EA Sports’ “College Football 27” is almost here, and Iowa fans will get a first look at how the game sees the Hawkeyes’ quarterback situation.
The good news for Iowa is that the roster looks loaded in a few key spots. The offensive line has talent, the running back room is solid, and the tight end group includes one of the best at the position in the game. The question mark sits right where it does in real life: quarterback.
Iowa is expected to go with either Hank Brown or Jeremy Hecklinski next season, and neither has started a game for the Hawkeyes yet. That lack of experience showed up in the game’s Big Ten quarterback ratings, where Iowa landed at the bottom of the list.
Here’s how the conference’s starting quarterbacks were ranked in “College Football 27,” from top to bottom:
Dante Moore (Oregon) - 95 overall
Julian Sayin (Ohio State) - 94 overall
Jayden Maiava (USC) - 92 overall
Demond Williams Jr. (Washington) - 88 overall
Josh Hoover (Indiana) - 88 overall
Rocco Becht (Penn State) - 88 overall
Anthony Colandrea (Nebraska) - 87 overall
Nico Iamaleava (UCLA) - 87 overall
Colton Joseph (Wisconsin) - 84 overall
Bryce Underwood (Michigan) - 83 overall
Katin Houser (Illinois) - 83 overall
Malik Washington (Maryland) - 82 overall
Drake Lindsey (Minnesota) - 81 overall
Aidan Chiles (Northwestern) - 80 overall
Dylan Lonergan (Rutgers) - 77 overall
Alessio Milivojevic (Michigan State) - 75 overall
Ryan Browne (Purdue) - 75 overall
Jeremy Hecklinski (Iowa) - 71 overall
Hank Brown (Iowa) - 69 overall
For now, Iowa sits with the weakest quarterback setup in the Big Ten in the game. The hope for Hecklinski and Brown is simple: force EA Sports to revisit those numbers once the season gets going.
There’s plenty of room to climb. The only thing left is proving it on the field when the season begins in a few months.
In Other News...
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The bigger question is how much that ranking really matters in Iowa City, where Kirk Ferentzs staff has never relied on splashy recruiting alone to stay competitive. The Hawkeyes have leaned more heavily on the transfer portal to balance the roster and have shown they can still patch together a capable team even when the high school class is slow to build, but the current pace leaves plenty of room for concern until the next wave of commitments arrives. [Read more 🡒]
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Instead, Harris is now headed to the University of Iowa after Ole Miss withdrew its scholarship offer, a stunning turn for a player who has kept competing while undergoing radiation treatment for a brain tumor. The move sends one of the states top prospects closer to home at a time when his athletic future has already been tested far beyond the usual recruiting drama, and it adds another layer to a story that has drawn attention well beyond the box scores. [Read more 🡒]