Kirk Ferentz warned everyone this could happen. Back in the offseason, he told On3 the Iowa quarterback competition might not get resolved before Week 1 — and here we are, days out from kickoff against Northern Illinois, with both names still sitting on the depth chart connected by an "OR."
Iowa quarterback battle remains undecided. Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski are listed with OR on the depth chart. Kirk Ferentz told @On3 this offseason that competition could carry into the season. t.co/9jtBT2tQzV
That's not a coach being coy. Iowa's first official depth chart of 2026 genuinely lists Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski as co-starters, per Pete Nakos. No lean, no tiebreaker, no incumbent tag — just two names and a slash.
The two QBs got here different ways. Brown transferred in from Auburn, where he threw in one game in 2023 and made two starts in four appearances in 2024; he's the classic pocket build at 6-foot-4, 215 pounds. Hecklinski came over from Wake Forest, where he took all of 3 snaps in 2024, and he's built like a different kind of quarterback entirely at 5-foot-11, 188 pounds, with the legs to escape and extend plays that Brown doesn't have.
Neither guy separated himself this spring, and by all accounts the summer competition stayed just as tight. Ferentz has stayed publicly even-keeled about it, praising both without tipping a hand — which either means Iowa genuinely can't decide, or the staff is happy to let a real 2-man race play out into the games themselves.
Whatever the plan is, it gets tested for real on Saturday, Sept. 5, when Iowa hosts Northern Illinois at Kinnick Stadium to open the season. Given how close the depth chart language is, don't be shocked if the Hawkeyes roll with a hot hand or even split reps early rather than hand one guy the job outright.
Ferentz has run quarterback competitions into the regular season before, but rarely with this little separation reported publicly. For a program that usually wins with a settled, low-mistake starter under center, an open QB battle in Week 1 is its own kind of statement about where Iowa's offense actually stands heading into 2026.