By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – If Saturday’s Kids Day practice were an audition, Iowa third-year quarterback Jeremy Hecklinski would have certainly landed the part.

The Georgia native showed a nice touch, good pocket awareness and was highly accurate, while his biggest competition for the starting job, four-year player Hank Brown, struggled for most of the practice at Kinnick Stadium.

However, it was just one practice as Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz emphasized afterwards.

Ferentz will ultimately have the final say on who starts at quarterback, but he isn’t ready to make that decision based on one practice in which Hecklinski clearly outperformed Brown.

“Every day has been different, basically,” Ferentz said when asked if Hecklinski has played that well throughout preseason practice. “So it’s been going back and forth and kind of what you would expect.”

Ferentz was then asked how he would evaluate the quarterbacks based on Saturday’s two-hour practice.

“I’d look at them over nine days,” Ferentz said. “I think they’ve done some good things and some things they’ve got to get better, like every position. It’s clearly clouded right now.”

The third question asked to Ferentz was also about Hecklinski as a reporter even used the word “dominate” to describe Hecklinski’s performance, which included four throwing touchdown passes to three different receivers during about a 45-minute stretch of practice.

The reporter wanted to know how much of a factor Hecklinski’s performance, which came in front of the fans and media, would have on the quarterback competition since it was more than just a typical practice.

The Kids Days practice was a chance to seize a key moment, and at least for this one practice, the competition at quarterback wasn’t even close, though Ferentz still tried to temper the excitement.

“I wouldn’t over play it,” Ferentz said. “I mean it’s helpful certainly to be out here, just with what it is, 37 to 38 percent of the team is new right now. So we’ve been out here twice, three times, but not with pads, other than the spring practice, so it helps.

“But we’ve got too much other stuff to go through right now processing. And then it’s like anything where the guys around him do it too. It might have made a guy look better or worse, that type of deal.”

Ferentz probably knew when he met with the media afterwards that the Hecklinski hype train already had left the station and was gaining steam.

And while there is no denying that Hecklinski performed better than Brown on Saturday, it was just one practice out of nine practices so far.

And since the other eight practices were closed to the media, it’s impossible to know for sure how the competition at quarterback is playing out.

Ferentz certainly wasn’t ready to anoint Hecklinski as the starter based on this one practice.

Even if Ferentz knows deep down who the starting quarterback will be, he isn’t ready to say it publicly, and that is certainly his prerogative as head coach.

It makes sense that Ferentz would choose this approach for now because why risk alienating one of your top two quarterbacks when time still is on your side?

And there is always the chance that Ferentz is telling the truth about the competition still being too close to call if you factor in all the practices, and not just Saturday’s open practice.

Heklinski and Brown are competing to replace Mark Gronowski as Iowa’s starting quarterback.

Gronowski, in his only season as a Hawkeye, led Iowa to a 9-4 record last season, setting a program record for a quarterback with 545 rushing yards and 16 rushing touchdowns.

He struggled early on as a passer, but then came on strong down the stretch, earning the respect and admiration of Iowa fans.

Neither Hecklinski nor Brown are as mobile as Gronowski was behind center, so the offense should look different in some ways this season just from not having a dual-threat quarterback behind center.

What was strange about Saturday’s practice is if you knew nothing about Iowa football under Kirk Ferentz, you might have walked away thinking that offense has been Iowa’s driving force, the straw that stirs the drink for this program.

From Hecklinski throwing vertical darts to the offensive line building an impenetrable wall of pass protection to tight end DJ Vonnhame consistently getting wide open; the offense clearly had the advantage on Saturday against an Iowa defense with eight new starters.

The defense usually has the advantage in these open practices, but this was an exception.

“That’s just kind of where we’re at right now,” Kirk Ferentz said. “Every year’s different and every week’s different. So we’re just trying to close the gap. Every year, your challenges are different, but typically your challenge is some areas have got to get better and get a little bit more tempo.

“And we’ve got to as coaches figure out what’s the best approach to get something out of whatever area it might be. It’s one day, today. But we certainly have some work to do.”

The Iowa defense, even with its struggles on Saturday, and with so many new starters, still deserves the benefit of the doubt, whereas the Iowa offense should always be considered a little suspect until the real games start being played.

Iowa is built to have a strong running game with two star offensive linemen paving the way, and with a stable of talented running backs making each other better.

On the other hand, the passing game, and especially the vertical passing game, still is a wait and see proposition.

Hecklinski certainly looked the part on Saturday, even at just 5-foot-11 and 201 pounds.

Stand Hecklinski next to Brown, who’s listed at 6-4 and 215, and your first thought would be that Brown looks more like a Big Ten quarterback.

Looks can be deceiving, though because it was the undersized quarterback that stood tall on Saturday.

One thing we know for sure is that Jeremy Hecklinski helped his cause on Saturday. He avoided throwing interceptions, which has been a  problem for the Wake Forest transfer at times, and he made plays.

He made the right reads, the right decisions and the right throws.

If Hecklinski keeps this up, Kirk Ferentz will eventually give him the lead role.

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Kicking woes: Iowa has a huge hole to fill at place-kicker with the loss of multi-year starter Drew Stevens to graduation, and if Saturday’s practice is any indication, there is plenty of work to do.

Neither Eli Ozick nor Caden Buhr stood out, but again, it was just one practice.

“We were inconsistent as I kind of thought it might be and it prove to be,” Ferentz said.

Ozick made 16-of-18 field goal attempts for North Dakota State last season, but he had multiple misses on Saturday.

In addition to replacing Stevens at kicker, Iowa also has to replace starting punter Rhys Dakin from last season and one of the greatest return specialists in Big Ten history in Kaden Wetjen.

Freshman Boston Everitt, who is from Australia, is competing with Simpson transfer Tanner Philpott for the starting punter position.

Dakin transferred to Michigan State shortly after former Iowa Special Teams Coordinator LeVar Woods resigned to become the Special Teams Coordinator and assistant head coach at Michigan State.

Woods had been Iowa Special’s Teams Coordinator since 2017, and way more times than not, his units performed at a high level.