Hank Brown played very well, 70% completion, no INTs. Buhr was great

uihawk82 · Sep 12, 2026

Brown is likely our QB, steady, threw a great long ball to Diaz, made most of the passes and can get better.

Our front 4 got pushed around and our OLine took over in the 2nd and 4th qtrs so that helped.

Buhr did it, very solid and a great save on the snap of the last FG.

Diaz is exciting and I want to see Evan James iirc more in the passing game

MeetTheFerentzes · Sep 12, 2026

Hank finally has a W as a starter against a P4 program. Big first step.

Next big step will be his first career road start, which will be in the Big House. Hopefully he'll get his first road win and first B1G win that day.

MAKhawks · Sep 12, 2026

It’s still way too early but he looks like another game manager in the Kirk Ferentz system. IMO, that’s not a good thing.

iahawkeyes17 · Sep 12, 2026

I’m a Lester fan but tonight not one of his better games. Especially on 1st down. We played into ISU’s hand and to their credit their front 4 or 7 out played us. Combined with some bad penalties by us on 1st like first drive or dotzler hold.

2D · Sep 12, 2026

Hank stares down his guy all the time. Terrible habit.

DuddyB · Sep 12, 2026

I don’t know what to say other than this game literally never makes sense. I am mostly disappointed how listless out run blocking was. Utterly pathetic. Play calling didn’t help but it was pathetic how badly outplayed they were. Not a single run longer than 7 yards. 7 yards!!! Pathetic

IowaCityLit · Sep 12, 2026

Stop. Just stop. Iowa has suffered so long without a good QB that fans are deluded into thinking Hank Brown is good.

It’s all ridiculous.

AFM22 · Sep 12, 2026

MeetTheFerentzes said:
Hank finally has a W as a starter against a P4 program. Big first step.

Next big step will be his first career road start, which will be in the Big House. Hopefully he'll get his first road win and first B1G win that day.

When asked to lead the O down to score with the game on the line HB, Moulton, and the OL delivered.

2-3 years ago that would have been a 3 and out and hope for a pick to get us into FG range.

AFM22 · Sep 12, 2026

IowaCityLit said:
Stop. Just stop. Iowa has suffered so long without a good QB that fans are deluded into thinking Hank Brown is good.

It’s all ridiculous.

It’s a little bit of that, for sure. Having a WR like Diaz helps a lot though. Been a while since we’ve had someone as dynamic as him.

The_Joker13_rivals · Sep 12, 2026

AFM22 said:
When asked to lead the O down to score with the game on the line HB, Moulton, and the OL delivered.

2-3 years ago that would have been a 3 and out and hope for a pick to get us into FG range.

This

TRHawkeye28 · Sep 12, 2026

Hank was fine IMO. You just need him to be average. Bessinger is the guy we are waiting for

Having the run game get stuffed until 7 minutes left in the 4th Q was the difference. We need the running game to be way better to put less pressure on Hank. Until we upgrade our QB (Bessinger)

AFM22 · Sep 12, 2026

TRHawkeye28 said:
Hank was fine IMO. You just need him to be average. Bessinger is the guy we are waiting for

Having the run game get stuffed until 7 minutes left in the 4th Q was the difference. We need the running game to be way better to put less pressure on Hank. Until we upgrade our QB (Bessinger)

Honestly surprised they didn’t try many screens. Just let Moulton run right at a stacked box

the24fan · Sep 12, 2026

play calling was trash tonight by Lester imo.
Hey let’s just run every first down….
Ridiculous..we play down to these posers every year and its just stupid at this point

BlIIlken2 · Sep 12, 2026

I don’t get the Hank bashing at all. He looked like he belonged back there. His misses were barely off. He didn’t make mistakes. To say he is nothing more than a KF game manager is ******** and people are hung up on old crap. He is miles ahead of what we have seen since Stanley. Pass game was a bright spot.

TRHawkeye28 · Sep 12, 2026

BlIIlken2 said:
I don’t get the Hank bashing at all. He looked like he belonged back there. His misses were barely off. He didn’t make mistakes. To say he is nothing more than a KF game manager is ******** and people are hung up on old crap. He is miles ahead of what we have seen since Stanley. Pass game was a bright spot.

We definitely keep upgrading our QB room which is what I wanted to see when TL came in. Still thinking Bessinger to be that QB we have all been waiting for

DuddyB · Sep 12, 2026

the24fan said:
play calling was trash tonight by Lester imo.
Hey let’s just run every first down….
Ridiculous..we play down to these posers every year and its just stupid at this point

Piss poor. No adjustments once it was obvious we couldn’t just bully them. Not having a single run longer than 7 yards is pathetic.

DuddyB · Sep 12, 2026

BlIIlken2 said:
I don’t get the Hank bashing at all. He looked like he belonged back there. His misses were barely off. He didn’t make mistakes. To say he is nothing more than a KF game manager is ******** and people are hung up on old crap. He is miles ahead of what we have seen since Stanley. Pass game was a bright spot.

Hank, Diaz, Buffington and Buhr were the only reasons we won tonight.

Timmyd6 · Sep 12, 2026

TRHawkeye28 said:
Hank was fine IMO. You just need him to be average. Bessinger is the guy we are waiting for

Having the run game get stuffed until 7 minutes left in the 4th Q was the difference. We need the running game to be way better to put less pressure on Hank. Until we upgrade our QB (Bessinger)

I felt like last week I was the only one that preferred Hecklinski. He seemed to go through his progressions much better and brown seems to lock in on his fist read and not come off it. Brown had the better running game and less drops. I guess Hecklinski must be really bad in practice as no way Brown won the entire game this week based on last Saturdays game.

BlIIlken2 · Sep 12, 2026

DuddyB said:
Hank, Diaz, Buffington and Buhr were the only reasons we won tonight.

Lot of key pieces for a team IMO

r_desihawk · Sep 12, 2026

brown didn’t crumble under pressure and that was the main thing we needed to see. he played well in my
book. play calling could’ve been better but that’s not his fault

Nvhwk · Sep 12, 2026

Missed some long passes that even connecting on one of them couldve made for an easier win.

DuddyB · Sep 12, 2026

r_desihawk said:
brown didn’t crumble under pressure and that was the main thing we needed to see. he played well in my
book. play calling could’ve been better but that’s not his fault

I was very worried about that. Biggest positive of the night, which honestly was what I thought was the biggest question mark.

Rambler Hawk · Sep 12, 2026

AFM22 said:
When asked to lead the O down to score with the game on the line HB, Moulton, and the OL delivered.

2-3 years ago that would have been a 3 and out and hope for a pick to get us into FG range.

Don't forget McNeal's awesome 7 yard run....that was huge.

Jonesy5960 · Sep 12, 2026

I don't really get the criticism of Brown tonight. He played well all things considered. How many Iowa QB's over the last 10 years have gone 21/30 for 190 yards in this game? Mark G was absolutely brutal last year going 13/24 with 1 interception for a grand total of 83 yards.

If you want to criticize the offense tonight most of that should be directed at the oline who got zero push all night long. They were completely dominated for most of the game.

Wobmam Rulez! · Sep 12, 2026

MAKhawks said:
It’s still way too early but he looks like another game manager in the Kirk Ferentz system. IMO, that’s not a good thing.

Explain why, I'll hang up and listen and critique if I disagree. CJ was considered a "game manager" , so was Bob Griese, who's in the hall of fame.

TRHawkeye28 · Sep 12, 2026

Timmyd6 said:
I felt like last week I was the only one that preferred Hecklinski. He seemed to go through his progressions much better and brown seems to lock in on his fist read and not come off it. Brown had the better running game and less drops. I guess Hecklinski must be really bad in practice as no way Brown won the entire game this week based on last Saturdays game.

IMO I don't think this year it matters who you throw out there. Both are average QBs but they are an upgrade over what we have had. It's progress.

We need to continue to improve the run game to put less pressure on Hank or Heck. They just aren't the QBs you can consistently rely on to take over a game with their passing. I think Bessinger is that guy tho

Wobmam Rulez! · Sep 12, 2026

2D said:
Hank stares down his guy all the time. Terrible habit.

Hopefully, that can be coached out to start your eyes opposite of the direction the pass is intended.

Wobmam Rulez! · Sep 12, 2026

IowaCityLit said:
Stop. Just stop. Iowa has suffered so long without a good QB that fans are deluded into thinking Hank Brown is good.

It’s all ridiculous.

Don't post the Titanic gif.

Rambler Hawk · Sep 12, 2026

uihawk82 said:
Brown is likely our QB, steady, threw a great long ball to Diaz, made most of the passes and can get better.

Our front 4 got pushed around and our OLine took over in the 2nd and 4th qtrs so that helped.

Buhr did it, very solid and a great save on the snap of the last FG.

Diaz is exciting and I want to see Evan James iirc more in the passing game

I'd say on the Petras / Stanley spectrum...he is definitely a hard lean towards Stanley....the play calling by Lester did him no favors tonight either.

Rambler Hawk · Sep 12, 2026

Wobmam Rulez! said:
Don't post the Titanic gif.

7thSummitCoach · Sep 12, 2026

Bottom line. With the game on the line late 4th quarter the Hawks drove and kicked the game winning FG. It’s been years since we have seen that.

Wobmam Rulez! · Sunday at 12:01 AM

7thSummitCoach said:
Bottom line. With the game on the line late 4th quarter the Hawks drove and kicked the game winning FG. It’s been years since we have seen that.

It's been 85 years.

Lionhawk85 · Sunday at 1:22 AM

He needs to fix his tendency to lock onto his primary WR and telegraph the throw. Deep out throws are dangerous as heII is he doesn’t fix that.

That said, he really had a nice game imo given the playcalling was very un-Lester-like bad tonight. Very little, if any play-action with the LBs and Safety’s playing downhill all night. Hank had nice looking deep balls (hey-O!) and ran damn hard as well. He also extended some plays and found Moulton as an outlet multiple times for positive gains that otherwise would have been wasted plays. And most importantly, no TOs in a game that would have been decided by one bad throw or lost ball.

I wish Lester would have exploited the middle of the field more with our TEs vs the LBs and S that were smashing the run.

MAKhawks · Sunday at 1:44 AM

Wobmam Rulez! said:
Explain why, I'll hang up and listen and critique if I disagree. CJ was considered a "game manager" , so was Bob Griese, who's in the hall of fame.

CJ was not a game manager. CJ was a playmaker. Gronowski turned out to be a playmaker. Stanley was probably a little mixture of both but more so a game manager.

I’m not sure going back 63 years to name Bob Griese was relevant. The game has changed quite a bit since Griese played.

A game manger will make low risk, generally low reward throws. A game manager won’t extend drives with their legs very often.

You’d be the first person Ive ever heard classify CJ Beathard as a game manager. To me, CJ was the exact opposite of a game manager.

MAKhawks · Sunday at 1:51 AM

Wobmam Rulez! said:
It's been 85 years.

I understand the reference, but Gronowski did it twice last year: PSU and MSU. Was a miracle catch for Oregon away from doing a third time.

WigPen · Sunday at 5:42 AM

What does everyone think about the bomb to Diaz in the second half of the game if my memory serves where the isu defender looked to have pulled Diaz away from the ball by his shoulder pad? Was that not a missed pass interference and should have been one more long completion. I think even the commentators mentioned the missed call after the replay.

Hopefully our qb uses this game to forge his character so to speak, along with Buhr. Should be a confidence boost for the rest of the season for both of them even if we were supposed to dominate on paper. Wish we did but this game is almost always a clusterfuck for some reason.

UndercoverHawk · Sunday at 7:33 AM

Wobmam Rulez! said:
Hopefully, that can be coached out to start your eyes opposite of the direction the pass is intended.

He’s in his 4th year of college. If he hasn’t figured it out by now he never will

Kirbs · Sunday at 7:37 AM

Brown wasn’t the problem. The Hawks were just beat up and pushed around in the trenches. It was really disappointing especially by the OL since there are supposed to be 2 nfl early round draft picks playing

AFM22 · Sunday at 8:43 AM

Wobmam Rulez! said:
It's been 85 years.

The Big Z · Sunday at 8:52 AM

Lionhawk85 said:
He needs to fix his tendency to lock onto his primary WR and telegraph the throw. Deep out throws are dangerous as heII is he doesn’t fix that.

That said, he really had a nice game imo given the playcalling was very un-Lester-like bad tonight. Very little, if any play-action with the LBs and Safety’s playing downhill all night. Hank had nice looking deep balls (hey-O!) and ran damn hard as well. He also extended some plays and found Moulton as an outlet multiple times for positive gains that otherwise would have been wasted plays. And most importantly, no TOs in a game that would have been decided by one bad throw or lost ball.

I wish Lester would have exploited the middle of the field more with our TEs vs the LBs and S that were smashing the run.

This all the way. As the announcers said we were outmanned in the run game. They had no respect for the passing game so were just playing downhill. We didn’t make them pay for it at all. How many catches for the tight ends? They were committed to stopping the run and they certainly did it. I thought Brown looked pretty solid.

Hank Brown played very well, 70% completion, no INTs. Buhr was great

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