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TAMPA, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 31: Head Coach Kirk Ferentz of the Iowa Hawkeyes receives the trophy after his team defeated Vanderbilt Commodores in the ReliaQuest Bowl at Raymond James Stadium on December 31, 2025 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Carlson/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Iowa finished 2025 at 9-4 and ranked #17 in the final AP poll, capped off with a win over Vanderbilt in the ReliaQuest Bowl. On paper, a perfectly nice season. Look under the paper, though, and 2025 was one of the more statistically bizarre Iowa football seasons in recent memory: an offensive line that may was perhaps the best in the country, a kicker who set school records and didn’t get drafted, a quarterback who threw for 1,700 yards but ran for 16 touchdowns, and a return man who broke a Jaylen Waddle NCAA record nobody outside Iowa City was paying attention to.
Graduation and the 2026 NFL Draft just took most of those names away. So before we turn the page to next season, we figured we’d tour the strangest stats from 2025 — and then talk about what’s actually walking out the door, as well as what history tells us about the years Iowa has tried to replace this much production all at once.
Counting down from #10:
#10 — Iowa’s four losses came by 15 combined points.
Three points. Five points. Five points. Two points. That’s the entire margin of defeat for the 2025 Hawkeyes, across four games. The average loss was by 3.75 points — basically a Drew Stevens field goal. Iowa State, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio State all beat Iowa by less than a touchdown. Push two field goals the other direction and we’re talking about an undefeated regular season. We are very much not talking about that, but the rounding error was not in our favor in 2025.
That’s to say nothing of the how in some of those losses. Indiana, for example, was an almost certain win if Iowa doesn’t lose starter Mark Gronowski in the 4th quarter. Or if Hank Brown can simply throw a screen pass to a wide open teammate. Too soon? Yeah, it will always be too soon.
#9 — Iowa’s offensive line drew exactly two accepted holding penalties. All season.
That’s not a typo. The Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line, across 13 games, was flagged for accepted offensive holding twice. Logan Jones, the Rimington Trophy-winning center, drew zero. The other linemen combined for two. We don’t have data on which game ledger officials checked for omitted holding calls, but at this point we’re prepared to assume the linemen weren’t actually playing football and were instead practicing some kind of clean-form interpretive dance.
The 2026 catch: Iowa lost three of five starting offensive linemen to the NFL Draft — Logan Jones (Bears), Gennings Dunker (Steelers), and Beau Stephens (Seahawks). Holding penalty totals are projected to regress to the mean.
#8 — The same five offensive linemen started all 13 games together — first time since 2013.
In an era of college football where transfers churn the roster every spring, where backups become starters every fall, where the average Power 4 program rotates 8-12 different lineups in a season — Iowa just put the same five dudes out there every Saturday for an entire season. The 2013 unit was the last one to do it. We’re now back to roughly once-per-decade for this stat. It’s the kind of continuity that wins Joe Moore Awards.
#7 — Mark Gronowski had more rushing touchdowns (16) than passing touchdowns (10).
This one isn’t a massive surprise to Hawkeye fans, but it’s still a wild stat in the broader college football world.
Gronowski threw for 1,741 yards and 10 scores. Then he ran for 545 yards and 16 touchdowns — an Iowa single-season record for a quarterback. Tim Lester’s offense leaned on Gronowski’s legs in a way no Iowa offense has leaned on a quarterback’s legs in modern memory. The 130 rushing yards he put up against Penn State were the most ever by an Iowa quarterback in a single game. The man finished his college career with 57 wins as a starting QB.
#6 — Iowa’s defense allowed only seven runs of 20+ yards. All season.
Phil Parker’s defense gave up explosive runs at a rate of about one every other game. Across 13 games, against 13 different rushing attacks, Iowa surrendered seven total runs of 20 or more yards. That’s not a defense. That’s a clamp.
It’s precisely the way Parker has tried to build his Iowa defenses for his entire tenure. We all know the mantra “bend, don’t break” and that’s exactly how last year’s unit operated. They kept things in front of them by being disciplined, filling gaps and playing their assignments. The result, much like we’re beginning to see with the Iowa hoops team, is fewer opponent possessions, less room for mistakes and the ever tightening grip of the anaconda as Big Ten offenses find themselves in close games late against the Hawkeyes.
#5 — Iowa allowed just 93 second-half points. The whole season.
Across 13 games, Iowa surrendered an average of 7.2 points per second half. That’s halftime adjustments translated directly into scoreboard. Whatever Phil Parker and Kirk Ferentz were drawing up on the whiteboard at halftime — film cutups, blitz package tweaks, coverage adjustments, whatever — opposing offenses came out of the locker room and turned to dust.
Much like the lack of explosive plays, this is sort of what we’ve come to expect in Iowa City. Phil will allow opponents to try some things and show their hand a bit in the first half so he can make his adjustments and slam the door shut when the game is on the line. As the pressure mounts and the anaconda tightens its grip, Parker dials up perfectly timed blitzes, stunts and coverage disguises late in the game.
The 2025 defense was at its absolute best when the game was close and the half was new. There will be new faces in 2026 but Iowa fans should expect more of the same.
#4 — Drew Stevens hit a 58-yard field goal vs. Oregon. He also went undrafted.
Stevens tied the Iowa school record for longest field goal with a 58-yarder against Oregon. He also broke the program’s all-time field goals made record (76 career makes), finished second on the all-time scoring list, and accounted for 107 points in 2025 alone — sixth-most in a single season in school history. He hit four game-winning field goals over his career.
The NFL passed on him in all seven rounds. That feels like a mistake. He did sign on with Washington as an UDFA and there’s a real chance he wins that job give Jake Moody’s struggles last year across multiple teams.
#3 — Kaden Wetjen averaged 26.8 yards per punt return — an NCAA record.
Twenty-six point eight. Yards. Per punt return. An NCAA record. Wetjen passed Jaylen Waddle’s previous mark — yes, that Jaylen Waddle, the Alabama All-American who got drafted sixth overall and is now the Dolphins’ WR1. The Iowa kid from Williamsburg who came in as a walk-on transfer just broke a record set by a Heisman finalist Pro Bowler. He had a 95-yard punt return TD vs. UMass that tied the Big Ten record. He had a 100-yard kickoff return TD vs. Rutgers that tied a different Big Ten record. He led the nation in combined return yards with 965. He has six career return TDs (an Iowa record). He won the Jet Award twice — back-to-back, the only player ever to do so.
#2 — Mark Gronowski scored a touchdown in 10 straight games to start the season.
We already touched on the sheer volume of rushing touchdowns by Gronowski, but it was also the consistency. The 10 straight games to start the season with a rushing TD is the longest single-season streak by any Big Ten quarterback. Ever. Three of those touchdowns came on game-winning fourth-quarter drives. He scored on opening drives. He scored in the red zone. He scored on broken plays. The Gronowski Era was 13 games long. We will not see another 13 games like that anytime soon.
#1 — Kirk Ferentz passed Woody Hayes for most Big Ten wins in conference history.
Ferentz now has 134 career Big Ten victories. The all-time leader is some guy named Kirk Ferentz. The previous record-holder was Woody Hayes, the legend whose entire identity was synonymous with Ohio State football, whose name is plastered across the Buckeyes’ football complex in Columbus, and who won three national championships during his time on the Ohio State sideline.
The kid from Pittsburgh who took over a 1-10 program in 1999, weathered everything from a winless conference record his first year to a Big Ten title the next, has now won more Big Ten games than any coach who has ever lived. His 213 career wins at Iowa are the most in school history. He is in his 27th season. He has 11 bowl victories — the most in conference history. He’s also still here. None of this is supposed to be normal. None of this is normal. We’re going to keep saying it out loud until it sounds normal. It will never sound normal.
What’s Walking Out the Door
Now it’s time to turn the page. Here’s what Iowa is replacing heading into 2026:
- Mark Gronowski (QB) — 1,741 passing yards, 10 passing TDs, 545 rushing yards, 16 rushing TDs. The most productive Iowa QB season in the Tim Lester era. Gone to Miami.
- Logan Jones (C) — Rimington Trophy winner, unanimous All-American, 51 career starts. Gone to the Bears (2nd round).
- Gennings Dunker (RT) — First-team All-Big Ten, 38 career starts. Gone to the Steelers (3rd round).
- Beau Stephens (RG) — 88.3 PFF grade, 25 career starts. Gone to the Seahawks (5th round).
- Kaden Wetjen (WR/RS) — NCAA-record 26.8 yards per punt return, 1,039 combined return yards, 6 career return TDs. Gone to the Steelers (4th round).
- Drew Stevens (K) — 76 career FGs (school record), 352 career points (2nd all-time). Currently a free agent.
- Karson Sharar (LB) — Team-leading 83 tackles, 12 TFLs, 4 sacks. Gone to the Cardinals (6th round).
- TJ Hall (DB) — 75 career tackles, 12 PBUs, 2 INTs. Gone to the Saints (7th round).
- Max Llewellyn (DE) — 6.5 sacks, 9.5 TFLs. Gone to the Dolphins (7th round).
- Xavier Nwankpa (S) — 4-year starter, Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week vs. Penn State. Gone to the Chiefs (UDFA).
- Aaron Graves (DL) — Senior captain, anchor of the interior defensive line. Gone to the Ravens (UDFA).
- Hayden Large (TE/FB) — Hybrid blocker / receiver. Gone to the Bears (UDFA).
That’s seven NFL Draft picks plus four UDFA signings — 11 players walking into NFL camps in May. The starting quarterback is gone. Three of the five starting offensive linemen are gone. The starting return man is gone. The all-time leading kicker is gone. The team’s leading tackler is gone. A four-year starting safety is gone. The 2026 Iowa Hawkeyes are replacing a lot of starting-level production .
The Historical Parallels: Three Times Iowa Has Tried This Before
So how does this go? Iowa football has been through this kind of departure cycle three times in the modern era. The outcomes ran the spectrum.
2002 → 2003. Iowa lost Brad Banks (Heisman runner-up QB), Bob Sanders (eventual NFL Defensive Player of the Year), Eric Steinbach (1st-round NFL pick), Fred Russell (All-Big Ten RB), and Dallas Clark (Mackey Award winner) — five program-defining seniors. The Hawkeyes had won the Big Ten outright in 2002 and went 11-2. The 2003 team broke in Nathan Chandler at quarterback, leaned on a defense led by C.J. Jones and Bob Sanders’ younger brother (in spirit), and finished 10-3 with an Outback Bowl victory over Florida. The next year, Drew Tate took over and Iowa went 10-2, capping the season with the Drew Tate-to-Warren Holloway miracle in the Capital One Bowl. Two straight 10-win seasons after losing your Heisman runner-up. Best-case parallel.
2018 → 2019. Iowa lost T.J. Hockenson (1st-round NFL pick), Noah Fant (1st-round NFL pick), Anthony Nelson, Amani Hooker, and Parker Hesse — the heart of the 9-4 Outback Bowl-winning 2018 team. Stanley returned at QB. The defense rebuilt around A.J. Epenesa. Iowa went 10-3, finished No. 15 in the AP poll, and absolutely demolished USC 49-24 in the Holiday Bowl. Solid bounce-back parallel.
2010 → 2011. Iowa lost Ricky Stanzi (5th-round NFL pick), Adrian Clayborn (1st-round), Christian Ballard, Karl Klug, plus several others. James Vandenberg took over at quarterback. The defensive line never quite replaced its star pass-rushers. Iowa went 7-6, finished fourth in the Legends Division, and lost to Oklahoma in the Insight Bowl. Cautionary parallel.
Which One Looks Like 2026?
Honestly? The 2026 cycle looks closer to 2010-11 than the other two. The 2002-03 team had returning offensive line continuity (Steinbach was the only senior starter to leave). The 2018-19 team had Stanley returning at QB. The 2010-11 team — the dropoff year — lost its quarterback, lost its defensive line stars, and couldn’t replace either fast enough.
Iowa in 2026 is losing its quarterback (like 2010-11). Losing 3-of-5 offensive linemen (worse than any of the parallels). Losing major defensive line production (like 2010-11). Losing its star special-teams playmaker (like none of the parallels — the Wetjen production is just gone).
The hopeful counters: Tim Lester is in his second year as offensive coordinator (continuity at the play-caller), Phil Parker is still the defensive coordinator (always continuity at the play-caller), and Iowa returns more young receiver talent — KJ Parker, Reece Vander Zee, Dayton Howard — than any recent Iowa team.
And a key difference from prior departure cycles: the portal. Iowa added key pieces at RB and WR. The QB room is unsettled but has two young scholarship arms with real ceilings who, for the first time in a while, have been in the system for more than a year.
The defensive line, even thin on the surface, has freshman talent (Joseph Anderson) and a transfer (Kahmari Brown from Elon) who flashed in the spring open practice. The secondary looks to be like it always is under Parker and the offensive line does still return a pair of starters with a full cupboard of young talent ready to step up.
If Iowa lands at 8-4 or 9-3 in 2026, that’s roughly the 2018-19 outcome curve and we should all consider it a successful transition year. If Iowa lands at 6-6 or 7-5, that’s the 2010-11 outcome curve and we’ll spend December wringing our hands in despair. If we somehow land at 10-2… well, that’s a Drew Tate kind of season. I’m not betting on it, but college football is weird and Iowa’s roster has more talent in spots than the surface stats suggest and one of those two QBs sure reminds me a bit of Tate.
The 2025 stat sheet was special. The 2026 stat sheet is going to look very different. That’s the only thing about it we can predict with confidence.
Go Hawks!
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