By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – A growing narrative with Iowa fans is that third-year quarterback Jeremy Hecklinski has earned the opportunity to start the next game against Minnesota instead of Hank Brown.

Hecklinski has endeared himself to Hawkeye fans after making his first career start in last Friday’s 41-24 victory at Washington. The 2025 Wake Forest transfer passed for 202 yards and three touchdowns while replacing Brown as the starter.

Brown, who started the first five games, was available against Washington in an emergency after injuring his shoulder in the 31-14 loss to Ohio State, but there was no emergency against the Huskies in Seattle as Hecklinski played the entire game, and played well.

No. 17 Iowa (5-1, 2-1) is now in a bye week, so it’s reasonable to assume that Brown will be healthy for the Minnesota game on Oct. 24 in Minneapolis.

Assuming both quarterbacks are healthy, my prediction is that Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz will start Brown against the Gophers, and it would seem reasonable under the circumstances, no disrespect to Hecklinski.

It just doesn’t seem fair for Brown to lose his starting position after missing one game due to an injury.

Some Iowa fans, and maybe a lot of them, would disagree, and fair enough.

Hecklinski certainly rose to the occasion against Washington, showing that he can play winning football, and he did so with some moxie that appeals to fans.

But the circumstances were incredibly advantageous for Hecklinski as Iowa rushed for 262 yards, while Washington’s pass defense was borderline inept with players repeatedly out of position, including on all three of Hecklinski’s touchdown passes in which the receiver was wide open.

Brown, meanwhile, led Iowa to a 20-19 come-from-behind victory against Michigan in the Big House where Iowa had won just twice under Kirk Ferentz.

Brown led Iowa on a 91-touchdown drive in the final two minutes and capped the drive by throwing a 16-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Reece Vander Zee as time expired.

Brown made close to a perfect throw on the touchdown pass and he also passed for 142 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter alone.

How quickly we forget.

The fact that Brown has made five starts this season works for and against him.

He’s 4-1 as the starter, but he also didn’t do much against Iowa State or the Buckeyes, whereas Hecklinski completed all five of his passes in the fourth quarter against Ohio State for 67 yards.

But in fairness, Brown didn’t have the support of a productive rushing attack in either game, whereas Hecklinski was the beneficiary of a potent ground game against Washington that stayed ahead of the chains. Hecklinski also entered the Ohio State game with Iowa trailing 31-6 and with Ohio State playing mostly in a prevent defense, and with some reserves.

To say that Brown deserves to start the next game doesn’t mean that Hecklinski should be handled like most other backup quarterbacks have been handled under Kirk Ferentz.

Ferentz has been loyal and patient with his starting quarterbacks over the years, some fans will say too loyal and too patient.

He also doesn’t like using two quarterbacks in a game, so the backup often spends most of the time on the sideline.

Hecklinski deserves more than that just from what we’ve seen on the field, and from what we’ve been told about his competition with Brown; that it was too close to call throughout spring practice, throughout preseason practice and for at least one game this season.

If Brown were to struggle in the first series or two against the Gophers, then put in the 5-foot-11, 201-pound Hecklinski and see if his supporters are right about the Georgia native being better at working through his progressions, better at RPOs and better at seeing the open receivers.

Ricky Stanzi ultimately won the job over Jakes Christensen four games into the 2008 season, and despite Christensen having started every game in 2007.

They both started two games in 2008 before Ferentz chose Stanzi, who would go on to start the final nine games, and was also the starter in 2009 and 2010 when healthy.

In that case, Ferentz made the right choice after letting it play out on the field.

Hecklinski transferred to Iowa from Wake Forest in 2025 with a reputation as sort of a gunslinger who isn’t afraid to take chances with how he played quarterback.

But that reputation apparently came from high school since Hecklinski hasn’t played enough in college to make any judgments.

Brown is perceived by some fans as being the safer option apparently because they believe he takes fewer risks as a passer, much to the delight of Kirk Ferentz, whereas Hecklinski will take chances downfield, much to the delight of fans.

Kirk Ferentz has an interesting situation unfolding at quarterback in that he has two quarterbacks that have shown they can win at this level, but right now, the backup is the hot commodity, partly because of how Hecklinski performed against Washington, but also because some fans just seem convinced that he is the best option.

Hecklinski seems to have  caught the imagination of Hawkeye fans.

He certainly helped his cause by clearly out-performing Brown did at the Kids Day practice in mid-August, but it still wasn’t enough to give Hecklinski the edge with Kirk Ferentz, much to the dismay of some Iowa fans.

Brown seems to have had the upper hand once the season started; considering he played from start to finish against Iowa State and Michigan, and for the first three quarters against Ohio State before being injured. But other than the fourth quarter against Michigan, Brown hasn’t really really done anything overly impressive, and he struggled against the Buckeyes.

He completed all 12 of his passes against Northern Iowa for 153 yard and two touchdowns, but it came in a 55-0 mismatch, and against a vastly inferior FCS opponent.

So again, Hank Brown shouldn’t be demoted.

But Jeremy Hecklinski also shouldn’t be relegated to just another seldom-used backup under Kirk Ferentz.

Hecklinski deserves a chance to win or lose the job on the field.