Iowa walked out of Kinnick Stadium with a win over its in-state rival, but the bigger takeaway may have been what the night said about the Hawkeyes themselves. They are young in a lot of spots, and Saturday gave them the kind of test that reveals a little more about who they are right now.
“It provides a real growing and learning experience for our guys,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “We're fairly young in a lot of areas right now, so you have to fight through one like this, it's going to be a good thing for us. And certainly great to get a trophy back in the case there.”
The quarterback situation remained the main storyline, and this time Hank Brown handled the job from start to finish. Brown earned his second career start as a Hawkeye and finished 21 of 30 for 191 yards, added a rushing score, and avoided the kind of turnover that can flip a game. Iowa had planned to use both Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski, but the game unfolded differently.
“We went into it as I said pretty consistently and told the TV folks yesterday, the plan was to play both of them,” Ferentz said when asked about the quarterbacks. “We're totally comfortable doing that. And then you get into a game and you just kind of play the situation, if you will.”
Brown had to do it against heavy pressure from Iowa State, which made life difficult for the offense all night. Iowa finished with 93 rushing yards on 27 carries, and the Cyclones showed a variety of fronts the Hawkeyes weren’t ready for. That was part of the challenge of facing a team with one game of tape and 83 new players on the roster.
The offense never found a clean rhythm early. After Iowa scored touchdowns on its first three drives in Week 1, it went scoreless through its first four possessions here.
Brown had just missed Tony Diaz on a post route on the previous series before the Hawkeyes finally broke through. Trailing 10-0, Brown hit Diaz for a 56-yard gain and then scored on the ground.
“They made it rough on him, too,” Ferentz said of Brown. “But I thought he stayed in there and came up with some big plays.
Certainly, the big pass play to Tony gave us a real spark there in the first half. But I thought he had good composure out there.
He kept everybody in good shape and made some good plays in the running game. Just showed real toughness.”
“Happy for him. And we still believe in Jeremy, too, and we'll assess it week by week and go from there. But nothing other than, he was doing a good job and it was just one of those games.”
Ferentz said Iowa will keep evaluating the position on a week-by-week basis. Hecklinski has drawn attention throughout the offseason, and the staff still has belief in what he can bring.
For Brown, there was at least a measure of redemption after last year’s Indiana matchup. Same score.
Same side of the field. This time, Iowa made the plays it needed to put itself in position to win, and Brown has spent this season stressing that he can move on and keep growing from what happened a year ago.
Ferentz backed that idea.
“I think he knows what I've tried to encourage everybody, the public and everybody else, to embrace is like any previous evidence, just throw it out, because it doesn't matter when you judge a young player, and young in his career, how he gets in,” Ferentz said. “That was a tough circumstance last year.
It didn't work out his way. The real story is what he's done since that time.
Jeremy's done the same thing. Both these guys have worked extremely hard, and I'll throw Jimmy in there, too.
They're all working hard. They're showing up and practicing well every day.”
“You have to if you're going to compete, you have to be able to move past that stuff. If you're going to carry that around, if it motivates you, great, but I mean, I think it does more harm than good.”
Brown has also been clear about understanding that he has 10 “studs” around him and doesn’t need to shoulder everything himself. Iowa’s offense still left plenty on the table, but Diaz has emerged as a clear WR1, and Brown looks like the leader in the clubhouse after taking every snap on Saturday. Whether Ferentz is ready to name him the starter this week, or wants to give Hecklinski one more shot before the Big Ten grind begins, remains to be seen.
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