Hecklinski at Bucky
- Thread starter Seth53
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Zstatman
Well-Known Member
There has been some press that Hecklinski has really impressed Lester during practices.
Another interesting aspect to his mop up time was that his one, two-yard completion was to Alex Eichmann. Other than his famous last name, I'd never heard of him. Turns out he's a junior from Wisconsin. I wonder if this is his one cup of coffee at Iowa?
Another interesting aspect to his mop up time was that his one, two-yard completion was to Alex Eichmann. Other than his famous last name, I'd never heard of him. Turns out he's a junior from Wisconsin. I wonder if this is his one cup of coffee at Iowa?
AreWeThereYet
Well-Known Member
Honestly, I wouldn't make a mountain out of a mole hill out of Hecklinski getting time. It's true garbage time at the very end of a blowout. Gronowski could have been taken out earlier, but he still needs repetitions badly.
This serves a few purposes. It keeps Hecklinski actively engaged. It signals to a transfer redshirt freshman that he's in the development pipeline.
Brown is a bit further along. Brown got his garbage time against Albany. He got a good stretch of productive playing- time against UMass. Then he got thrust into the biggest game, so far this year. Brown was doing single read stuff in practice. The resulting underwhelming performance, at the end of the hotly contested Indiana game, should be a surprise to no one. He just wasn't ready for that level of intensity.
This serves a few purposes. It keeps Hecklinski actively engaged. It signals to a transfer redshirt freshman that he's in the development pipeline.
Brown is a bit further along. Brown got his garbage time against Albany. He got a good stretch of productive playing- time against UMass. Then he got thrust into the biggest game, so far this year. Brown was doing single read stuff in practice. The resulting underwhelming performance, at the end of the hotly contested Indiana game, should be a surprise to no one. He just wasn't ready for that level of intensity.
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Kirk said in his post game news conference that Hecklinski had practiced well and passed Brown. My gut feeling is that this came from Lester, who really seems to like him. Kirk did say that it was still very close and not to make too much out of it. But I got the feeling that if Gronowski didn't play, Hecklinski would have gotten the start.
Fryowa
Administrator
I'll never be able to get jazzed about a 5'11" 180lb quarterback. The number pf people who've been successful at those measurements is extremely small. Aside from obvious height/reach issues, even if you can scramble you're going to get injured in the B1G at 180 lbs.
I'm pretty sure he isn't the guy, in 2025 college football Lester is going to be knocking on doors and kicking tires when the portal opens and there's going to be another million dollar man coming in as a JR/SR from somewhere else. The days of watching FR/SO quarterbacks as the future arm are over.
It takes away some of the excitement of watching current underclassmen, but adds some curiosity when it comes to portal time. Is what it is.
In the 2025 Big Ten world you aren't recruiting QBs as future players unless you're OSU/Oregon/Michigan, you're out there trying to find the best backups you can in case the stud grad transfer you just paid $2 million for a single season goes down with an injury.
I'm pretty sure he isn't the guy, in 2025 college football Lester is going to be knocking on doors and kicking tires when the portal opens and there's going to be another million dollar man coming in as a JR/SR from somewhere else. The days of watching FR/SO quarterbacks as the future arm are over.
It takes away some of the excitement of watching current underclassmen, but adds some curiosity when it comes to portal time. Is what it is.
In the 2025 Big Ten world you aren't recruiting QBs as future players unless you're OSU/Oregon/Michigan, you're out there trying to find the best backups you can in case the stud grad transfer you just paid $2 million for a single season goes down with an injury.
HawkPowerlifter
Well-Known Member
Brown seems to be Lester's guy. Really talked him up. But both have been "very close" according to staff for QB2.
guffus
Well-Known Member
Well, now I am confused. Does Lester like Brown or Hecklinski? Or is it both or neither?
Yeah guys like Brown and Sullivan from last yr that are 6'3-6'4 215 plus lbs seems to be what's needed nowadays. We don't necessarily need guys who can throw the ball through a wall we've had those and if anything they are a detriment if they can't take something off of it. But guys who can run a little and take a hit from these big fast strong defenders.
If this Hecklinski kid pans out he's gonna have to be all kinds of special and good at keeping himself from taking many hits. I couldn't tell you of another QB as small as him currently playing he's gotta be damn near the smallest. You won't find many DBs 180ish or so nowadays either. That's on the small side for them too. Next yr is next yr but how the QB battle shakes out will be pretty interesting.
Sounds like both are his guys and week to week one inches ahead of the other. It feels and sounds like they are pretty close and it'd be a coinflip between them on if MG can't go which one they'd go with.
HawkPowerlifter
Well-Known Member
He really talked Brown up over the summer. Spoke about making a lot of progress grasping the offense, but as we know, results or progress week to week is how they are going to evaluate.
Fryowa
Administrator
Isn't going to matter. Iowa is going to go get another QB from the portal to be the guy just like they did with Cade Crapnamara and Gronowski.
Fryowa
Administrator
I'm sure Hecklinski is a great kid but he's no Russell Wilson or Doug Flutie.
Please be to the lord that they don't do that again next yr. Surely the hell they'll go with Brown or Hecklinski and not do that. I haven't heard do we have a freshman for next yr committed I'm pretty far behind on football recruiting atm.
We have Jimmy Sullivan and Pat Fitzgeralds kid that are freshman atm too. No clue if either of them could be worth throwing out there by next yr.
All that being said the other X factor is who amongst the QB room is going to leave? Brown and Hecklinski both transfered in so we can't put it past them that they'd both leave again if they think they see greener grass.
As fun as it is to try and look ahead it's also Fn impossible to do so with much confidence in knowing anything. We're all just guessing on what's gonna happen. The QB rooms are a total crapshoot yr to yr. Not to mention we have the ultimate X factor of all X factors in will KF even be coaching next yr.
Fryowa
Administrator
I'd like that to be true but it ain't, IMO. QB is so important that I don't know how you can afford to send a sophomore out there with nothing but garbage snaps in the Big Ten.
It's imperative that you keep up with the Joneses in this league and IMO there should be $3 million earmarked every year for a portal QB when the current one graduates. There's just no room for gambling on an underclassman anymore.
I don't like it any more than anyone else, but it's like doping in sports. I don't fault it a bit because when everyone else is doing it what choice do you have other than fall out of relevance?
A lot of truth in this post. It's clear that Lester likes both Brown and Hecklinski, and KF seems to agree. These days if you want to keep QB backups from transferring you have to play them a little, just to give them hope for the future at their current location. Brown got his chance vs Indiana, and the Wisky game was a great opportunity to give a young kid some game time in a totally low-pressure environment.
If Gronowski goes down in the Penn St. game, I would still expect Brown to be next guy in.
Competely agree. Some systems are well-suited for smaller QBs -- NWestern's Fitzgerald had some shorter QBs who fit their system -- but Iowa has always made their QBs primarily throw out of a standard pocket and has never been small-QB friendly. Over the years several smaller QBs have committed to Iowa, and I always wondered why? There was near zero chance they would be successful in Iowa's system. And they all ended up transferring out after a couple years.
Lester's schemes may be slightly different, but all of Fry's points in this post are right on.
Fryowa
Administrator
It really is much ado about nothing. If either of those guys is playing meaningful snaps it means something has gone very, very wrong and there are much bigger fish to fry anyway.
Also, there's portal shopping that's going to happen at the end of the season anyway so they aren't going to see a starting job anyway after MG leaves.
