IOWA CITY -- During the first two weeks of the season, Brendan Sullivan had barely seen the field since transferring to Iowa -- let alone taken meaningful snaps. On Saturday, the former Northwestern signal caller played -- and played a significant role in the Hawkeyes' 38-21 victory over Troy.
Overall, Sullivan handed the ball off to Kaleb Johnson for his first touchdown of the day, a four-yard score, and completed his lone pass -- a two-yard flip to Addison Ostrenga -- for a touchdown.
And it was all part of the plan.
"Brendan is a really good athlete and works hard," Kirk Ferentz said postgame. "This week when we were talking about those situations, we thought it would be good to have that in our pocket. ... He did a good job during the game, and it was part of our plan coming in if the situation arose."
Starting quarterback Cade McNamara knew it was coming, saying it was expected and part of the week's preparation.
"Oh yeah, I absolutely knew that was coming," McNamara said with a laugh after the game. "We do everything we can to be as prepared as we can. I knew every single play that was going to be called, and everybody else did, too."
With the success that came with those plays, McNamara was all for it.
"I was just happy we were able to score," he said. "We struggled before, and I don't know what it's going to look like in the future, but I'm proud that Sully -- when he went in -- he executed. I'm just happy we scored."
Staring left tackle Mason Richman sees bringing Sullivan into the fold as a different way to attack opposing defenses.
"It's just an option we have," he said. "I thought Brendan did a heck of a job when he went in there. It's something that we can definitely do. He offers a little more versatility than Cade does, but Cade has scrambled a little bit the last few weeks, too. Both of them are pretty capable."
Even though the offense knew the added wrinkle was part of the game plan, it was still a bit of a shock to the system.
"It's just exciting to have a different guy in there now and again," Richman said. "It's like 'Whoa. What the heck?' You never see it coming because he just subs in. We just had five plays with Cade, and then it's like 'Oh, there's a new quarterback in.' It's messing with my cadence a little bit, but other than that, it's been really smooth."
Ferentz wasn't ready to say Sullivan will be taking more snaps going forward, but he was happy with what the junior gunslinger accomplished on Saturday afternoon.
"How much we utilize it or not utilize it, we'll figure that out as we go," he said. "I mean, there's no big conspiracy theory or purpose. He has practiced well. He's a really good athlete. We thought if he could give us or provide one more dimension, one more thing to the defenses to have to worry about, might have some benefit."
He swears there's no conspiracy theory behind it all.
"There's no big picture right now, but we are going to try to utilize any one of our guys any way we can if they can help us," Ferentz said. "That's a good thing."
