2026 Preview: Iowa

Last season Iowa landed a moderately high-profile quarterback (Mark Gronowski, Walter Payton Award winner) via the transfer portal, generating lots of excitement over what Iowa might be able to accomplish if its always top-notch defense and special teams were augmented by a credible passing attack. 

In my preview of last season's Hawks I wrote: "I'm just not sure it ever really matters who's playing quarterback for Kirk Ferentz." That wasn't a cynical statement. That's just my observation of the entire Ferentz era. His goal is for victory to never come down to one player's performance across an entire game. That's a lot of what "complementary football" is all about. I'll admit I thought adding a seasoned quarterback was a good move, but I was not sure it was going to be the difference-maker some thought it would be.

I'm not saying I was right ... but Iowa finished the regular season 8-4 like it usually does, so yes, I was right. It really doesn't matter who is playing quarterback for Iowa, because Iowa's offense is designed not to depend on any one person's performance. It's exactly what one might expect from a coach who raised his profile with the mid-Nineties Browns and Ravens and thus once had a QB room with Vinny Testaverde and Eric Zeier in it.

This is not to dismiss Gronowski. He played well enough, improved as the season progressed, helped Iowa start tearing down the legend of Diego Pavia in the Hey Google What Do They Call That Bowl Game In Tampa That Iowa Always Winds Up Playing In? Bowl, was the MVP of the Shrine Game, and is (at least right now) on the Miami Dolphins roster.

But I digress. Experience has taught me that me being spectacularly right about something is just a prelude to me being even more spectacularly wrong about something else. Thus, we move on to ...

The Big Question: Where will the Hawkeyes be at, mentally and physically, on the morning of Saturday, October 10? The season starts with home games against Northern Illinois, Iowa State, and Northern Iowa, a/k/a "the three closest possible opponents to Iowa City." 

Don't @ me about Drake. The last time the Hawkeyes and Bulldogs played was in 1985. Iowa won that game 58-0 and Drake was still awarding football scholarships back then. Also don't @ me about Wisconsin. DeKalb is 16 miles closer to Iowa City than Madison is.

Then Iowa travels to Michigan, hosts Ohio State, and travels to Seattle to face Washington ... on October 9, which is a Friday night. I don't know that I have ever seen a tougher three-game stretch for this team, and I've been following it since 1979.

My guess at the answer: The Hawks will find themselves 3-3 on October 10 and not receiving votes, but they won't be particularly distressed. The back half of the season is not a gimme but it is a lot less difficult.

Key games:

• Iowa State, Sept. 12. This is always a key game for Iowa, but this year with Jimmy Rogers new on the sidelines in Ames, knowing that nothing will get him in Cy's good graces faster than beating Iowa in Kinnick, this game is unusually dangerous, no matter how little respect Rogers and his Cyclones are getting in the presason. And brother/sister/sibling, they aren't getting very much.
• at Michigan, Sept. 26. Of the three-game gauntlet, I think this is the one the Hawkeyes have the best chance of stealing. Normally I'd give the Hawks a slightly better chance of beating Washington, but the Hawks will be playing on a short week, traveling two times zones west, right after a game that I have penciled in as a near-certain defeat. I don't know if Iowa can actually win in the Big House, but this is a team that played Indiana to within five points last season, and the Wolverines aren't the 2025 Hoosiers.

AI-Generated Joke about the Hawkeyes:

Why did the Iowa Hawkeyes bring a stopwatch to the pumpkin patch?

Because they heard they were great at running out the clock with zero offensive output!

When my daughters were little -- real little, like 4 or 5 years old -- they loved to make up jokes and tell them to us. Problem was, while they understood the structure of a joke, and how to deliver one, they had yet to realize that jokes have punchlines. They also didn't realize those punchlines are supposed to be funny. So they'd come up with "jokes" like "Why did the teddy bear fall down? Because his mommy forgot to take the clothes out of the dryer!"

This joke about the Hawkeyes isn't even that good. The only way it makes sense or serves any purpose is as an example of two grammatically correct sentences. I rate it (sawdust)/10.

My Prediction: Y'all, I swear I tried to come up with a different number, but based on my belief that any Iowa team will win one game it shouldn't and lose one game it shouldn't, I come up with ... 8-4.