Iowa football offensive coordinator shares how Hawkeyes develop QB room during the bye week

IOWA CITY — Sophomore quarterback Hank Brown jumped up from the benches instantly on the Hawkeye sidelines watching his teammate go down.

When starting signal caller Mark Gronowski left Iowa’s football game against No. 8 Indiana with an injury, Brown had mere minutes to get himself ready. The Hawkeyes offense took the field a few minutes later with Brown leading the group in a tie game.

Up in the press box, Iowa football offensive coordinator Tim Lester was opening up a file book he created specifically for Brown. Filled with plays the sophomore was comfortable with, Lester relied on that page for the first few play calls Brown had in a Big Ten game.

“I hope I don't ever have to open up that file, but I had to last week,” Lester said. “I had to open it up and take Hank's out just to see what his favorites were on the sheet. So you try to call a game to make the kid comfortable.”

The Hawkeyes have been heavily reliant on their South Dakota State transfer QB this season, and with little details on his status post-Indiana, Lester has been working with the quarterback room even more throughout the bye week.

As of Tuesday, Iowa’s offense ran over 50 plays in practice, but no first time players participated, Lester said. That meant Brown and redshirt freshman Jeremy Heckliniski has spent time have been knee-deep in reps during Iowa’s bye week this week.

Lester didn’t share any official update on Gronowski, other then describing the situation as “cloudy.” He also said an immediate update wasn’t needed, because Lester is focused on working on progressing his other players.

Lester has Gronowski, Brown and Hecklinski fill out that form of play calls, and it all sits in a file. Normally, Lester than takes the starting quarterback’s plays — in this case Gronowski — and builds his playbook from there. The files Brown and Hecklinski are set aside, until one of them steps onto the field.

Brown’s few minutes on the sideline were focused on him warming up his body and calming his mind. His teammates, still locked in on the Hoosiers, all did whatever they could to help Brown. From the sideline and on the field itself, the Hawkeyes knew the task Brown had and wanted to find a way to encourage him mid-game.

“Knowing how good of a leader Hank is,” running back Kamari Moulton said postgame against Indiana, “when Mark went out, we just knew that Hank could come in. He’s shown us plenty of times in practice that he could do it. So him going in, we just tried to keep him up and keep him motivated.”

Brown finished the game against Indiana 5-for-13 for passing yards and one interception. Throughout the season, he’s 11-for-21 with 107 passing yards, one passing touchdown and the long pick.

“He's a high caliber guy and he's been practicing really well,” head coach Kirk Ferentz said following the Indiana loss. “This is the experience that will help him as we move forward, too.”

Through the rest of the bye week, Lester’s goal is to keep working with Iowa’s second unit and developmental players. Though the Hawkeyes have dipped into their offensive depth five games into the season, Lester thrives working on the developmental side of football.

What happens heading into Wisconsin next week? That question will be answered when the time comes.

“This is a fun week for me to have those guys take a ton of reps and see where they're at,” Lester said. “These guys are getting a ton of reps this week, just to see the improvement we're going to need if he's in the game.”

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