ESPN Leaves Iowa’s Quarterback Outlook in ‘Prove-It’ Territory

Hawkeye fans can’t shake the perpetual anxiety about Iowa’s offensive woes that perk up seemingly every offseason. But a new season brings new opportunities, especially with an exciting quarterback transfer to help reshape the offense.

Mark Gronowski brings experience to the quarterback room that has been lacking for some time, even the past two seasons with Cade McNamara sparingly available. His 55 starts and 49 wins at the FCS level draw hope from the Iowa fanbase that 2025 will be different.

Unfortunately, there’s the overwhelming factor of the unknown. Gronowski was successful at the highest level of FCS ball, but will it translate to the highest level of FBS ball? Is Iowa even set up for him to be successful if he plays to the best of his capabilities?

It’s questions like these that conjure a cloud of doubt over the Hawkeyes’ 2025 season. It’s also why ESPN categorized Iowa’s quarterback room deep on a tier-list ranking of every FBS quarterback room.

Out of 21 tiers broken up by the circumstances each FBS program finds itself in, Iowa’s quarterback room was placed in Tier 9 among other programs like Colorado and Utah who will be relying on transfer quarterbacks from a lower playing level to steer them in the right direction.

The difference between Iowa and the other four teams on this list is that Iowa is starting from just a story or two above ground zero. North Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado, and Utah, other teams paired with Iowa on the list, all have transfer quarterbacks from the FCS level and only UNC doesn’t have an established, successful offensive scheme.

Still, looking at the addition of Gronowski for Iowa, it’s a clear case of ‘it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish’. Iowa has to score more points if they are going to be competitive in the expanded Big Ten under head coach Kirk Ferentz. If Gronowski is the guy who can just get Iowa above 20 points per game, he’s already made an improvement.

Of course, that opens up more questions about Iowa going forward. Whether or not the scoring output was enough. If the offense saw enough growth. If Iowa was competitive enough. The answers to those questions circle back more to Ferentz than Gronowski.