There would've been a lot of tough questions for Kirk Ferentz had his team lost at home to Iowa State as a two-touchdown favorite, but the Hawkeyes managed to do just enough to get out of town with a 16-13 victory over the Cyclones at Kinnick Stadium. 

Every question in the postgame press conference was positive after Caden Buhr's field goal sailed through the uprights in the closing seconds, but just as we do every Monday morning, it's time to share three questions we have about Iowa football. 

Here we go. 

This is again the obvious question, but it has to surface here. CBS Sports reported on Friday afternoon that Iowa would start Hank Brown and then throw Jeremy Hecklinski in later in the game, but that wasn't the case, as Brown held the starting job for the entire game and turned in an efficient performance. 

Northern Iowa is just as bad, if not worse than Northern Illinois, so one would wonder if Kirk Ferentz returns to the rotations he used in Week 1 to allow the quarterback battle to play out cleanly. That may be a logical choice, but considering how far Brown is ahead of Hecklinski at this point, the Hawkeyes may be wise to keep Brown as the starter to build momentum for the Big Ten opener at Michigan in two weeks. 

Punt returner was a glaring hole for Iowa entering the year, but there seemed to be one name that was pegged to fill the void in 2026 - defensive back Zach Lutmer. Ferentz was asked about the open spot during his media days press conference on Aug. 14, and he said that if Iowa were to play a game that weekend, he would put Lutmer back there. 

Lutmer was returning punts during the Kids' Day scrimmage the following day, but he hasn't returned a single punt so far this season. Ferentz did say Lutmer was battling a minor injury, so it could be a precautionary move, but the Hawkeyes haven't found a ton of success with Reece Vander Zee and Evan James so far. 

Iowa could be waiting to give a fully-healthy Lutmer the role by the time Big Ten play rolls around, but it's something to monitor. 

This is probably a stupid question considering I was just questioning a special teams issue before, but the Hawkeyes have been very impressive in this area through the first two games of the year - especially against Iowa State. 

Punter Boston Everitt has only played two games of American football, but you wouldn't have known that on Saturday. It's unfair to compare him to Tory Taylor, but he was consistently flipping the field with his booming punts, with two landing inside the 10-yard line. 

But the real story of the night is Caden Buhr. The walk-on had a rough start to his Hawkeye career but has looked calm and collected ever since, and he nailed a 42-yard field goal in the final seconds to win the game for Iowa. Buhr had big shoes to fill when he was tapped to replace Drew Stevens (also a former walk-on), but he's delivered for the Hawkeyes so far. 

New special teams coordinator Chris Polizzi is off to a strong start. 

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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at [email protected]