Iowa football named Cade McNamara starting QB, but meet his backup Brendan Sullivan

Iowa officially named Cade McNamara as the Hawkeyes' starter for the 2024 season, the second year in a row he has been named a starter. However, who is going to take over for McNamara if he does go down with another injury like he did in the 2023 season?

Last year it was Deacon Hill who chose to transfer to Utah Tech in the offseason. This year, Brendan Sullivan takes over the backup quarterback position coming to Iowa in the offseason as a transfer from fellow Big Ten member Northwestern.

Brendan Sullivan is entering his fourth season in college football after playing his first three at Northwestern. Even though he didn't see the field at all in his first year, Sullivan saw a good amount of action at Northwestern in his second and third seasons.

In both his second and third seasons, Sullivan made four starts each but appeared in five games in 2022 and in eight games in 2023. In two seasons, Sullivan went 134 for 195 for 1,303 passing yards and 10 touchdowns. He did have five interceptions and was sacked 35 times, but he averaged 6.7 yards per throw and had a combined 136.6 passer rating. Sullivan is also a threat on the ground with 257 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

As someone who did not start every game, Sullivan made the most of every time he saw the field, which is what interested Iowa when bringing him in in the offseason. He can certainly produce offensively which Iowa needs desperately.

Even though McNamara has been named the starter and Sullivan the backup, there is a real possibility that Iowa could make a change at the quarterback position during the season if McNamara isn't performing. There are a lot of questions about how he will look coming back from the injury and with how bad the offense was last season, Iowa probably wants to try and make a turnaround this year, even if it means changing the starter.