Iowa needs to make a change at quarterback. Its loss to Minnesota featured 127 yards on offense, and that’s not even its worst performance on the year. Outside of the opening possession against the Golden Gophers, quarterback Deacon Hill had just 52 passing yards on seven completions. He has yet to surpass a 43% completion percentage in a single game since taking over for the injured Cade McNamara. Change is needed at quarterback, but not because a different quarterback might improve the offense. It won’t. Instead, a change might begin to salvage the future of a program’s offense that feels as if it’s already crumbling.
Drive to 325
Brian Ferentz’s offense isn’t just tarnishing the current standing of Iowa football. It impacted 2022, and the damage will take multiple seasons to recover from. Last year, it dragged the nation’s top defense and elite special teams unit down to an 8-5 record. This season, the 25 points per game contract requirement of the offensive coordinator has become a mockery in the world of college football.
Not only is Iowa not going to achieve that average, it won’t come close. The team is currently scoring 19.5 points per game, and needs to average 33.8 points in each of its next five games to get to the elusive 325 total. Scoring over 30 points in a single game doesn’t feel remotely possible at this point. Iowa has scored more than 30 points just twice since the 2021 season. One occasion came against Northwestern in 2022, and the other was against Western Michigan this season. Iowa’s previous three games have combined for 45 points, scoring 20, 15, and 10, respectively.
Recognize The State of the Offense
A change at the quarterback position isn’t going to magically get things turned around. It won’t salvage the offense, or get Iowa to the 25 points per game mark. In all likelihood, it probably won’t do anything to improve the offense this year. What it will do, however, is more important than that. A new face at quarterback can begin to put building blocks in place for a future that’s going to need time to develop.
When you have a quarterback performing at levels this low, continuing to trot Hill out there is not only hurting the team, it’s hurting the player. As a quarterback, there comes a point when you just need a breather. Nothing is clicking, there’s no chemistry or consistency with pass-catchers, and there has been no week-to-week improvement. Yet, the younger Ferentz keeps putting Hill in this situation, and it’s not one designed to be successful.
Hill is a young quarterback, a redshirt sophomore. There’s no reason to leave him in this impossible situation. He’s been tabbed the worst quarterback in the Big Ten, and statistically, he’s one of the worst nationally. As a coach, there comes a point where you need to recognize your young player needs a break. The state of this offense is not solely on Hill’s shoulders. Leaving him in week-in and week-out is only hurting his confidence and potential in the program for the coming years.
Develop Your Future
McNamara has announced he will return next season, which is great news for the program. He’s a proven winner, but has fallen to bad injury luck in his last two seasons. If he can get healthy and stay healthy, the Iowa offense will have a solid quarterback in 2024.
What we have found out, however, is that there’s not much behind him. At least not that we know of. Joe Labas is number two on the depth chart. He needs to come into one of the next two games against Northwestern or Rutgers. He’s played in just one collegiate football game, the 2022 Music City Bowl, and he completed 14-24 with 139 yards and a touchdown. Labas played well then, but that’s the only sample we have. To this point, there’s been little to no consideration of him getting snaps despite the state of this offense over the past month.
Behind Labas is a quarterback who made headlines after committing to Iowa. Marco Lainez is a true freshman who had offers from a handful of Power Five schools. Lainez was recruited out of New Jersey and tabbed a three-star quarterback with a prototypical frame. He stands at 6’-3” and 225 pounds with accuracy and pocket mobility as a pass-first quarterback. Iowa fans were excited when he inked with the Hawkeyes in December of 2022, and he has a great upside on this roster.
There is virtually no harm in Lainez getting in for some snaps this season. The former three-star can play up to four full games for Iowa this fall and still maintain his redshirt. At the worst, he would get valuable in-game experience as a Power Five quarterback at a young age, something so seemingly rare in this program.
Young Iowa Quarterback Development
Iowa has shown over the years that the coaching staff likes to redshirt their young quarterbacks and let them develop in the program for multiple years before stepping out as a starter. Spencer Petras started his first game in 2020 in his third season at Iowa. He played just 30 snaps in the two years leading up to that start, and threw only 11 passes. His backup was Alex Padilla, who redshirted his freshman year in 2019 and saw 18 snaps in 2020. During the 2021 season, he got 29 snaps before stepping in for an injured Petras. Padilla played well and helped lead Iowa to a Big Ten championship appearance. But the following year, Padilla didn’t see the field until late October in Columbus. The Iowa offense was eight weeks into one of the worst offensive seasons we’ve seen before he got a snap. Padilla transferred to SMU after 2022.
Neither Petras nor Padilla saw the field as true freshmen or second-year players. Petras completed 55.7% of his passes last year, Padilla completed 48.8%. McNamara was completing 51.7% prior to his injury, and currently, Hill is completing 38.5% of his throws. Is there correlation here? In theory, without early experience, it becomes more difficult to perform at the high level needed when you finally get meaningful snaps multiple years into your career.
This Season and Beyond
Iowa’s season isn’t over by any means. It’s still in contention for a division title, and could still win ten games. But there needs to be consideration for the future of your quarterback room if you run this offense. Continuing to trot out Hill is not just contributing to the downfall of his confidence, it’s stunting the growth potential of the young quarterbacks on the bench. Change is needed not to improve the offense. Change is needed to start the building blocks of a long road back to competence.
