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Iowa football 2025 early opponent preview: UMass
UMass has new-ish conference affiliation, new head coach, many new roster pieces
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Editor’s note: Third in a 12-part series previewing each of Iowa’s 2025 regular-season opponents.
IOWA CITY — Iowa football’s third opponent of the 2025 schedule is starting a new chapter in many ways.
The UMass Minutemen has a new-ish conference affiliation, rejoining the MAC this season after nine seasons as an independent.
UMass also has a new head coach who will be somewhat of a familiar face for Iowa when the Minutemen face the Hawkeyes in Iowa’s nonconference finale on Sept. 13 at 6:30 p.m. on Big Ten Network.
Joe Harasymiak took over after spending the last seven seasons as a Big Ten defensive coordinator. He was with Minnesota from 2018-21 and Rutgers from 2022-24.
His familiarity with the Hawkeyes did not lead to any success against them, however. Iowa bested Minnesota in all four of Harasymiak’s seasons there and outscored Rutgers, 49-10, in its two games against Rutgers during his tenure.
Harasymiak does not have an easy task ahead of him in his first year at the helm. The Minutemen are returning only 36 percent of production from a team that went 2-10 in 2024, according to ESPN. The post-spring SP+ rankings from ESPN rank them 135th out of 136 FBS teams. (Kent State -- with one win combined in its last two seasons -- is the only school with a worse projection.)
UMass turned to the transfer portal to fill several positional needs. Newcomers to watch could include former Utah quarterback Brandon Rose, former Yale quarterback (and all-Ivy League honorable mention) Grant Jordan, former Vanderbilt/UTSA running back Rocko Griffin and former Clemson/Virginia defensive back Malcolm Greene.
Iowa vs. UMass: 3 things to watch
- Which of UMass’ transfer additions emerge as capable weapons? After an extensive transfer portal shopping spree, the Minutemen have a lot of players who could be threats. Time will tell which players end up actually being threats in 2025.
- Can Iowa pull away and remove any lingering doubt early in the game? If so, this would be an ideal time to give in-game opportunities to true freshmen (who can play up to four games while still redshirting) or other younger players.
- How in sync is quarterback Mark Gronowski with Iowa’s wide receivers? This will be the last opportunity for any remaining fine-tuning ahead of Big Ten play as Gronowski builds chemistry with his new receiving corps.
2025 prognosis
The Hawkeyes will obviously be heavy favorites against a UMass team that has won no more than four games in a season since elevating to the FBS level in 2012.
Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com
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