Iowa quarterback Deacon Hill enters transfer portal

Hill departs after one season with Hawkeyes

 Iowa quarterback Deacon Hill is entering the transfer portal, he announced Tuesday morning on social media.

Hill’s departure comes days after taking the bulk of Iowa’s first-team reps at quarterback in spring practices while Cade McNamara continued his recovery from knee surgery.

The Santa Barbara, Calif., native replaced the injured McNamara in the 2023 season and completed 48.6 percent of his passes while throwing five touchdowns and eight interceptions. He also had 11 fumbles, six of which were recovered by the opposing team.

Hill transferred to Iowa in early 2023 after spending his first two years of college at Wisconsin. He briefly appeared in one game for the Badgers, with his only dropback resulting in a sack.

“Iowa, you have given me one of the best years of my life,” Hill said in his social media post. “I have built some of the most important relationships in my life, and I am eternally grateful for that. … After some conversations and deep talks, my family and I feel this is what’s best for my future.”

Hill is the sixth quarterback to transfer from Iowa since the end of the 2021 season, joining Deuce Hogan, Alex Padilla, Carson May, Spencer Petras and Joe Labas. Hogan left a scholarship situation at Iowa to be a walk-on at Kentucky, and none of the other four landed at major-conference schools at the time.

With Hill departing, the Hawkeyes are down to three scholarship quarterbacks for the 2024 season — McNamara, redshirt freshman Marco Lainez and true freshman James Resar. A portal addition at quarterback is possible — and likely necessary — as the spring portal cycle continues.

Iowa as a whole has 88 players under scholarship — three above the limit — with four-plus months to go until the start of the 2024 season. The spring transfer portal window is open through April 30.