Cade McNamara appears to have lost his starting quarterback job at Iowa.

The former Michigan Wolverine remained benched Saturday against Northwestern after hitting a pick-six in the second quarter that Theran Johnson returned 85 yards for a score.

The interception was McNamara’s fifth interception this year and put the Hawkeyes in a 7-3 hole. It didn’t take long for Iowa to get out of that situation with backup Brendan Sullivan, who starred out of Davison High School.

Iowa scored 37 consecutive points in a 40-14 victory to improve to 5-3 and 3-2 in the Big Ten. This season has been an uphill battle for McNamara, who led Michigan to the Big Ten title in 2021 and lost the job to JJ McCarthy in 2022. In the first seven games, McNamara completed 97 of 159 passes for 944 yards, six touchdowns and four interceptions. Iowa ranked 128th out of 134 FBS teams in pass rushing.

The former 2019 four-star receiver also started slowly against Northwestern, completing 7 of 13 passes for 73 yards on his three drives. Sullivan came in and didn’t do much in the passing game but rushed eight times for 41 yards and a touchdown. He completed 9 of 14 passes for 79 yards, but Kaleb Johnson carried the brunt on offense, carrying 14 times for 109 yards and three scores.

After last week’s 32-20 loss to Michigan State, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said McNamara needed to play better. It didn’t take long for him to run out of patience and make a change on Saturday.

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