Hecklinski is competing with Hank Brown to be Iowa's next starting quarterback.
Welcome back to our countdown to the 2026 Iowa football season!
Since May 28, we've been counting down the final 100 days until the Hawkeyes swarm out of the Kinnick Stadium tunnel for their season opener against Northern Illinois on Sept. 5.
Each day of the countdown has primarily featured an article profiling one of the current members of the 2026 Hawkeyes based on their jersey number. Loyal readers already know this, but in case you're new, here's how this works: if a player wears No. 14 and we're 14 days until kickoff, that's the player we're going to be taking a look at.
Since no college football team issues a jersey from 1-100, we've had to mix things up with some innovative pieces on those off days, but that's not going to be the case anymore since we're under two weeks until the season.
Today marks 10 days until kickoff, so that means it's time to take a look at a familiar face that has dominated most of Iowa's offseason headlines and wears No. 10 - quarterback Jeremy Hecklinski.
Hecklinski is still competing with Hank Brown for the starting job, and though you've probably consumed a lot of information on him already, get to know his background here.
Bio
Hometown: Marietta, Georgia
High School: Walton High School
Year: Third-Year
Height: 5-foot-11
Weight: 201 pounds
Other notable players to wear No. 10: Another recognizable Hawkeye to wear No. 10 happens to be a quarterback as well. That former quarterback is Nathan Chandler, who is best remembered by Iowa fans for leading the 2003 squad to a 10-3 record and No. 8 final ranking. Chandler threw for 2,040 yards and 18 touchdowns that year.
Hecklinski's Career So Far
Ever since the 2025 season ended, we all knew the next starting quarterback of the Iowa Hawkeyes would be either Brown or Hecklinski. Every answer Kirk Ferentz has given us since the spring was that the competition is either close or "cloudy" and though we're only 10 days until kickoff, the Hawkeyes haven't given any indication of who they're going to trot out there on opening day.
If the winner of this race is Hecklinski, then his strong performance at Kids' Day on Aug. 15 may be the reason why. Both quarterbacks struggled to begin the day, but Hecklinski went on a heater after shaking the rust off, completing 17 of his 25 passes for 205 yards and five touchdowns.
The "gunslinger" mentality that we've heard about all offseason was very present during that scrimmage, as Hecklinski wasn't afraid to throw the football in tight windows. He plays with a level of confidence that we haven't seen from an Iowa quarterback in some time, and the dual-threat ability could be the perfect recipe for fixing this inconsistent passing attack once and for all.
Hecklinski doesn't have any starting experience across his tenure at Wake Forest and last year with the Hawkeyes, but he did emerge as the backup quarterback midway through the season and scored his first career touchdown against Minnesota (a six-yard rush).
Will that carry him to the starting job? We'll soon find out.
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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]
