Where the Iowa football offense looks promising at one moment, it resembles the past at others.
The offense bore the brunt of the criticism from the college football world throughout the 2023 season, as it averaged just 15.4 points per game in 14 games played.
In the air, Iowa quarterbacks averaged 12.1 completions on 24.9 attempts for 118.6 yards per game and .6 touchdowns. On the ground, where the Hawkeyes were much more dependent, Iowa rushed a per-game average of 115.9 yards for .8 touchdowns.
The total offense average of 234.6 yards per game was the worst in all of the Football Bowl subdivision.
The inability to generate momentum and move the ball certainly contributed to three shutouts by ranked opponents: 31-0 to Penn State, 26-0 to national champion Michigan in the Big Ten Championship, and 35-0 to Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl.
So, doubts within the Iowa football circle blossomed and grew strong, especially amid disappointment with the team’s struggle to make an offense click with its top-tier defense and special teams units.
Was Cade McNamara the answer? Was Deacon Hill a reliable backup? Could Brian Ferentz have continued to run the offense? Matter of fact, can Kirk Ferentz continue to run this team?
After the Hawkeyes spent the offseason wrestling with these questions, the Iowa offense looks worlds different this time around.
First, Green Bay Packers offensive analyst Tim Lester replaced Brian Ferentz as the offensive coordinator as Northwestern transfers Brendan Sullivan and Jacob Gill joined the team to respectively compete with McNamara — who spent the last year healing an ACL tear — and deepen a wide receiver room headlined by breakout junior Kaleb Brown.
And with Luke Lachey and Addison Ostrenga molding into NFL-caliber tight ends, pushing the “tight end university” moniker the Hawkeyes have developed things looked optimistic as Iowa neared a breeze of a schedule with just one preseason-ranked opponent in Ohio State.
Still, fears lingered that Hawkeye fans would receive the same old, same old stalling offense — and such fears looked founded in the first half against Illinois State on Aug. 31.
Up just 6-0 at halftime, the offense stalled and struggled to even glance at the end zone as McNamara was unable to hit a receiver with a pass in the numbers.
In the second half, though, something clicked.
The Hawkeye coaching staff sped up the offensive tempo, opting for more of a pro-style approach on the first drive that lasted just three minutes as it culminated in McNamara hitting freshman Reece Vander Zee for a seven-yard touchdown.
“I think overall, when stuff wasn’t going our way at the beginning, our tempo wasn’t very good,” McNamara said after the game.
Then he laid a pass in Gill’s lap for 31 yards and six points. And another prayer to Vander Zee for 19 yards and six more.
“I know everything he’s gone through,” Iowa starting linebacker Nick Jackson said of McNamara. “He’s a leader on this team … it’s just been really cool to see how Cade came back and battled.”
That’s before running back Kaleb Johnson capped it off with a pair of rushes for touchdowns of 64 yards and 18 yards.
“It felt great because that’s what we were working on,” starting running back Kamari Moulton said of Johnson’s performance that cracked open the run game. “We were telling each other that something was going to break throughout the game.”
Within the blink of an eye, the Hawkeye offense left the Redbird defense and the naysayers in the dust as McNamara’s 251 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and no sacks produced a 40-0 blowout win.
“Honestly, the points don’t really matter to me,” McNamara said. “I thought overall that wasn’t our best today. We don’t want to start a game like that.”
Still, the Michigan transfer and 2021 Big Ten Champion’s efficiency against Illinois State did not, and should not, go unnoticed or underappreciated. In fact, for the first time in some time, the man under center for the Black and Gold gave glimpses of the light at the end of the tunnel.
“In the first half, I was frustrated. It was the same song and dance,” lifelong Hawkeye fan Lincoln Poldervaart said. “In the second half, it felt like a breath of fresh air. It reminded me of the offense from the early years.
Such a performance led to the next set of questions, though. Namely, ‘Was it a fluke?’
“I was writing the preview for the Cy-Hawk game, and I was thinking to myself, ‘When was the last time I have been this encouraged by the Iowa offense?’” Sean Bock of 247Sports added on the Swarmcast podcast.
But after a 20-19 loss to Iowa State on Sept. 7, it seems it’s just the personnel that changed — not the efficiency.
Although Johnson’s run game has stayed consistent, rushing for 187 yards and two touchdowns in the game, a lot of visible weight continues to rest on McNamara.
He threw for 99 yards on 13-of-29 with two interceptions and no touchdowns, simply missing reads and making costly wrong decisions.
“[Iowa State] made it tough on us … and we probably missed some plays, maybe some misreads or missed some plays where maybe we could have averted that,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said after the game.
Still, like last year, the quarterback approach remains unchanged.
“I’ve been saying for a while now, [McNamara is] working his way back,” Ferentz said. “He’s still trying to get back in game shape, if you will, or game mode, and he’s working hard. He’ll do just fine.”
Either way, McNamara looked 100 percent against Illinois State, but his performance on Saturday — 10-of-19 for 80 yards in the first half, 3-of-10 for 19 yards in the second — looked the opposite.
Moving forward, a lot rests on the upcoming week as the Hawkeyes welcome the Troy Trojans to Kinnick Stadium on Sept. 14.
The Trojans are 0-2, their defense surrendering 28 points to Nevada and 38 to Memphis. So, this contest serves as an adjustment to “make things click” a week before Big Ten play begins at Minnesota.
Although the Hawkeyes’ College Football Playoff hopes have almost certainly been dashed, there are 10 games left in the regular season, and nobody ever complained about a bowl game win.