By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Cael Winter has won the starting center position on the Iowa football team, but who will line up behind him at quarterback in the season opener against Northern Illinois still remains unsettled.

“Obviously, the biggest question is the quarterback thing,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said Wednesday after practice. “But I’d kind of lump it in there; quarterback, punter, kicker; right now it’s all still really dead even in all three spots.

“I don’t know if that’s the way we want it to be or not want it to be. But it’s what it is. I think it’s been good competition and we’re going to have to figure this out here in the next three or four days just in terms of how we will approach game week.”

Fourth-year quarterback Hank Brown is competing with third-year quarterback Jeremy Hecklinski for the starting position, while true freshman Boston Everitt and Simpson transfer Tanner Philpott are competing for the punter position, and North Dakota State transfer Eli Ozick and second-year player Caden Buhr are competing to be the starting kicker.

Iowa will face Northern Illinois in the season opener on Sept. 5 at Kinnick Stadium.

That leaves slightly more than a week of practice for a starter to emerge at those three critical positions.

Ferentz was asked Wednesday if he anticipates using two quarterbacks in the season opener.

“It wouldn’t shock me, but we don’t have a formal plan yet,” Ferentz said. “First thing we’ve got to do, someone has got to start the game obviously. It is really close, so however we determine it, somebody is going to start the game.

“We haven’t talked at all about a possible plan, how we’d approach it. But we’ll just play it by ear and see how it goes. But right now, it’s pretty close.”

Ferentz acknowledged that it could ultimately come down his gut feeling about who will start the season opener at quarterback.

“Sometimes, that’s the way it goes,” Ferentz said. “We’ll all talk. We’ve got a lot of guys that know a lot more about playing quarterback than I do in that room, that’s for sure. We have too many quarterback coaches right now.”

That would include Iowa offensive coordinator Tim Lester, who played quarterback at Western Michigan where he passed for over 13,000 yards.

Lester, who is entering his third season as Iowa’s offensive coordinator, told the Big Ten Network on Monday that the competition at quarterback could stretch into the season. Lester also said something similar at Iowa media day on Aug. 14.

However by next week, which is game week, Ferentz said a decision will have to be made about which quarterback gets most of the snaps with the No. 1 offense.

So far, it’s been about even throughout camp between Hecklinski and Brown, with third-team quarterback Jimmy Sullivan also getting a few snaps.

“Somebody next week is going to be taking snaps with the ones,” Ferentz said. “We’ll probably still divvy them a little bit. But we’ve been divvying basically, not fifty-fifty totally because we’ve also let Jimmy get reps. But we’ve been pretty equal in terms of reps and all that. We’re going to have to start going the other way here a little bit next week.”

Hecklinski clearly outperformed Brown at the Kids Day Practice on Aug. 15, throwing four touchdown passes in about 45 minutes.

But it was also just one practice as Kirk Ferentz reminded the media afterwards, saying not to over-react to what they had just seen on the field.

Ferentz was asked Wednesday if Brown has rallied since the Kids Day practice or has Hecklinski fallen back?

“I’m not laughing; but it is kind of funny in that you knew that was going to happen,” Ferentz said. “I didn’t know who it would be. But you just knew that something would happen like that. So it was kind of entertaining because we had eight days that didn’t look like that, and that day was like so everybody left the stadium, okay, we know who it is and we’re all a bunch of dumb asses if we don’t realize it.

“But the bigger picture, this is whatever, the 18th practice, I think, or 19th or something like that. So prior to that, Hank had had the lead. But it’s just illustrative of how this thing can go, or has gone and can go because it’s been back and forth since that time.”

The fact that the quarterback competition has lasted this long could be perceived in a number of ways, including that both quarterbacks have performed well enough to stay in the hunt, or that neither has performed well enough to separate from the other.

There is also always the chance that Ferentz and Lester already know who the starter will be, but just aren’t ready to reveal it publicly, though that seems unlikely.

Whatever the case, Iowa’s next starting quarterback will have never started a Big Ten game.

In fact, Brown is the only quarterback on the Iowa roster to start a game in college as he made two starts for Auburn in 2024. One of his starts went well, while the other didn’t.

Hecklinski appeared in two games for Iowa last season in mop-up duty, and he also took three snaps for Wake Forest as a true freshman in 2024.

Brown appeared in three games for Iowa last season, playing almost the entire fourth quarter against eventual national champion Indiana after starter Mark Gronowski was injured.

Brown struggled in the 20-15 loss to the Hoosiers at Kinnick Stadium, completing just 5-of-13 passes for 48 yards. He also threw one interception and missed a wide open receiver on a screen pass.

“We’re going to have to make a decision and whoever isn’t the guy just has to understand this is an ongoing competition and has got to be ready,” Ferentz said. “That’s true of every position, and obviously, quarterback is more of a focal point.”

As for Winter’s emergence at center, it has taken the Waukee native some time figures things out.

“He did a lot of good things in practice a couple years ago, but there wasn’t that consistency and I’m not sure he maybe understood the investment that you’ve got to make to really be good at this,” Ferentz said. It’s just kind of grown with every phase.

“He did well in the spring. But right now, he’s had a really good camp, really consistent and steady. The consistency in performance has really stood out. It’s a credit to him. You can tell he’s really wired in right now.”

With Winter now starting at center, preseason All-American Kade Pieper will shift back to right guard where he started all 13 games last season, earning third-team All-Big recognition.

Pieper was expected to start at center this season until Winter showed that he was capable of being the starter.

“Pieper, he can play center and that’s where he’ll be whenever he leaves here, I would think, at least that would be my call if I was in charge of that,” Ferentz said. “But (Pieper) is just having a good camp and he can play both.

“Cael can play both, too. But it just seems like he’s more comfortable at center. So we want to get the guys that are probably going to be the most efficient. And right now, if we were playing tomorrow it would be Cael (at center) and then Pieper at right guard.”