(Iowa City, IA) — The Iowa Hawkeyes football team finally heard its punishment today for improper recruiting violations regarding former QB Cade McNamara. Iowa will have vacate four victories from the 2023 seasons — the same four wins that McNamara started at quarterback.
Head Coach Kirk Ferentz and Assistant Jon Budmayr have admitted to making phone calls to McNamara before he entered his name into the transfer portal in November 2022. The NCAA says it was a total of 13 phone calls, McNamara then put his name in the portal and committed to Iowa. In 2023, he started the first four games and the Hawkeyes beat Utah State, Iowa St., Western Michigan, and Michigan St. which will now be expunged. McNamara later suffered a season ending knee injury — he played one more season at Iowa before transferring to East Tennessee St. for the 2025 season.
Ferentz and Budmayr both sat out the 2024 opener under a self imposed suspension but clearly the NCAA did not feel that was enough of a penalty.
According to a joint statement from Iowa President Barb Wilson and Athletic Director Beth Goetz, “We are very disappointed in today’s ruling by the Committee on Infractions,” the statement said. “Throughout this nearly two-and-a-half-year process, the University has fully cooperated with the NCAA enforcement staff. More importantly, when the facts revealed that violations had taken place, the institution and the head coach publicly accepted full responsibility and self-imposed several significant sanctions, something few others have done. We believe the decision of adding the penalty of the forfeiture of wins is unwarranted. The matter is now closed, and we have moved forward.”
“I am disappointed by the NCAA’s decision today,” Ferentz said. “Throughout the process, our program has been open and honest about my mistake — contacting a potential player in the hours before it was permissible by NCAA rules. I felt it was important to make amends for the issue, which is why I voluntarily served a one-game suspension to start the 2023 season. I believe today’s decision by the NCAA vacating four wins in our 2023 season is overly harsh and inconsistent with the violation.”
Iowa went 6-4 in 2023 but that record goes to 2-4 officially and Ferentz’s win total goes to 205 victories with Iowa. This past season, Ferentz became the Big Ten’s all time wins leader but his win total moves him back into a tie with former Ohio St. coach Woody Hayes at 205.
