Iowa
Iowa QB Cade McNamara on quest to ‘play like me’ again
IOWA CITY — Cade McNamara’s “biggest goal” for the 2024 may seem relatively straightforward at first glance.
“I just want to play like me,” the Iowa quarterback said.
McNamara’s pursuit to play at a McNamara-esque level — more specifically, his ability to even attempt that pursuit — already resembles a modest sign of progress for the sixth-year quarterback after back-to-back years of injuries inhibiting him from fulfilling his potential.
McNamara’s last fully healthy football season — or at least healthy-enough season to play every game — was three years ago.
In 2022, the then-Michigan quarterback suffered a season-ending injury to his right knee. A year later as a Hawkeye, he made it to Week 5 before suffering a season-ending injury to his left knee in the Iowa’s win over Michigan State.
“I’m just really hoping that everything stays the course,” McNamara said at Iowa’s media day on Aug. 9. “I’ve been very healthy so far.”
Of course, there’s the question of what exactly does a McNamara-esque level of performance look like.
In his 2021 season as Michigan’s starting quarterback, he completed 64.6 percent of his passes and threw 15 touchdowns versus four interceptions. His 2022 numbers were down — 14-of-25 with one touchdown and one interception — but that was with a minuscule sample size, as he backed up J.J. McCarthy in two of the three games.
Then McNamara completed a career-low 51.1 percent of his passes for the Hawkeyes in 2023 while throwing four touchdowns and three interceptions. But those five games followed a preseason quad injury that seemed to linger.
McNamara said he did “not really” ever reach the point of playing like himself in 2023.
“You can’t move as well,” McNamara said as he discussed playing through the injury. “Your reactions are a little slower. … We didn’t really do much stuff on the run really until the week that I got hurt.”
If McNamara can produce at a 2021 level, it would be an obvious game-changer for the reigning Big Ten West champions. Iowa has not completed 60-plus percent of its passes in a season since 2015, when the Hawkeyes went 12-0 in the regular season and appeared in the Rose Bowl.
But any prognostications based on McNamara’s Michigan and Iowa numbers carry a few asterisks.
When McNamara completed 64.6 percent of passes in 2021, he had the benefit of throwing to eventual 2024 NFL Draft picks Roman Wilson and Cornelius Johnson at wide receiver and Erick All at tight end. He also worked behind a Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line and benefited from a formidable rushing offense.
Iowa’s change to new offensive coordinator Tim Lester’s Shanahan-style system is another wild card. If the scheme proves to be effective in games — a big “if” — a 60 percent completion rate would be much more feasible for an Iowa quarterback in 2024 than in past seasons.
Having already spent five years playing college football, McNamara’s knowledge of opposing coverages also could be an asset in 2024.
“He knows when the blitzes are coming, and he can change protections,” Lester said. “He’s really done a good job of using that to help us move forward as an offense.”
McNamara did not put fans’ minds at ease earlier this month when he frequently struggled to connect on what should be high-percentage passes during Iowa’s Kids’ Day open practice on Aug. 10.
It was McNamara’s first open practice since being medically cleared this summer. He was “really limited” in spring practices.
“He’s thrown seven-on-seven, things like that, but it’s still not real football,” Ferentz said on Big Ten Network less than a week after McNamara’s underwhelming open practice. “You have to get out there, and you have to operate. You’ve got to be on the field with 11 people on your side and their side.”
Ferentz also was optimistic about McNamara’s improvement when talking to reporters on Thursday, saying McNamara has “done a really nice job” and had a “really good week.” He said that McNamara would be Iowa’s first-team quarterback “if we were playing tomorrow.”
Raimond Braithwaite, Iowa’s head strength and conditioning coach, said on The Gazette’s Hawk Off the Press podcast earlier this month that McNamara has “gotten a lot stronger.”
“He’s definitely all the way back, and he’s ready to compete at a really high level, which he’s doing in practice day in, day out,” Braithwaite said.
Braithwaite has particularly had an eye on McNamara’s “overall strength and resiliency.”
“I want to make sure that he’s fully prepared for the rigors of playing that position,” Braithwaite said, “because you’re going to get knocked around, you’re going to get hit and you have to be strong enough.”
For now, though, McNamara can at least enjoy being healthy enough to be on the football field. When he took his first set of team reps after being medically cleared, he “had the butterflies for the first time again.”
“It’s been so long since I’ve had that,” McNamara said with a smile. “That’s the stuff that reminds you of how much you love the game.”
Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com
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With June rapidly finishing up, that means the Iowa high school softball season is preparing to enter the stretch run of the year.
The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union State Softball Tournament will begin Monday, July 20, in Fort Dodge at Rogers Park, bringing together many of the top teams and players in the state. High School On SI Iowa currently provides a Top 25 state softball power rankings, so now, we need to see who the top players are.
Below are the nominees for the High School On SI Iowa Class 1A Softball Midseason Player of the Year in each classification. Stats listed with the player are from Bound and based on those numbers imputed as of June 26, 2026 at noon CT.
Feel free to vote as many times as you like, with voting set to close on Friday, July 3, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. CT.
High School On SI Iowa Class 1A Softball Midseason Player Of The Year Nominees
Rachel Eglseder, Edgewood-Colesburg, Senior
Eglseder owns a 16-5 record, striking out 225 batters with a 1.66 earned run average while adding 11 extra-base hits and 40 RBI at the plate.
Rylee Mudderman, Kee, Junior
Mudderman continues to be a difficult out, batting .488 this season with two homers, 11 doubles and four triples. She has driven in 38 and scored 35 times, stealing 10 bases.
Faith Shirbroun, St. Edmond, Senior
Speaking of tough outs, Shirbroun owns a batting average of .606 this season, recording seven homers, 17 doubles and five triples. She has driven in 36 and scored 37 times, stealing 22 bases while setting several school records for hitting.
Sydney Lovrien, Clarksville, Senior
The ace for the defending state champions, Lovrien is 13-5 with 100 strikeouts in 86 innings pitched. She also has 23 hits and 21 RBI at the plate.
Sam Kruckenberg, Mason City Newman Catholic, Senior
A veteran now, Kruckenberg owns an 18-4 record with 227 strikeouts and a 1.23 earned run average. She is batting .440 with five homers, 11 doubles and 23 RBI at the plate.
About Our Midseason Player of the Year Voting
High School on SI voting polls are meant to be a fun, lighthearted way for fans to show support for their favorite athletes and teams. Our goal is to celebrate all of the players featured, regardless of the vote totals. Sometimes one athlete will receive a very large number of votes — even thousands — and that’s okay! The polls are open to everyone and are simply a way to build excitement and community around high school sports. Unless we specifically announce otherwise, there are no prizes or official awards for winning. The real purpose is to highlight the great performances of every athlete included in the poll.
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The Iowa chapter of the Land Improvement Contractors of America (LICA) officially opened a new facility on its 80-acre demonstration farm in Marshall County Thursday.
Iowa LICA President Scott Bohle said having classroom and meeting space will make it easier to educate the next generation of professional contractors, along with government employees, lawmakers and students, to help conserve soil and water in the state.
Bohle said the building “gives people a place to gather, collaborate and continue the important work that defines our association.”
Just outside the new space are wetlands, terraces, sediment control basins, bioreactors and other features, which members have built since LICA purchased the farm near Melbourne in 2000.
“We call it the one-stop shop, where you can see anything being put to practice by our landowners,” said Kelby Kiefer, executive director of Iowa LICA.
Together, these “edge-of-field” practices remove 50% of phosphates and almost 100% of the nitrates from the runoff of a 1,000-plus acre watershed, according to the association.
Adding more wetlands, saturated buffers and bioreactors across the state are a key part of Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. It aims to cut nitrogen and phosphorus losses from farm fields by 41% and 29%, respectively.
The strategy is part of a broader effort to reduce nutrient pollution in the state’s waterways and the Gulf of Mexico by 45% compared to the 1980-96 baseline period. It does not include a target date.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said the state has accelerated edge-of-field practices in recent years, in part through the Batch and Build model. The approach bundles projects in a targeted watershed to reduce costs and save time for farmers and contractors.
Nearly 150 nitrate reducing wetlands and around 500 saturated buffers, bioreactors and multi-purpose oxbows had been built in the state as of 2024. Thousands more will be needed to meet the state’s nutrient reduction targets.
“[Clean water is] something we need to be focused on, and we can be proud of the work that’s happened, but we know that we need to do more,” Naig said. “Buildings like this help.”
Naig said scaling up conservation infrastructure across the state will require more skilled contractors. He described them as the “critical link” between concepts and “getting things on the ground.”
“It’s from that point where you say, ‘We have a design that’s ready to go, a willing landowner,’ but somebody needs to make it happen,” Naig said. “The land improvement contractor sits in that very important spot.”
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Mark Roering returned to Iowa City Regina 30 years after serving as an assistant coach, and in just two seasons, he has transformed the Regals into one of Class 2A’s most dangerous teams.
“I was a senior in college. I just had finished playing baseball myself and was doing high school in the summers. Had one of those magical seasons here losing in the state finals,” Roering said. “I was just ready for something new.”
Prior to being hired at Iowa City Regina in 2024, Roering coached nine seasons at Dowling Catholic, where he helped the Maroons reach the state tournament six times. Regina was below .500 in three of the four seasons before his arrival. His first season at the helm, Regina went 22-6.
“I think the biggest difference is practice. Everybody is so much more locked in. Really that just comes from him. He gets on us everyday, he has to make the drive and hour and a half every day so we want to give that back to him for all the time and effort he’s put into us,” junior Trey Streb said.
Streb also described Roering as a very emotional coach who cares deeply about the team and winning.
The Regals’ bats have become a significant threat. Regina ranks fifth in the state and second in Class 2A with a .379 batting average and has the fourth fewest strikeouts among state teams.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced and it’s been super competitive and it’s nice to be with people who want to win and will do whatever it takes to win,” senior Emmett Burke said.
The team already sits at 20 wins with eight regular season games remaining.
Roering said the transformation comes when players start believing they can win in any situation.
“Winning is contagious just like losing is contagious,” Roering said. “Kids they start believing and it gets really dangerous you know that they can win no matter what situation they’re in.”
The turnaround has positioned the Regals to make a postseason run. With only one senior on the roster, the team could remain a threat next season.
“No matter what, we’re going to fight and we’re not going to roll over. We’re going to do what we need to do to win,” Burke said.
“We’re big competitors. We don’t accept defeat and I think that’s one of my favorite parts about this team,” Streb added.
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