Iowa started the game with Junior QB Hank Brown for the first three drives. To say the offense was explosive is an understatement. Explosive isn’t how you would describe the Hawkeye offense in the 2020s, but against NIU, they were. On the first drive, Brown connected with new weapon WR Tony Diaz three times. It ended with a passing touchdown to him from roughly 4 yards. The biggest story to look at when talking QBs was Hank Brown outperforming Jeremy Hecklinski.
Photo Cred: Hawk Central
The final stats ended with Brown going 12/20 passing for 129 yards and a touchdown. Hecklinski ended with a more inefficient 7/16 passing for 76 yards, a touchdown, and an interception in the red zone. The connection with Tony Diaz felt more comfortable with Brown rather than Hecklinski, but there could still be split reps throughout this next week going into Cy-Hawk week. The best stat of either QB comes in a 40-0 win against NIU.
After the game Kirk Ferentz shared his thoughts on the game:
So, starting out, really pleased and proud of the team. Pleased about the outcome and then certainly proud of the team. I think they really did a good job today. Certainly showed up and played hard and they competed, but they handled the heat, and that was pretty extensive out there, just like you guys had to deal with it as well.
Photo Cred: Hawk Central
The bigger picture: I thought they did a good job with the preparation all week, and that showed up today. We had heat to deal with all week, too. That wasn’t so good on Tuesday, but they bounced back, came back Wednesday, and put a good day out there. I think that showed up today, so happy about that. It is good to get the win. Every game, that’s the goal.
