A closer look at the Hawkeyes’ battle with the Minutemen

IOWA CITY — The keyword this week is improvement.

It’s across the board. All three phases of Iowa football’s game has at least one thing to improvement upon with the UMass Minutemen flying into town for the Hawkeyes’ tuneup game.

The final tuneup game, assuming that’s how Saturday will play out. Iowa’s season-opening win over Albany is similar to Saturday’s bout with UMass, but Minutemen head coach Joe Harasymiak and both his coordinators come with Big Ten experience.

UMass still is adjusting to a brand-new style of football, and its started the season with a blowout loss to Temple and an FCS upset to Bryant.

Iowa, regrouping from its loss to Iowa State last week, can use this game to build up some confidence and tweak some things before a looming Rutgers welcomes the Hawkeyes. Improvement, is the overarching theme.

Here are Iowa’s three keys to victory in its final nonconference game of the regular season.

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3 keys to victory

1. Throw the ball some more

Yes, every person dawning gold and black wants to see the passing game improve. It may not take the strides fans expected this season, but it could certainly get better before Big Ten play begins.

Quarterback Mark Gronowski has a 54-percent completion rate over these first two games. It’s nowhere near the success he had at South Dakota State, and Gronowski’s carrying the ball himself more at Iowa — rushing 78 yards so far.

Adjusting to new offensive system is no simple task, but the Hawkeyes know Gronowski has the arm to make big plays. He just hasn’t shown it yet.

“It's a matter of fact, but that's not who he is,” head coach Kirk Ferentz said of Gronowski’s game. “So it's just a matter of him getting more comfortable and us doing a better job of maybe making him more comfortable, and that's part of the process as you go along.”

If the Hawkeyes can convert on third down passes, maybe even take a few shots downfield, it may open up the passing game just enough for Gronowski to gain a small boost before heading to New Jersey next week.

2. Get a turnover (or turnovers)

If there’s a time for the Ball-Hawks to make their appearance, Saturday is certainly a good option. The Iowa defense, despite allowing just 415 yards of total offense through two games, hasn’t forced a turnover this season.

Going back to last season, it’s been four games without any sort of turnover — the longest drought since 2014. UMass has a little more of a mismatched personnel to what Iowa will see the rest of the season, but getting the secondary involved could go a long way.

A forced fumble wouldn’t be so bad for the defensive line, too.

“So we got to come up with some loose balls,” assistant defensive coach Jay Niemann said. “We’ve got to create some takeaways and establish some field position opportunities for our offense.”

3. Punt return positives

The Hawkeyes had an average of -7 yards per punt return against Iowa State. It’s a fixable issue, and one that shouldn’t phase Iowa too much this week. That doesn’t change the fact that seeing a negative in punt return waves a red flag.

Though this area is probably the easiest adjustment for Iowa to make, it’s one that has to stick better than the aforementioned keys. Negative punt returns can quickly become costly in Big Ten play, especially with teams like Indiana and Penn State in the near future.

It helps that Iowa only allowed an average one yard per return against the Cyclones, but the 8-yard gap can make a world of difference in later game this season.

Prediction

Bottom line is this game is Iowa’s chance to show some form of improvement before Big Ten play begins. After this week, the Hawkeyes play a ranked team in two of their next four games.

Iowa 34, UMass 0

Comments: madison.hricik@thegazette.com, sign up for my weekly newsletter, Hawk Off the Press, here.