IOWA CITY -- The Iowa depth chart released on Monday lists Cade McNamara as the Hawkeyes' starting quarterback for their matchup with Maryland on Saturday. Marco Lainez, who started the year as Iowa's third-string gunslinger, may be available this weekend after breaking his thumb several weeks ago in practice.
But if the Hawkeyes had to play the Terrapins today, fourth-stringer and former scout-team linebacker Jackson Stratton would be their starter.
"I wrote [the depth chart] on Sunday," Kirk Ferentz said at his Tuesday media availability. "Cade practiced on Sunday. Everything is clearly cloudy right now. That's kind of our weather forecast. ... We'll just take it day-by-day and see who can go."
As of now, the tentative plan appears to be to start Stratton.
"I assume Jackson is going to start," Ferentz said. "We'll start the way we finished [against UCLA]. That's the way I see it. We'll see who can do what. If we were playing tomorrow, that's how it would be."
Ferentz went on to say that "everybody else has a chance outside of Brendan."
McNamara, who practiced on Sunday, appears to be the closest to playing between he and Lainez.
"[Cade] is still processing back," Ferentz said. "He has been cleared to play, and whether or not he can play effectively or not, we'll see. We'll just see how the week goes. But we're prepared for anything, quite frankly."
Clearly cloudy.
With Stratton slotted as QB1, Ferentz said he is "a hell of a lot more comfortable" going to the Colorado State transfer than he was against UCLA.
"I thought he did some good things out in that last ballgame, Jackson did, and he has talent," Ferentz said. "He can throw the football. You guys saw that."
He made a passing joke to Stratton on Tuesday morning, who joined the roster as a walk-on this summer citing that the former three-star prospect and Washington commit probably didn't think he'd be seeing time on the field in Pasadena at the start of the 2024 season.
"I was just teasing him about, 'did you ever think you'd be playing in the Rose Bowl this year?'" Ferentz said. "He had to admit that was kind of a far-fetched thing, certainly."
With a few sobering snaps against the Bruins under his belt, Stratton went into the bye week and got some desperately needed reps with the starters. He'll get more during this week of preparation.
"Now it's a matter of thank goodness we got a bye week and a chance to get him more comfortable and schooled," Ferentz added. "If he ends up being our guy, we'll try to put a plan together that features what he can do, keep him out of the danger areas maybe, and not have him doing calculus problems out there if he's not ready for that."
Iowa's head man referenced what the team went through last year, rallying around untested transfer Deacon Hill as its starter, may help them in their current situation.
"If there's good news, we went through the same exercise a year ago and came out of it OK," he said. "You deal with the cards that are dealt to you, and play them accordingly. In this case we're not sure what it's going to look like, but we'll know as the week goes on."
"We'll let it rip. Whoever is in there, we'll let it rip."
