Iowa is Taking a Mixed Approach to Solving Its Quarterback Battle

There is no right or wrong way to solve a quarterback battle. Sometimes one guy separates himself from the pack; other times they stay neck and neck.

For better or worse, the Iowa Hawkeyes are amid a quarterback battle that is showing no signs of a clear-cut winner yet.

How Iowa is evaluating Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski

There's the eye test, which some trust more than output. Some coaches use nothing but the data. Kirk Ferentz and his staff are choosing to mesh the two together as they navigate the ongoing quarterback competition.

"Numbers are numbers, and they are important. I'm not diminishing that, especially protecting the football, being reckless with it. It doesn't always reflect drops or maybe dropped interceptions, things like that, or just terrible decisions."

"So we try to track all that stuff, and that's, I guess, where there's kind of a meshing of the statistics and all that, but also how you feel and believe in your eyes a little bit in terms of what you see and how other people are affected or impacted by that player being in there," Ferentz said of Iowa evaluating its quarterbacks.

Which quarterback does this evaluation help more?

The meshing of the two ways to analyze Hecklinski and Brown creates an intriguing situation where it may give one a better chance at the job than the other.

Jeremy Hecklinski is going to push the ball down the field more for the Hawkeyes. He wants to trust his arm, make the big play in the passing game, and move the ball quickly. With that, there is inherently more risk.

Kirk Ferentz, as evidenced by his comments, is very risk-averse when it comes to his quarterback play. Not only is he evaluating the quarterbacks on legitimate interceptions, but also on turnover-worthy plays, which could bubble up when the real games begin.

This is where Hank Brown might be able to close the gap on the quarterback competition. It is in his nature to take the completion and live to play another down. That's not a small thing in Iowa's style of play.

Now, what's right or wrong is another decision. Does Iowa want to be a team that pushes the ball downfield? That's Jeremy Hecklinski. Does Iowa want to be a team that controls the ball, is steady, and trusts its defense? That's Hank Brown.

As fall camp continues, the noise around the biggest decision facing the Hawkeyes this year is only going to grow.

Add us as a preferred source on Google