Biggest Overreaction Surrounding Iowa Football Entering 2026

If we can't overreact about college football as the season nears its start, then what can we do? It makes the world go round, and it helps us survive the final dog days of summer.

But it can hit a point of being overdone; such is the case for the Iowa Hawkeyes, who are seeing one area of discourse come up over and over again: the quarterback competition.

Is Iowa's quarterback competition overblown?

The question for the Iowa Hawkeyes naturally has to be about the quarterback competition between Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski.

It's the most important position in sports, and the Hawkeyes do not have an answer yet as fall camp nears. Not knowing who will take the first snap in Week 1 is certainly a storyline that is worth the time of day, but Iowa is unique.

The Hawkeyes seem to be immune to quarterback play. Now, what do I mean by that? Let's dig into it a bit more.

While most teams' success is buoyed or sunk by their quarterback play, Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa Hawkeyes have proven that quarterback play can be more of a nice-to-have than a necessity.

Iowa wins regardless of the quarterback play

The quarterback play for the Iowa Hawkeyes since the start of the 2020s has been anything but stellar. In fact, it is among the worst in the power conferences, excluding Mark Gronowski giving Iowa's offense life in 2025.

Since 2021, Iowa has averaged 1,958 passing yards per season, or just over 163 yards per game. For context, that would be good for No. 119 in all of college football. Not great, right?

The average completion percentage over that same time period is 56.9%, with 50 touchdowns to 45 interceptions. Iowa isn't exactly lighting it up.

Even with that quarterback play, Iowa is 45-22 overall. This program has proven to be immune to questionable quarterback play.

This isn't saying Hecklinski or Brown are questionable choices for Iowa, but rather to show that the storyline of this team's success riding on one of their right arms is simply not the case.

Iowa's quarterback competition decides the ceiling

As we've shown, Iowa can win games regardless of the quarterback situation. The thing is, those wins top out at eight, nine, maybe 10 games in a year, leaving the Hawkeyes just short of a major goal: the College Football Playoff.

So, the perspective of this team's success riding solely on the quarterback competition is overblown, but knowing Iowa needs elevated quarterback play to take the next step as a program is a reality.

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