Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Iowa Loss Brings Sour End to Season

Originally posted on Iowa Hawkeyes on SI | By Lane Mills | Last updated Nov 16, 2025 7:39 AM ET

Just two weeks ago, the Iowa Hawkeyes were granted a top-20 ranking in the first College Football Playoff (CFP) poll, led unranked teams with the most votes for the AP Poll and, at 6-2 (4-1 in the B1G) were thoroughly in the conversation for conference competition as the season came to a dramatic close.

A Dramatic Downfall

And dramatic it has been, though not in favor of the black and gold. After two straight games against ranked opponents - one at home and one on the road - Iowa has added two numerals to their aforementioned loss column and painfully seperated themselves from both conference and national competition. Now 6-4 (4-3), the Hawkeyes have fallen ill to the same sickness that saw them finish last season in the middle of the B1G pack. That is, mediocrity.

Though that's just it with head coach Kirk Ferentz, and it has been for a while; the seasoned captain will win just about every game that his team is supposed to, but the really big ones? Specifically the ones against teams with numbers next to their names? He can't ever seem to get the Hawkeyes over the hump, and their most recent loss to the #17 USC Trojans was no exception.

Final Score:

USC 26, Iowa 21
— Hawkeye Football (@HawkeyeFootball) November 15, 2025

Losing Big Leads

Despite having at one point in the bout led by two scores, the Hawkeyes would ultimately falter under the heat of the limelights of Hollywood in this road duel out west. After their home defeat at the hands of the eigth-ranked Oregon Ducks last week, Iowa's CFP ranking fell just one spot, to #21. The Trojans, slated at #17, may have had the Hawkeyes doomed from the start based on that fact alone.

In the same way that it's become accustomed for Ferentz and his team to lose against ranked opponents, it's also become normal for the group to blow multi-score leads. What's worse, the result of those lapses is almost always an offensively close finish that sees the Hawkeyes fall just short.

Of Iowa's four losses, all to top 20 teams, the combined total comes out to just 15 total points. Their consistent shortcoming by single-digits is a brutal tell of the team's "almost there" nature that haunted them last year in an eerily similar fashion to this one.

Even if Iowa were to win their final two (favorable, to be fair) games, the 2025-26 season on the whole feels doomed to simple satisfaction, and nothing more. As fans clamor for the ceiling to be raised, one may begin to wonder if Coach Ferentz is a reason it has recently remained in place.

This article first appeared on Iowa Hawkeyes on SI and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: