Brown is competing with Jeremy Hecklinski 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. 10 and we're 10 days until kickoff, that's the player we're going to be taking a look at.
Since no college football team issues a jersey number for every single number 1-100, we've had to mix things up with some creative pieces on topics such as College GameDay's potential return to Iowa City and recent Iowa games played on Halloween.
We're now into the single digits, folks. Today marks just nine days until kickoff, so that means it's time to take a look at a familiar face that has dominated most of the offseason discussions that wears No. 9 - quarterback Hank Brown.
Brown is still competing with Jeremy Hecklinski for the starting job, and though you've probably consumed a lot of information on him here and on other sites, get to know his background here.
Bio
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
High School: Lipscomb Academy
Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 215 pounds
Other notable players to wear No. 9: A notable Hawkeye to wear No. 9 is former safety Tyler Sash. Sash played for Iowa from 2007-2010, where he became a star player, starting the final 34 games of his career and collecting 13 interceptions, which ranks fith-best in Hawkeye program history. After a brief NFL career with the New York Giants, Sash moved back to his hometown of Oskaloosa, Iowa, where he tragically passed away in 2015. It was later revealed that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) from head injuries sustained during his football career.
Brown's Career So Far
While Hecklinski doesn't have any previous starting experience to lean on, Brown does. He began his career for Hugh Freeze's Auburn Tigers, where he earned a pair of starts early in the 2024 season.
Brown's first career start was a good one. He went 17-for-25 for 235 yards and four touchdowns in a 45-19 victory over New Mexico, but he wasn't able to carry that over to his next start against Arkansas. He was benched in favor of Payton Thorne after throwing three interceptions in the first half of the 24-14 loss, and never played for the Tigers again.
Brown transferred to Iowa ahead of its Music City bowl prep in December, and was named the backup quarterback to Mark Gronowski ahead of the 2025 season. Brown threw his first career touchdown pass in a Week 3 win over UMass, but his 2025 campaign was most remembered for a play he didn't make.
Gronowski was injured in the fourth quarter of a tightly-contested contest against eventual champion Indiana in September, which forced Brown into action. The Hawkeyes were a first down away from getting themselves into position to win the game, but Brown's third down screen pass was rushed and fell incomplete. Iowa missed the ensuing field goal, and Indiana won the game.
Brown also major appearance in front of the fans wasn't a good one, either. He went 9-of-21 for just 42 yards and no touchdowns at Kids' Day, and that could prove to be a factor as this quarterback battle goes down to the wire.
Brown is a pocket passer, which is the style of quarterback Iowa has employed for much of the Kirk Ferentz era. He's got a strong arm and pretty good speed for a 6-foot-4 guy, and if he can make some minor tweaks to his game (footwork is a main concern for him), there's no reason why he can't succeed in Iowa City.
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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]
