The calls for Iowa Hawkeyes quarterback Cade McNamara to be benched may be growing louder.
McNamara delivered another miserable performance in the first half of Iowa’s game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday night, completing 7 of 13 passes for 16 yards.
Unsurprisingly, the Hawkeyes’ offense struggled just as much as McNamara, managing only seven points in the first 30 minutes.
In his first three games of the season, McNamara threw for 526 yards, three touchdowns and a pair of interceptions while completing 63.9 percent of his passes.
Things didn’t look much better for McNamara in the first half against Minnesota. In fact, you could argue he looked worse.
McNamara moved to Iowa from the Michigan Wolverines in December 2022. There was a lot of hype surrounding the playmaker at the time, but he suffered a torn ACL just five games into his debut season in Iowa City.
During his time on the field last year, McNamara totaled 505 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions, completing a meager 51.1 percent of his throws.
There was hope that McNamara would show improvement in 2024, and to be fair, the senior still has plenty of time to turn things around.
However, his start hasn’t been particularly impressive and the Hawkeyes are just getting into Big Ten conference play.
Fortunately, Iowa can rely on running back Kaleb Johnson, who was one of the most explosive weapons in the country until September and carried the Hawkeyes’ offense.
