With presumed 2025 Iowa football starting quarterback Mark Gronowski out until June with a shoulder injury, spring practice has offered plenty of opportunities for some of the younger players in the room.
Enter second-year Hank Brown.
After playing sparingly at Auburn, Brown transferred to Iowa in December ahead of the Hawkeyes’ game against Missouri in the Music City Bowl. The sophomore wasn’t allowed to play in the contest, but NCAA rules did permit Brown to participate in bowl preparations. This loophole offered the young signal-caller a chance to learn offensive coordinator Tim Lester’s system.
In fact, it was a family connection that helped lure Brown to the Hawkeyes in the first place. Brown’s parents, Eric and Lesley, went to high school with Lester in Wheaton, Illinois. Once Brown left Auburn, he reconnected with Lester and soon found himself moving from the plains of Auburn, Alabama, to the cornfields of Iowa City.
“I love his coaching style, and like I’ve said, I love the system that he’s running, and just learning from him and being able to be with him daily,” Brown said. “And I just try and spend as much time as I can just learning his thought process and what he’s thinking on different plays, and you know how we can be different coverages.”
“Hank’s doing a great job right now,” Lester said at media availability on Wednesday. “He’s been the most efficient out there.”
Flash-forward to Saturday’s annual open spring practice, and Brown has settled into his new home. The departure of quarterback Brendan Sullivan to the transfer portal has resulted in Brown gaining valuable repetitions with the No. 1 offense, an experience that he has enjoyed.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to get some more reps and learn, and especially with this new system,” Brown said. “I love this system, and I think what we’re doing is gonna work. And so it’s been great to get all those reps and just learn from the best.”
Brown and the other young quarterbacks, Jackson Stratton and Jimmy Sullivan, exchanged 7-on-7 scrimmages throughout the morning. Brown unofficially completed 10 of his 19 passing attempts for roughly 100 yards, no touchdowns, and no interceptions. The highlight of his day was a beautifully thrown 20-yard pass on the run to standout wide receiver Kaden Wetjen, a play that earned some loud roars from the Kinnick Stadium faithful.
Good ball from Hank Brown here to Kaden Wetjen. pic.twitter.com/FjGuG4BQWL
— Brad Schultz (@BradMSchultz) April 26, 2025
The Hawkeye passing game has been an Achilles’ heel over the last four campaigns, totaling only 1711 passing yards in 2024. That number ranked ahead of only Michigan in the Big Ten and the fifth-worst in the entire nation. But if there was one trend during Saturday’s practice, it was Iowa’s willingness to let its young quarterbacks air it out downfield.
The 20-yard bomb to Wetjen was Brown’s only successful deep ball attempt of the morning, but Stratton and Sullivan each connected on passes to Reece Vander Zee and Dayton Howard, respectively.
“I think all phases of the game, our offense is capable of hitting, and so we hit some deep, deep balls and medium balls,” Brown said. “But whatever it takes we can, we can do it.”
Chemistry and confidence in the wide receiver room has also helped the unit grow as a whole. At this point last year, Iowa was only months into learning Lester’s system, but the group now has one season of experience under their belts.
Brown is still navigating Lester’s offense, but experienced wideouts Jacob Gill, Vander Zee, and others have made that process easier.
“He’s been doing a great job, third-year wide receiver Jacob Gill said. “Just from practice one to practice 15, he’s been going out there with a purpose, going out there and competing. So I’m excited to see what he can do this coming fall, and he’s done a great job this past spring.”
“That receiving room is really impressive,” Brown added. “They’ve done some great things this spring, and I think they’re going to dominate.”
Brown will likely enter the 2025 season as Gronowski’s backup, but that will not stop his confidence from increasing each day. Now that he is comfortable with the system, Brown has moved on to the next phase of his development – execution.
“Just taking that step of, okay, I’m not thinking about what we’re doing,” Brown said. “I’m thinking about what the people about what the defense is doing. I think that’s a big part of you know, getting the system ingrained in your minds where you can think about that.”