Iowa football fans will walk home satisfied tonight. After calls for quarterback Brendan Sullivan to step up into the starting role, he excelled in his first Hawkeye start — and relied on his foundation to do so.
The Northwestern transfer earned the start this week after starting quarterback Cade McNamara was diagnosed with a concussion following a hard hit in last week’s win.
After filling in for McNamara in last week’s win, Sullivan this week hit all the celebrations on his way to 93 passing yards, 73 rushing yards, six total offensive touchdowns, and a 42-10 nighttime win over Wisconsin.
“Just kind of leaning towards the obvious dimension right now is his rushing ability, and that came in handy,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “But it does affect the defense a little bit, and it helps the running game too. They certainly have to respect that a little bit more.”
The Iowa offense got off to a rough start with a missed field goal and zero points by the end of the first quarter, though. There was certainly a lack of energy to start, but the Northwestern transfer duo of Sullivan and wide receiver Jacob Gill provided a timely spark for the Hawkeye offense.
The two connected on a 16-yard gain on the last play of the first quarter to put the Hawkeyes within scoring reach. Once flipped to the second quarter, Kaleb Johnson’s four-straight rushes for 33 yards set the Hawkeyes up at the one yard line, and Sullivan took it himself for the score.
Then came a moment they’ve both been waiting for — a seven-yard touchdown pass for the duo’s first score in three years playing together.
“After I scored, I told him I love him; he told me he loves me,” Gill said of Sullivan. “And it’s a great bond that we have, and we just want to continue to build that.”
“That’s something that we’ve prayed about, something that we’ve talked about since we got to Northwestern,” Sullivan said of Gill. “Just being able to do it with him, someone that I’ve lived with since I’ve been in college, it was a really special feeling.”
Johnson was reimbursed on the next drive with a 16-yard rushing touchdown, his first of three scores on the night, after Sullivan’s nine-yard scramble set the Hawkeyes up in the red zone.
“He just has an ability to run the ball and is a threat all around,” Johnson said of his quarterback. “He’s just always working hard and always setting himself aside.”
And on a joyous night that turned out to boast consistent, dominant play on offense, the most impressive drive of the game came right out of halftime.
In typical Iowa fashion, the Hawkeyes scored on their first possession of the second half without attempting a pass. Sullivan’s two rushing attempts for 34 yards — a pair of 19-yard and 14-yard scrambles — aided the Hawkeyes’ 10-play, 84-yard scoring drive.
“When the defense knows what you’re going to do, and you still do it to a high level, it definitely gives the whole offensive unit and the whole sideline a huge momentum booster,” Sullivan said. “It was just a lot of fun to be a part of.”
Most of Sullivan’s passing yards on the night went to Zach Ortwerth. In the absence of Luke Lachey and Addison Ostrenga, the third-string tight end got the starting nod from Ferentz.
Ortwerth was on the receiving end of the longest offensive play for the Hawkeyes all year — a 52-yard pass down the middle in the fourth quarter that led to Iowa’s sixth touchdown of the game. He also caught Sullivan’s first pass of the game for nine yards and another five-yard pass later on.
While Sullivan failed to surpass the century mark for passing yards and racked up a good amount of rushing yards — mainly due to game script — he played his role perfectly. And while the Hawkeyes turn to UCLA next week, the quarterback position never quite confirmed, they got the blowout win tonight to keep the Heartland Trophy in Iowa City, and that’s all the new starting quarterback was focused on Saturday night.
“That’s not something that I put too much weight on, honestly, is my stats,” Sullivan said. “We got the 42-10 win today, so that’s the only thing I care about.”