friday game against Nebraska, sidelining him for the Music City Bowl. With Padilla transferring out, Iowa had to start third-stringer Joey Labas in the bowl game against Kentucky. Frustrated by its quarterback struggles, Iowa scored a major win in the transfer portal by landing former Michigan starter Cade McNamara, hoping to finally end the streak of poor quarterback play that had plagued the team since Nate Stanley’s departure in 2019.
However, McNamara’s arrival didn’t bring the turnaround Iowa hoped for. Lingering injury issues limited his early-season effectiveness in 2023, and in the team’s fifth game, McNamara suffered a season-ending injury. With Petras still recovering from his 2022 shoulder injury and Labas seemingly out of favor with the coaching staff, Iowa turned to Wisconsin transfer Deacon Hill. Unfortunately, Hill’s performance was one of the worst seen in Power Five football in recent memory: five touchdowns, eight interceptions, a 48% completion rate, an abysmal 3.55 adjusted yards per passing attempt, and a quarterback rating of just 87.4.
It seems AIRBHG may have simply traded one position group for another, leaving the Hawkeyes to grapple with a new kind of curse.
Quarterback injuries and struggles have once again reared their ugly head in 2024. Cade McNamara may have physically recovered from the injuries that forced him to miss most of 2022-23, but Hawkeye fans are still yet to see him consistently play with the poise and precision he displayed when he was leading the Wolverines to a Big Ten Championship, and time is quickly running out for that player to reemerge. After a concussion knocked McNamara out against Northwestern (sidenote: why do so many of Iowa’s QB injuries seem to happen against that team?), Brendan Sullivan performed admirably in relief and appeared to have solidified himself as Iowa’s new starter. However, a poor performance against UCLA combined with an ankle injury that forced him to miss much of the second half has injected even more uncertainty into Iowa’s quarterback plans. With Sullivan and McNamara hurt, third-string quarterback Marco Lainez dealing with a broken finger, and fourth-stringer James Resar injured after converting to wide receiver, Iowa was forced to play fifth-string walk-on Jackson Stratton during the closing drives of its loss against the Bruins. Stratton performed admirably under the circumstances, but the absurdity that led to him seeing the field in the first place immediately brought to mind Iowa being forced to start walk-on Sam Brownlee at running back during several games in 2004. AIRBHG may have thought it was being sneaky by targeting a new position group, but Hawkeye fans are all too familiar with its playbook for this strategy to go unnoticed.
Iowa can’t blame its quarterback woes entirely on divine retribution. The program’s struggles to recruit and develop quarterbacks are deeply entrenched, and the Hawkeye passing game has been a weak point under Ferentz more often than it’s been a strength. Whether Tim Lester can succeed where other offensive coordinators have largely failed and develop a star quarterback at Iowa remains to be seen. But if Iowa’s recent injury woes at football’s most important position are any indication of things to come, the Hawkeyes must make improving their quarterback depth one of their top offseason priorities. Whether through the transfer portal or through the development of players currently on the roster, the Hawkeyes need to get better and deeper at the quarterback position if they hope to remain competitive in the Big Ten in the years to come. With player transfers becoming increasingly common, quarterback retention will likely become more difficult than ever as players opt to bolt for greener pastures rather than biding their time on the bench. How Iowa attempts to address this problem will be a major storyline to watch going forward.
How long will Iowa’s quarterback injury woes last? Your guess is as good as mine; AIRBHG’s activity fluctuated quite a bit during the early Ferentz years, and it’s at encouraging that one or both of McNamara and Sullivan may be ready to play against Maryland. But unless Iowa can find a sustainable solution for strengthening its quarterback depth going forward, the Hawkeyes may need to result to séances or exorcisms to try to expel AIRBHG from the football complex once and for all if they want to avoid any more games like last week’s matchup against UCLA.
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