It's safe to say Tim Lester knows the quarterback position quite well. 

As a player, Lester was a four-year starter for Western Michigan, where he threw for over 11,000 passing yards and 87 touchdowns and won MAC Freshman of the Year honors in 1997.

A brief arena football career followed before Lester entered the coaching profession, and that's where he's been ever since. A steady rise through the coaching ranks landed him back at his alma mater, where he served for six seasons before being let go after the 2022 season. 

After spending one season working with his old college teammate and Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFluer as Green Bay's offensive consultant, he moved to Iowa as its offensive coordinator.

The marriage has been a major success so far and has helped engineer the Hawkeyes to a 5-1 start in 2026, but the quarterback position continues to be a major question mark at the midway point of the season. 

Though Hank Brown won the starting job ahead of Big Ten play, Jeremy Hecklinski is making one final push to claim the job after an impressive outing against Washington on Oct. 9. 

Iowa only makes its coordinators available during the bye week, so Oct. 13 was the media's chance to hear Lester's thoughts on the quarterback situation. 

Here they are: 

When it became clear the quarterback battle would extend into the early portion of the season, the Hawkeyes employed a system similar to what baseball coaches use when they limit their pitchers to a pitch count. Instead of having Brown and Hecklinski start a whole game, Iowa would instead have Brown open the game with the first 2-3 possessions, with Hecklinski following suit. 

Brown ultimately emerged from the system as the starter, but don't assume the Hawkeyes are going to go back to that for the Minnesota game on Oct. 24. There haven't been any discussions yet because the main focus is getting Brown, who suffered an AC joint sprain against Ohio State, healthy again. Brown isn't fully cleared to return yet, but he has been throwing the ball in practice. 

If Iowa does opt to return to the pitch count system, Lester is confident he has two quarterbacks capable of leading the Hawkeyes to big things in 2026.

"We're going to have to figure out which one's going to get the first at-bat. We have two guys that have proven they can be efficient and help us win games," Lester said. 

While some Iowa fans may think they know Kirk Ferentz's decision-making process when it comes to selecting quarterbacks by now, Lester is only in year three with the program. He definitely had some input on Brown ultimately winning the starting job, but how does he evaluate these two quarterbacks and decide who starts? 

The answer comes from the math. When Lester goes back and watches the all-22 footage after a game, there's three things he's looking at: every scramble decision, every pass decision, and finally the percentages that come with the former two points - what Lester calls the "right point." 

"So, you grade by percentages of are they thinking the way you want them to think, right? And that's always the biggest thing because you're going to be out there in all different situations when things are going good or bad, I expect you to still make the next right decision, whether it's a check down or whether it's a throw away," Lester said. 

Lester will have more time to watch the film of all six games later in the week, but he remains pleased with how both quarterbacks have progressed. He praised Brown's ability to make smart decisions with the ball through the check downs and tweak small adjustments after halftime, while he says Hecklinski did a good job of running the play-action and RPO (run-pass-option) in the shotgun during the Washington game (the explosive performance on the ground had nothing to do with his presence, though). 

"But we'll go back and watch and evaluate each and every decision and figure out which guy gives us the best chance and the other one has to be ready because this is Division I college football. It's happening everywhere now," Lester said. "I feel very fortunate to have the guys we have."

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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]