Let the season begin, Hawkeyes open 2026 football season vs Northern Illinois

When date flips to September 5 this weekend, it will have been about 246 days, 5,902 hours, 354,180 minutes, or 21,250,800 seconds since the last Iowa Hawkeye football gameday. Though that was not quite enough time to decide the Hawkeye's quarterback battle between Jeremy Hecklinski and Hank Brown, the expectation to win, a lot, is still on Kirk Ferentz and his Hawkeyes. Ferentz's 28th year as head coach and the 2026 season starts with Northern Illinois on Saturday at 3:15 pm in Kinnick Stadium.

"When football season's here, the world is great," beamed LJ Phillips, a 4th year running back for the Hawkeyes.

While the ultimate goal is to win the first game of the season. The Hawkeyes are hoping to find clarity about their team, specifically at quarterback. All 70,000 people will have their eyes set on Hank Brown or Jeremy Hecklinski, eager to see what they bring to the table. For Hecklinski, he will look to back up his phenomenal Kid's Day performance. For Brown, it will be his first time in a sold out Kinnick Stadium since the loss versus last year's national champion, Indiana.

Players and coaches are adamant that the offense can be successful no matter which quarterback is in.

"The whole identity of the offense is really just the players, it doesn't matter who's in there," said third year Hawkeye tight end DJ Vonnahme. "With either one, we're all tough, we're all being physical."

Nine starters on the offense have been in Tim Lester's system all three years he's been at the helm of the offense. It will be Lester's most experienced team when it comes to understanding the playbook. His Kyle Shanahan style scheme is notably a tough one to learn, but as many have proven from the Shanahan coaching tree, it scores a lot of points. Lester has already nearly doubled the teams' points per game when compared to the season prior to his arrival.

"I definitely feel like this camp definitely had a little more of a jump than the previous camps I was in," said Vonnahme. "So yeah, I think it's just exciting to see how far we can really take this thing."

It's fair to say the playmakers on offense are ready to attack a defense that isn't ran by Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker. While the defense is relatively unexperienced, they are primed to continue being one of the best units in the nation, led by cornerback Zach Lutmer and linebacker Jayden Montgomery.

"I got to remind myself that we're going up against a top defense every day," said Phillips. "So sometimes it can be a little frustrating."

Northern Illinois brings in a quarterback battle of their own to the bout in Iowa City. With one little difference. Instead of two guys vying for the job, it's three. Jalon Macon, Taron Dickens and Brady Davidson are all listed on the depth chart separated by the infamous "OR".

"They've got a lot of new players on the roster, and we've got film from all kinds of places trying just to get a feel for personnel," said Ferentz.

He noted it can be a challenge to scout teams who field a roster mainly from the popular transfer portal. In this case, the Hawkeyes can focus on the schemes the Huskies will run. The interim head coach Rob Harley was the Huskies' defensive coordinator last season and the scheme is expected to be the same.

"We're going to attack the scheme that they had last year," said third year wide receiver Tony Diaz. "We just have to see how it goes from there."

The new offensive coordinator for the Huskies is Tony Peterson, a familiar foe.

"We've played against him when he was at Iowa State and Minnesota and now most recently was at Illinois State," said Ferentz. "We know a little bit about the schemes, at least we think we do."

The Hawkeyes played Illinois State in 2024. They won that game 40-0.

"They're going to come in here ready to go, try to upset us and I know they brought in a lot of guys and they're going to come in here and compete, they're going to get after it," said Phillips. "Just excited to go out here, finally play some football."

Tens of thousands of Hawkeye fans feel the same way as Phillips. Hawkeye football is back, finally. The 2026 season kicks off Saturday at 3:15 pm in Kinnick Stadium. Fans that can't make it to the game can watch on Big Ten Network.