By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Hank Brown was the first of two Iowa quarterback to show up for interviews on Thursday, and he certainly looked the part; listed at 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds with broad shoulders.

Then about 15 minutes later, Jeremy Hecklinski arrived to be interviewed, but unless you knew better, you might have been reluctant to believe that he was competing with Brown for the starting position.

Hecklinski is listed at 5-foot-11 and 188 pounds, which fits the description of a typical 21-year-old college student, but hardly that of Big Ten quarterback.

It’s not how you look, though, but rather how you play the quarterback position.

And Jeremy Hecklinski has played the position well enough, first in high school in Marietta, Georgia, and now in college, to be this close to being Iowa’s starting quarterback.

He and Brown are in a highly competitive battle for the starting position this spring. And they both expect the competition to stretch through the summer and to the start of preseason practice.

“We have a great relationship and we will continue to,” Brown said when asked about his relationship with Hecklinski. “Obviously, at times, it might be a little bit of some awkwardness when people get named different positions within the room.

“But that’s part of being a quarterback, and I think having the maturity to understand that. I have a good relationship with him and nothing is going to change that.”

Brown and Hecklinski competed for the No. 2 spot behind Mark Gronowski throughout last season.

Brown was listed as the backup until about midway through the 2025 season when Hecklinski’s name started being listed ahead of Brown’s name on the depth chart.

The switch came after Brown had struggled in a 20-15 loss to eventual national champion Indiana at Kinnick Stadium.

Brown was inserted early in the fourth quarter after Gronowski suffered a knee injury, but Brown only completed 5-of-13 passes for 48 yards while also throwing a costly interception.

Hecklinski only appeared briefly in two games last season, completing 2-of-2 passes for eight yards. He also had a 6-yard touchdown run against Nebraska in mop-up duty.

So neither Brown nor Hecklinski accomplished enough last season to gain an edge, and now they’re apparently neck-and-neck in spring practice.

“It really started last year in camp when I got here and we kind of went back and forth, and then ultimately he ended up taking it and kind of during the season, I over-stepped him a little bit and took it back,” Hecklinski said. “But now we’re kind of even where it’s like we’ve been back and forth like this for the last year.

“We’re great friends. We have dinner every Thursday night at my house with all the quarterbacks. We play golf and we do all the things. And it’s just like business is business. But he’s great guy and we’re great friends.”

The problem is that only one quarterback can play, and in this age of the transfer portal and NIL, that has caused a record number of quarterbacks to transfer to different schools. That includes Brown and Hecklinski, who started their careers at Auburn and Wake Forest, respectively.

Hecklinski joined the Iowa program last June, reuniting with former Wake Forest offensive coordinator Warren Ruggiero, who was hired in March 2025 as an offensive analyst for the Hawkeyes.

However, Ruggiero has since left for a similar position with Virginia Tech.

“I wish all the best to him and I know he’s doing great at Virginia Tech,” Hecklinski said of Ruggiero. “But my goal is to be here for the next three years.”

Hecklinsk and Brown, in addition to looking differently from a physical standpoint, also play the position differently.

Brown, who is from Charlotte, North Carolina, is a pro-style quarterback. He’s more comfortable throwing from the pocket, while Hecklinski is more of a gunslinger who takes chances and often moves from the pocket.

Hecklinski said Thursday that he is trying to find that balance between taking risks and protecting the football.

“One of my big things is probably just taking less risks, I would say” Hecklinski said. “I take a lot of risks in practice and stuff and it pays off a lot. And there’s sometimes when it doesn’t. So I’m just trying to find that happy medium to where I’m throwing touchdowns and not throwing interceptions as well.”

Hecklinski has learned to extend plays partly out of necessity due to his lack of size. He has to find passing lanes, and sometimes, that means leaving the pocket as he often did while playing in spread offenses in high school.

Former Iowa quarterback Drew Tate played the same way to compensate for his lack of size.

With nearly a year under his belt as a Hawkeye, Hecklinski is now comfortable with his surroundings and he knows what to expect.

Brown is also well beyond the transition stage after transferring to Iowa in January 2025, and six months before Hecklinski came to Iowa City.

“I would say all of camp and probably all the way to week six was just like figuring out what’s going on and just learning all the different terminologies and motions and shifts, all the different things,” Hecklinski said. “There was a lot.

“This is my third different college football offense. So I’ve gotten kind of good at picking up on certain things and how to make things stick in my head that it wasn’t too bad. But it definitely took some time.”