IOWA CITY, Iowa – Cade McNamara threw three second-half touchdown passes and No. 25 Iowa cruised to a season-opening victory without coach Kirk Ferentz, pounding Illinois State 40-0 on Saturday.
Ferentz served a one-game suspension imposed by the university for a recruiting contact violation that is under investigation by the NCAA. Assistant head coach Seth Wallace ran the team in his absence. It was the first game Ferentz had missed in his 26 seasons as the Hawkeyes’ coach.
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“What they did today, under these circumstances, was pretty cool,” Wallace said of the Hawkeyes.
McNamara, who missed the final nine games of last season with a knee injury, threw touchdown passes of 7 and 19 yards to freshman wide receiver Reece Vander Zee. He also tossed a 31-yard TD pass to Jacob Gill to help the Hawkeyes pull away after leading 6-0 at halftime.
“The first half was just the norms of the first game,” Wallace said. “The second half is probably a better indicator of what kind of team we are.”
McNamara said the second half was built on Iowa's last possession of the first half, when the Hawkeyes went 49 yards in 10 plays to set up Drew Stevens' second field goal of the game.
“I think we really started gain some momentum at the end of that second quarter, when we were able to go on a decent drive,” McNamara said. “We weren’t able to finish with a touchdown. When stuff wasn’t going our way at the beginning, our tempo wasn’t very good. And I think once we were able to gain some momentum and gain some tempo, that set us up really good for the second half.”
Vander Zee, who was a quarterback in high school last year, was one of McNamara's main targets, finishing with five catches for a game-high 66 yards. He became the first true freshman in program history to have a touchdown catch in his first game since Dominique Douglas in 2006.
“I kind of never have really been a guy to get nervous,” Vander Zee said. “I just kind of trust my preparation, and go out there and have fun.”
Kaleb Johnson rushed for 119 yards for Iowa, including touchdown runs of 64 and 18 yards in the fourth quarter.
McNamara, who completed eight consecutive passes to open the second half, finished 21-of-31 passing for 251 yards. He also had one carry for 12 yards, and had a 20-yard scramble in the first half called back because of a penalty.
“Today felt really good to be actually healthy and run around a little bit,” said McNamara, who suffered a quadricep injury during training camp last season. “I wasn’t expected to run as much as I did today, but it felt good. And you know, some confidence was built with that.”
It was the first game for new Iowa offensive coordinator Tim Lester, who is taking over a unit that finished last in the nation in total offense last season and averaged just 15.4 points per game, which ranked 129th out of 130 FBS teams.
Iowa posted 147 yards of total offense in the first half, but it had 180 yards and 11 first downs in the third quarter. The Hawkeyes finished the game with 492 yards of total offense.
Iowa’s defense held Illinois State to 189 yards, sacking Tommy Rittenhouse four times. Rittenhouse was 10-of-20 passing for 119 yards.
“Where the game was lost, in my opinion, was in the first half,” Illinois State coach Brock Spack said. “Iowa made some mistakes with penalties and and so forth. And we weren’t able to to come back and make some plays. We did some great things in the first half, but we we needed a little help."
BIG PICTURE
There were plenty of questions surrounding Iowa’s offense, and McNamara, heading into the season, and the second half provided some answers. Granted, it came against an FCS team, but it was an important first step of the season for the Hawkeyes, who host Iowa State next week.
UP NEXT
Illinois State: At North Alabama next Saturday.
Iowa: Hosts Iowa State next Saturday.
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