Iowa excited to showcase upgraded offense vs. Albany

After being one of the nation's worst offensive teams in recent years, there is hope that things will change this season for Iowa entering its season opener Saturday against FCS opponent Albany in Iowa City, Iowa.

Over the offseason, Iowa welcomed in transfer Mark Gronowski, who compiled a 49-6 career record at South Dakota State and threw for 3,058 yards in 2023.

Both his presence and the fact that there might be more overall familiarity with the system in offensive coordinator Tim Lester's second year on the job is leading to some optimism that the Hawkeyes can put up some points this fall.

"We're starting to see him in a comfort zone operating the way he'd like to," Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said of Gronowski. "One thing I can tell you is I've seen him pull the ball down and run, which is not unusual for quarterbacks. Some can't do it, but you know he can run and keep his eyes down the field. That's a good trait and he's demonstrated he can do that."

Iowa is coming off an 8-5 season and a loss to Missouri in the Music City Bowl.

Albany is coming off a 4-8 season and has an interim head coach in Jared Ambrose, the team's offensive coordinator last season who took over after Greg Gattuso resigned as head coach to take a defensive analyst position at Penn State.

The original starting quarterback, Van Weber, suffered a season-ending knee injury during spring practice, so there was a quarterback competition during fall camp between Aidan Semo, Jack Shields and Colin Parachek.

Speaking to The League Winners, Ambrose said he feels his team has the ability to match up with a Power 4 conference opponent.

"How do you stack up when you are an FCS team playing against them? You really don't know until you get there," Ambrose said. "When you get there, they are sending out their best 11 and we're going to send ours out. Size does matter in some places. It shows up from time to time in games. But I think we'll stack up OK. I like our roster and I'm sure they like theirs. We're going to go out there and try and compete our tails off."