By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said the same thing on Tuesday that he said last Wednesday, and that the depth chart said this past Monday: the competition between Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski at quarterback still is too close to call and will now have to be settled during the season.

No. 22 Iowa will face Northern Illinois in the season opener on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

The weather is expected to be hot and muggy, so maybe it’ll be beneficial having two quarterbacks in the game plan, though that isn’t factoring in to Ferentz’s decision.

Based on how Ferentz tells it, this just comes down to neither quarterback creating any separation in preseason practice.

That isn’t necessarily a bad thing since Ferentz actually seems pleased with how both quarterbacks have performed in practice so far.

“I think we’d all probably prefer to know who’s one, who’s two and who’s three at all positions, but all that being said, you just never know until you start playing seasons,” Ferentz said. “The most important thing is just trying to get it right and realizing that it is a fluid process.

“Sometimes, those gaps are pretty clear and pretty easy to see, and then other times they’re not. You just have to go with you gut sometimes, too. And that doesn’t mean it’s always going to be right. You’re never 100 percent right when you’re making personnel decisions.”

Ferentz will ultimately have to choose a starter, and he might wait until Friday morning to make that decision.

Ferentz said Tuesday that Brown and Hecklinski would continue to share reps in practice, even with the season opener just days away.

That isn’t usually how it goes, unless the competition is too close to call, as in this case.

Whichever quarterback gets picked to start on Saturday might have an advantage simply from having the first chance to show what he can do in game situations.

The goal for whomever starts on Saturday should be to play so well that it makes no sense to substitute.

That still won’t stop Ferentz from playing both quarterbacks because they both have earned the right to play, and to win or lose the job in game situations.

Ferentz once again brought up how Chuck Hartlieb climbed from No. 3 quarterback to the starter early in the 1987 season by outperforming his competition when it mattered the most in games.

Ferentz might be waiting for that to happen in this case.

“We wouldn’t have been to this point if it weren’t that close,” Ferentz said. “It’s probably going to be inconsequential who starts the game. What’s going to be more important is what happens once these games start and once the guys are actually out there playing.”

There is also maybe a downside to being the starter, which is the risk of being the first to fail or to struggle in prime time.

It took Ferentz until the fifth game in 2008 to finally make Ricky Stanzi the full-time starter at quarterback over Jake Christenson, a decision that came after each had started two games.

The decision ultimately paid dividends as Iowa would go on to win 28 games over three seasons with Stanzi as the starter.

Brown and Hecklinski both were among a group of Iowa players that were made available to the media on Tuesday.

And while Brown arrived a few minutes before Hecklinski, don’t read anything into it.

Just like don’t read into Brown’s name being listed before Hecklinski’s name on the depth chart, because it clearly says on the depth chart that positions on the same line are ordered numerically.

There was this growing belief that Hecklinski had surged ahead in the competition based on how much better he performed in the Kids Day practice on Aug. 15 compared to Brown, who struggled throughout the practice.

Kirk Ferentz tried to downplay it afterwards with the media, saying it was just one practice, and even hinting that it wasn’t a true indication of how close the competition still was at quarterback.

Brown used his struggles at the Kids Day practice as motivation moving forward. He wanted to show his teammates and coaches that he was able to move on from a tough practice.

“I think fall camp overall was solid,” said, Brown, who transferred from Auburn prior to to last season. “I think Kids Day was a tough day for me. But I think being able to be resilient after Kids Day and come back from that and just learn how to continue to face adversity; at the quarterback position, that’s going to happen. It’s not always going to go smooth so learning how to come back from that and show my teammates and coaches that I’m resilient.

“I think it was an up-and-down fall camp. But I think I grew a lot in it.”

Hecklinski has tried to live in the moment, treating each day, and each practice, as another chance to try to win the job.

The Wake Forest transfer was encouraged by his performance in the Kids Day practice, but he certainly didn’t dwell on it.

“It makes you feel good when you go out there and perform like that,” Hecklinski said. “But you’ve got to continue to grind every day. You just show up and work.”

Hecklinski isn’t sure what to expect on Saturday as far as splitting reps with Brown.

“We don’t really know who’s going to be out there on the field on Saturday.” Hecklinski said. “We know scheme and stuff like that.

“But me and Hank are just preparing for whoever is going to play and have each other’s back.”