With Mark Gronowski, the forward pass finally is returning to Hawkeye football

IOWA CITY — An Iowa quarterback passed for at least 1,929 yards in every season from 2000 through 2019.

It hasn’t happened since, and 1,929 passing yards over 12-plus games is closer to scaling Mount Vernon than Mount Kilimanjaro.

Through a combination of occasional lackluster coordination, occasional substandard blocking and consistently middling quarterbacking, the Hawkeyes’ offense sucked some of the joy out of the program’s annual winning seasons in the first half of the 2020s.

Enter Mark Gronowski. In the words of the Edwin Hawkins Singers, Oh Happy Day. Unless you’re Albany, which lost to Gronowski-quarterbacked South Dakota State in the 2023 FCS national semifinals by the rather un-national semifinal score of 59-0.

Gronowski was that year’s winner of the Walter Payton Award, given to the FCS Player of the Year. His Jackrabbits finished that season with their second-straight national-title. He was a finalist for the award in 2024.

In December of ‘23, UAlbany was six days fresh off an FCS quarterfinal upset win at Idaho. Its reward was to head back to somewhere beyond Chicago and play South Dakota State, and it did not go well.

The Great Danes — yes, that’s UAlbany’s team name — were about as overmatched as they’ll be Saturday when they play at Iowa.

Gronowski led his team on touchdown drives on the Jacks’ first three possessions. He threw a 35-yard scoring pass to make it 35-0 by halftime. Later, his 25-yard touchdown pass made it 49-0.

He completed 15 of 19 passes for 265 yards and three touchdowns and rushed five times for 50 yards. Effective, you might say.

“Effective” understates Gronowski’s four years in Jackrabbitland. The man completed 63.5 percent of his 1,190 passes for 10,330 yards and 93 touchdowns. He also rushed for an average of 4.6 yards per carry and 37 TDs.

You know what that is, Hawkeye fans? That’s a quarterback.

“You can expect some big plays out of him,” Iowa wide receiver Seth Anderson said Tuesday. “He’s got a different swagger to him.”

“He’s a good football player, and he makes good decisions and gets the ball out on time,” said Hawkeye offensive guard Beau Stephens.

“He will take the blame even if it isn’t his fault,” Iowa running back Kamari Moulton said. “Just him being a leader.”

The kudos are all nice, and are expected from teammates. A quarterback’s 49-6 record as a starter with two national-championship rings? That’s a pedigree.

Gronowski is, like so many others in the sport now, a rent-a-player. If he wants to treat his blockers to dinner on a Sunday night to reward their Saturday efforts, it won’t dent his cash supply.

But this looks like a good transaction for Iowa’s investors. South Dakota State has been as good or better at football as most FBS teams than not over the last five years. Now it’s time for the forward pass to reintroduce itself to Iowa in a big way.

It may not start with a bang, since all the Hawkeyes will need to do on offense to muzzle the Great Danes is have Gronowski successfully hand the ball off to Moulton and the other running backs. However, there will be passing. Those UAlbany holdovers from 2023 know it, and shouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

“It’s a cool opportunity to obviously have your first game against the team that you’ve already faced and have a little bit of familiarity,” Gronowski said.

“You can’t take any FCS opponent lightly, especially a team like this, and they’ve had some great years in the past. I’m excited. It’s going to be a fun game.”

The word “humble” is used often by Gronowski’s new teammates in describing the quarterback. He was being very kind to the Great Danes in his remarks. UAlbany has won four games and lost eight since it last faced Gronowski.

Now, Gronowski will have a very promising Big Ten offensive line in front of him and 70,000 voices behind him in Kinnick Stadium. Every dog has its day, but the Great Danes’ won’t be Saturday.

There’s a new quarterback in town who has won 89 percent of his college starts and will be 24 in October. Oh Happy Day.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com