Ex-Wisconsin quarterback Deacon Hill learning quickly with Iowa football, ‘doesn’t make the same mistake twice’

IOWA CITY — Deacon Hill likely could have been a Division I starting quarterback in 2023.

The ex-Wisconsin quarterback committed to Fordham on Christmas, and the former three-star recruit would have had excellent odds of starting against three quarterbacks who have combined to throw one pass at the college level.

Instead, he chose Iowa — a place that already had its presumed QB1 in Cade McNamara along with Joe Labas, who earned high marks in his Music City Bowl start.

“I thought this was best for me,” Hill said in the southwest tunnel of Kinnick Stadium after Saturday’s open football practice. “I thought it was the best place for me to grow both as a person and as an athlete.”

Fewer than four months into his tenure as a Hawkeye, that growth has been on display.

Hill arrived with hardly any experience from his two years in Madison. He appeared briefly in one game and did not attempt a pass. Graham Mertz, Chase Wolf and Myles Burkett were all ahead of him in the QB pecking order in 2022.

Then at Iowa’s 2023 open spring practice, he was the first quarterback taking snaps in 11-on-11 drills. (The team exercised caution with McNamara as he gets closer to “100 percent” after undergoing knee surgery last year.)

The competition for the No. 2 quarterback spot behind McNamara remains “wide-open,” Coach Kirk Ferentz said after Iowa’s 15th and final spring practice, but Hill would be the guy if the season began Saturday.

“I wasn’t getting this kind of reps at Wisconsin,” Hill said.

Hill’s rise to apparent QB2 front-runner has been despite having only a few months to acclimate to the Hawkeyes’ offense and “the language, the nomenclature, being able to call plays” and other nuances that come with it.

“At least he was in a system, but he wasn't really working with the ones or twos,” Ferentz said Saturday. “I would say he's been in a system where you go in the huddle and call plays instead of holding signs up and everything. As simple as that sounds, it's different.”

The flip from Fordham to Iowa reunited Hill with Iowa offensive analyst Jon Budmayr, who recruited Hill to Wisconsin as the Badgers’ quarterbacks coach. Budmayr left Madison before Hill’s freshman season to be the offensive coordinator at Colorado State, though.

“I’ve always wanted to play for Jon,” Hill said. “I’ve always wanted to be around him. He’s really smart. He’s like a quarterback guru.”

Hill has known Budmayr since his sophomore year of high school.

“It’s been really nice having him here,” Hill said. “He understands what I need to get better.”

The sample size of Hill’s work at the college level — particularly work in the public eye — is rather small. The Santa Barbara native clearly has a different skill set than some of Iowa’s other recent quarterbacks, though.

Iowa officially lists Hill at 230 pounds.

On paper, that is not far off from Spencer Petras’ 231-pound weight last year or Carson May’s 221-pound measurement. But in reality, Hill has a much different physique than Petras or May. Wisconsin listed him at 248 pounds in 2021.

“He's big,” Ferentz said at the beginning of the spring. “Bigger than most quarterbacks I've been around. That's the first impression.”

Hill unsurprisingly considers himself as a prostyle quarterback.

“I don’t think that’s a secret,” Hill said.

He also identifies as a “game manager.”

“I just try to be a smart quarterback,” Hill said. “Know when the blitz is coming, what coverage the defense is.”

That lines up well with offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz’s philosophy for the quarterback position.

“If we’re playing football offensively at the University of Iowa, you’re a facilitator,” Brian Ferentz said last year. “That’s all you do. … The longer the football is in our quarterback’s hands, the worse it is for our offense.”

Brian Ferentz said Hill has “a lot of arm talent.”

“But probably what impresses me more about Deacon than anything is his ability to learn and grow on a daily basis,” Brian Ferentz said last week. “He sees things. He picks them up. He doesn’t make the same mistake twice.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com