Iowa has a bye this week, but it won’t be using its extra time to narrow down whom will be its No. 1 quarterback moving forward this season.
Offensive coordinator Greg Davis said Tuesday that once junior Jake Rudock returns to action after recovering from a hip injury, the Hawkeyes will split playing time between Rudock and sophomore C.J. Beathard.
“Jake is about 80%, so we'd start C.J. if we played today. We don't play today. We play in ten days or 11 days, whatever it is. We feel like we have two good quarterbacks, and we'll look at it in these next 11 days and then we'll go from there,” Davis said. “What you can expect is that we'll probably play two with no set series, numbers or whatever. We feel like we have two guys that have earned the right to play and have played pretty well. So that's the way we'll approach it.”
Rudock started the first four games for the 4-1 Hawkeyes, but went down wit a hip pointer against Pitt. Beathard came on in relief and completed 7-of-8 passes for 98 yards in a comeback 24-20 win. With Rudock still injured, Beathard started over the weekend at Purdue and struggled, completing just 46 percent of his passes in a 24-10 win.
Before his injury, Rudock threw for 798 yards and five touchdowns while completing 66.9 percent of his passes. Despite Rudock’s solid play, Davis and the coaching staff believe Beathard has shown enough to earn playing time.
“I thought (Beathard) handled the Pitt game extremely well,” Davis said. “He made a third down conversion in that ballgame that was pretty special. They brought a blitz and did a nice job with the hot receiver and he reset his feet and found the second receiver. It was a big time play. We like the two quarterbacks. We're going to play both of them right now.”
Davis said there won’t be any special packages or formations designated to a particular or even a percentage of snaps devoted either way. The coaches will simply go by feel and ride the hot hand.
“We want to see who is playing better on that particular day,“ Davis said. “I’m not talking about any kind of sequence or numbers. Part of it will be a feel. Part of it will be we definitely want to play two guys.”
The coaching staff is confident that both quarterbacks will be comfortable with the arrangement moving forward, even though Beathard attempted only three passes prior to Rudock’s injury.
“I think they'll totally be fine. They're good guys and they're good players. I think they both know the other guy’s pretty good. They're not blind to the fact that the other guy does some pretty good stuff also,” Davis said.
Seven regular season games remain on the schedule, giving the two ample time to try to outperform the other. In the end, Davis thinks that’s exactly what will happen – one quarterback will separate himself from his competition.
“The truth is, as a staff, we think we have to (play two QBs) and we're going to play two, and at some point it will shake itself up.”
For more Iowa news, visit HawkeyeReport.com.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
From Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo Sports - Iowa plans to play both Jake Rudock and C.J. Beathard at quarterback
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