Iowa Hawkeyes quarterback Mark Gronowski Julia Hansen | Iowa City Press-Citizen | USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Iowa's Potential Path Forward Without Starting QB

Originally posted on Iowa Hawkeyes on SI | By Lane Mills | Last updated Oct 1, 2025 11:00 AM ET

In the Iowa Hawkeyes defeat at home to the hands of the Indiana Hoosiers, the loss of the game itself wasn't the only negative impact sustained by the team throughout the bout. Starting transfer quarterback Mark Gronowski would leave the game early in the fourth quarter with a left knee injury, while the result was still very much in question, leading to IU taking over late and running away with what would've been a crucial B1G win for a Hawkeyes team on the fringe of relevance in the conference.

Backup quarterback Hank Brown entered the game for the Hawkeyes in the meantime, completing just five passes on 13 attempts for 48 total yards. He'd throw one interception on his first pass, not managing a score afterwards.

While Iowa would ultimately lose, falling to 2-2 (1-1) ahead of their toughest stretch of schedule yet, many fans looked past the fall, at least for the time, in worry about the state of their primary signal caller. The team's offensive coordinator, Tim Lester, didn't do much to inspire confidence in Gronowski's outlook when he spoke with the media earlier this week.

“Encouraging news is that all those guys are banged up or going into a bye week. We're all into bye week right?” Lester remarked. "All injured players are working hard to get back. Don't know Mark's status yet. It's cloudy. We don't need to know, though, because it is a bye week."

Calling Lester's flippant sentiment worrying would be a seismic understatement. Especially given Brown's underwhelming performance in place of Gronowski - although, to be fair, he was thrown into a tight game against a ranked team - the Hawkeyes can't afford to take Gronowski's case week-by-week, waiting for some sort of miraculous update to hit the practice field in the meantime.

“So next week, same bat time, same bat channel. Got head ball coach up here, he can tell you more about it as we find out more.” Lester finished.

With the OC outright deferring further questions about the injury of his quarterback, and the Hawkeyes set to travel to Wisconsin for another B1G brawl, it's safe to say that the team finds themselves squarely in a rut.

Going forward, if Gronowski misses extensive time, Iowa will likely look to rely on their tried-and-true ground game, unless Brown finds a streak of consistency currently unexpected of him. That, and the defense - which already arguably carries more of the team's weight than they perhaps should - will likely have to shoulder even more responsibility as the offense operates under a new QB.

It'd be a midseason period of adjustment for a Hawkeyes team that already finds themselves back at square one, .500, four games into the year. Let's just hope Gronowski is in better shape than the program is leading on and, by some miracle, he'll be back on the field before Iowa has a chance to let their season get out of hand.

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

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