While Ohio State’s chance to get revenge against Michigan is still eight weeks away, the Buckeyes could turn the tables this weekend on the quarterback who helped start the Wolverines’ three-game winning streak in The Game.
As Michigan’s starting quarterback in 2021, Cade McNamara guided the Wolverines to a 42-27 victory over Ohio State to end the Buckeyes’ eight-game win streak in the rivalry. While McNamara didn’t do anything spectacular in that game – he completed just 13 of 19 passing attempts for 159 yards with zero touchdowns and one interception as the Wolverines rode their ground game for 297 yards and six touchdowns – he nevertheless holds a 1-0 record against Ohio State as a starting quarterback.
Despite leading Michigan to a Big Ten championship and College Football Playoff berth in 2021, McNamara was benched in 2022 in favor of J.J. McCarthy. McNamara transferred the following offseason to Iowa, where he is now the Hawkeyes’ starting quarterback as a sixth-year senior.
So far, McNamara’s tenure at Iowa hasn’t been spectacular. After missing most of last season with a torn ACL, McNamara ranks just 106th in the FBS in passer rating this season, having thrown for only 588 yards in four games with a 62.7% completion rate and three touchdown passes with two interceptions.
But McNamara enters this week’s matchup with something only one other active college football quarterback (Missouri’s Brady Cook) has – experience beating Ohio State as a starting quarterback. So the Buckeyes are taking him seriously even though Iowa’s passing offense ranks among the nation’s least productive (124th in passing yards per game).
“Coming into an environment like this is something he's used to, and he's playing good football right now and made some really good throws this year,” Ryan Day said Wednesday. “A veteran quarterback can go a long way in this conference, especially on the road.”
Ohio State defensive end Jack Sawyer acknowledged he might have a little extra motivation to get to the quarterback this week because of McNamara’s history against the Buckeyes.
“Maybe a little bit,” Sawyer said with a laugh. “Yeah, definitely.”
That said, Ohio State isn’t spending much time looking back at its 2021 film against McNamara. The Buckeyes have a different defensive scheme now than they did then while McNamara is on an entirely different team, so their focus is on what McNamara and the rest of Iowa’s offense are doing well this year.
“I think we just have to learn from the games we’ve played in (this year), understanding that we do have some familiarity with him, but you can't judge him off the past,” said Ohio State defensive end JT Tuimoloau. “I think we just got to take Iowa for this season and just continue to work off the film we've been given.”
Sawyer didn’t dismiss the possibility that Ohio State could learn from its experience playing against McNamara three years ago but largely agreed with Tuimoloau that playing him this year will present a different challenge than that game did.
“He's a different player now, obviously a lot more experienced,” Sawyer said. “You can definitely look back and pick up a little bit from those previous games when he was at the team up north. But he's also a different player now in a different system. So it's kind of hard to really pick something that's going to be really exactly the same.”
McNamara expressed a similar sentiment when asked by Iowa reporters about his success against the Buckeyes at Michigan and this week’s game.
“I mean, that was a huge victory for Michigan. And for us to win that game, it had been so long since we won, that was an awesome game. But that was a couple years ago now at this point,” McNamara said Tuesday. “So they have a new team and we're a new team and we're looking to play our best football.”
One thing Saturday’s game will have in common with his 2021 start against Ohio State is that his team will enter the game as an underdog. While the Hawkeyes are a bigger underdog (19 to 19.5 points at most sportsbooks as of Thursday afternoon) than the Wolverines were in 2021 (when they closed as a 6.5-point underdog against Ohio State), McNamara says Iowa won’t be intimidated by Ohio State’s favored status.
“Sometimes it's awesome being the underdog, and I think that's really where a lot of guys feel more comfortable, if anything,” McNamara said. “I guarantee we're going to be the underdog this week; that's just an awesome opportunity for us. If anything, we should play less stressed or we should play more free … if everyone expects us to lose, what have we got to lose then? So I think for us, if anything, it gives us confidence in knowing that we can go out there and we're going to play free and we're going to give it everything we've got.”
Like when he played at Michigan, McNamara also has a strong running game and defense to lean on at Iowa this season. The Hawkeyes enter ranked 10th in the nation with 250.25 rushing yards per game and 15th in the FBS with only 13.8 points per game, so the Buckeyes know they have to play well to achieve a better result against Iowa on Saturday than they did the last time they played against McNamara.
“We know Iowa's not just going to come in and just step down to us. We know they're going to bring their best and they have high expectations for themselves,” Tuimoloau said. “They're a 3-1 team and (played) a tough game against Iowa State (in their only loss). We knew, just watching the film, they played hard. So we know it's going to be a hard four-quarter game and that we have to bring it.”
