Spring ball has come and gone, but one thing that won't go away anytime soon: the starting quarterback battle.
Transfer QB Mark Gronowski had the position on lockdown all of last season, even after an injury against Indiana threatened the rest of the season. Backups Hank Brown and Jeremy Heklinski both received some snaps last season, with Hecklinski taking the reins later in the season.
Even though Hecklinski seemingly supplanted Brown as Iowa's backup last season, this offseason has shown that neither has jumped ahead of the other, with the competition still very much open. Regardless of who takes over under center next season, ESPN is far from confident in Iowa's QB situation.
Iowa's QB situation is cause for concern, ranking in ESPN's 15th tier
Both players got their fair share of opportunities with the first-team offense in the spring, and while Kirk Ferentz was pleased with them after spring ball, neither one separated himself. It is unknown whether that is truly because the coaching staff can't separate them or didn't want to reveal a decision, but the situation is very fluid.
Despite the coaching staff's belief that they have two solid options, ESPN is far less bullish on Iowa's outlook heading into next season.
Before the 2026 season kicks off in a few months, ESPN ranked all 138 quarterback situations, placing everyone into 25 different tiers based on their projected outlook. It is far too early to make any concrete determinations, but Iowa's outlook is less than desirable, according to ESPN's metric.
It doesn't matter to ESPN who is under center for the Hawkeyes next season; they ranked Iowa in Tier 15, which was labeled the "everyone gets lucky sometimes" tier. Their analysis is a two-fold shot at Iowa's QB situation, taking a dig at how poorly the position has performed in the past and the uncertainty surrounding it in the future.
Their decision was based on the idea that neither option is "marketably worse" than previous quarterbacks, and, considering the offense has been bad for a while, it has nowhere to go but up. Iowa was the only program in this tier that had two quarterbacks listed, and they were grouped with Arkansas, Boston College, Rutgers, and Wisconsin.
There is no doubt that Iowa was placed in this tier due to uncertainty, and while Kirk Ferentz and the program don't put too much stock in these early rankings, it does get people thinking about one of Iowa's weakest spots.
Hopefully, for the program and the fans, as the summer progresses, one of the two quarterbacks asserts himself and wins the job outright, because having two capable starters is worse than having one surefire option.
Iowa's starting quarterback has traditionally not mattered very much, thanks to the prowess of the run game, but with Tim Lester at the helm, he has attempted to make the offense much less one-dimensional. We have seen the progression over the past few years after a revolving door at QB in his first season and Mark Gronowski last season, but if the quarterback struggles, that limits what the offense can do.
The quarterback situation will remain a major headline for the program until the final decision is made, and this won't be the last time we hear about it before Iowa's first game on September 5.
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