Will Cade McNamara finally give Iowa football's offense a pulse?

The 2023 season was a weird one for Iowa football.

The Hawkeyes landed former Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara in the transfer portal and he was supposed to help Brian Ferentz keep his job by finally giving the offense a pulse. However, five games into his first season with the Hawkeyes, he went down with a leg injury and never returned, finishing with 505 yards and four touchdowns to three interceptions.

Missing the latter half of the season wasn't ideal and the Iowa offense suffered because of it. In fact, the Hawkeyes scored no more than 26 points in a single game after his injury and they reached the 20-point mark just three times. Plus, his offensive coordinator, and Kirk Ferentz's son, was fired.

Now with a new outlook, a fresh set of eyes in Tim Lester as his offensive coordinator, and some intriguing pieces at tight end (Luke Lachey) and receiver (Kaleb Brown), will McNamara live up to the hype?

The Iowa offense should be vastly improved from whatever nightmare we all witnessed a season ago. McNamara is a good enough quarterback to elevate the group, but with a good offensive line returning and some really solid pass-catchers, it feels like he's going to flourish.

Before he came to Iowa, Cade's best season was in 2021 when he led Michigan to a Big Ten title and its first playoff appearance, throwing for 2,576 yards and 15 touchdowns with a 64 percent completion rate. I would not be shocked if he had better numbers this year at Iowa.

With a strong run game and a normally-elite defense, Iowa needs around 2,000 yards and 15 touchdowns from McNamara to be a contender in the Big Ten. I think he surpasses that and Iowa pushes for a top-five finish in conference play despite going to Minnesota, Ohio State, Michigan State, UCLA, and Maryland and hosting Wisconsin and Washington.

A healthy McNamara can elevate this entire team.