Iowa QB Cade McNamara confirms he plans to return in 2024
Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara will return in 2024 after undergoing season-ending knee surgery, he confirmed Wednesday night on social media.
McNamara, a senior who sustained a torn ACL in his left knee Sept. 30 against Michigan State, wrote on X that there is “still a lot I want to accomplish in the Black and Gold and look forward to bringing it to life in the 2024 season.” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, in announcing McNamara’s season-ending injury Oct. 3, said McNamara’s intentions were to return in 2024.
The quarterback transferred from Michigan in December and started Iowa’s first five games, completing 46 of 90 passes for 505 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions. McNamara, who helped Michigan to its first College Football Playoff appearance and a Big Ten title in 2021, is a fifth-year player who redshirted in 2019 at Michigan, but has an extra year of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The Reno, Nevada, native has 3,686 career passing yards with 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
In his X post, McNamara included a picture of himself after surgery and wrote that he looks forward to returning to Iowa City and supporting his teammates.
“The road ahead is a rigorous one but nothing I haven’t overcome before,” he wrote.
After starting for Michigan in 2021, McNamara competed with J.J. McCarthy for the top job early last season. McNamara sustained a right knee injury and underwent surgery in November 2022, shortly before transferring to Iowa. He missed part of spring practice with the Hawkeyes while recovering from the injury and part of preseason practice with a quad injury.
Deacon Hill replaced McNamara against Michigan State and has started ever since. Iowa added Marco Lainez, an ESPN three-star recruit in the 2023 class, and has a 2024 commitment from ESPN three-star recruit James Resar.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Army linebacker Kalib Fortner scored on a fourth-quarter strip sack and then stuffed quarterback Tai Lavatai six inches from the goal line with 3 seconds left to help the Black Knights beat Navy 17-11 on Saturday and win the 124th meeting of the nation’s oldest service academies.
After falling behind 17-3, Lavatai led the Midshipmen to one touchdown to make it a one-score game and then drove them to the Army 6. With no timeouts and about 30 seconds left, Lavatai threw two incompletions before hitting Alex Tecza, who was tackled inbounds at the 2.
With no timeouts — and no opportunity to spike the ball on fourth down — Navy scrambled to line up and managed to get the play off. Lavatai surged forward as his whole team pushed, ahead of him and behind, but Army held its ground.
The play was whistled dead and the replay confirmed that the ball never crossed the goal line. To kill the remaining 3 seconds, Army quarterback Bryson Daily took a shotgun snap, hesitated, and stepped out of the end zone for an intentional safety.
Cadets began to storm the field before being sent back for another review to see if time had expired. The confirmation from the booth set off another wave of Army fans onto the New England Patriots home field.
