As Friday night’s game draws closer, Iowa quarterback Hank Brown is looking less and less likely to play against the University of Washington football team because of a strained shoulder suffered last week in a 31-14 loss at home to Ohio State.
On his Wednesday night radio show Hawk Talk, coach Kirk Ferentz seemed to intimate as much, saying this about Brown’s chances of playing against the Huskies, “It’s not great at this point.”
On Wednesday’s Big Ten availability report, the 6-foot-4, 218-pound signal-caller from Nashville, Tennessee, was listed as questionable.
Brown started the first five Iowa games while receiving his first real opportunity to play a lot of snaps in this his fourth season of college football, including time spent at Auburn. He has seven career game-opening assignments.
If Brown is out, Iowa (4-1 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) will turn to Jeremy Hecklinski, a third-year quarterback from Marietta, Georgia, who has not started at the college level and has thrown just 34 career passes, including his time previously spent at Wake Forest.
On his radio show, Ferentz offered the following breakdown if a change has to be made against the Huskies (3-2, 0-2): Hecklinski would become the starter, backed up by Jimmy Sullivan, a 6-foot-1, 205-pounder from Fort Wayne, Indiana, who’s in his second year, played in just three games and thrown 4 passes.
âHank hasnât done a lot. Itâs questionable; I think thatâs one of the categories that you can put players in. Bottom line is, Heck has practiced so far, so itâs a little bit of a tough thing. I think [Hank] will be cleared medically to play, but the issue is: is it a smart thing to do, and is it the best thing to do for him and for our team? Weâre the adults in the room, so we have to be thinking about making sure that weâre not putting him at risk and whatâs best for everybody. Right now, our mindset is that Heckâs got it, and Jimmy Sullivan is on deck. If Hank can get to that point by Friday night, then great, but we canât count on that.â
The Huskies, with just two sacks in their past two games, both Big Ten losses to Minnesota and USC, might be inclined to increase the pass-rush pressure on whoever the Hawkeyes put at quarterback this Friday.
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