Iowa football gives QB transfer Mark Gronowski ‘great opportunity’ in final year of eligibility

IOWA CITY — When Mark Gronowski entered the transfer portal last month, he had a resume many quarterback-seeking teams would surely crave.

He won the 2023 Walter Payton Award, which goes to the top FCS offensive player. He has four years of starting experience at South Dakota State (and led the Jackrabbits to a 49-6 record in his 55 career starts).

“I wanted to go to a place that I had a really good opportunity to become the best player I can be,” Gronowski said on Sioux Falls-based KWSN’s The Nate Brown Show on Thursday.

The answer was the Iowa football team. The 6-foot-3 quarterback signed with the Hawkeyes earlier in the week.

“Coach (Kirk) Ferentz — he’s very similar to Stig in a lot of ways,” Gronowski said on the radio show, referencing since-retired SDSU coach John Stiegelmeier. “He tries to build a culture that was very similar to Stig’s, and when I went there, it really felt like South Dakota State as well.”

Iowa offensive coordinator Tim Lester appeared to play a vital role in the Hawkeyes landing the much-acclaimed quarterback.

“He’s done such a great job with the offense this past year there,” Gronowski said of Lester.

In Lester’s first year as offensive coordinator, Iowa’s scoring output jumped from 15.4 points per game in 2023 to 27.7 in 2024 — about an 80 percent increase. Iowa’s yards per play also rose from 3.94 in 2023 to 5.62 in 2024.

The numbers aside, Lester also benefited from a mutual connection. Tight end Tucker Kraft was teammates with Gronowski at SDSU before the Green Bay Packers drafted him in 2023. Kraft and Lester were in Green Bay in 2023, and Lester’s scheme has many similarities to what Kraft has thrived in with the Packers.

“I talked with Tucker Kraft a little bit about him, and he had so many great things to say about him and the offense,” Gronowski said.

Looking ahead, Gronowski will join a quarterback room that also includes Brendan Sullivan, Hank Brown, Jackson Stratton and incoming freshmen Jimmy Sullivan and Ryan Fitzgerald. Brendan Sullivan was 14-of-18 for 131 yards and had one touchdown and one interception in Iowa’s 27-24 loss to Missouri in the Music City Bowl.

While acknowledging Iowa has a “good quarterback room right now,” Gronowski sounds eager to “show them what I got and hopefully take the starting job.”

It also will be an opportunity for the quarterback from Naperville, Ill. — the heart of Big Ten country — to compete at a higher level ahead of pursuing the NFL.

“I wouldn’t have changed anything I did at South Dakota State — going there in the first place — but Big Ten football is always the dream growing up,” said Gronowski, who has one year of eligibility remaining. “To have the opportunity, I wanted to take advantage of it.”

Gronowski — a two-time FCS national champion — also noted Iowa’s “winning culture.”

“We won a lot of football games at South Dakota State, and I want to continue that at Iowa and hopefully be the first player to win an FCS championship and FBS championship,” Gronowski said. “That would be the end-all goal, and it’s a great opportunity to do that at Iowa.”

Gronowski has seen that winning culture firsthand when South Dakota State came to Kinnick Stadium for its 2022 season opener. Iowa won, 7-3, with a field goal and two safeties (and ended up being the only team that could defeat the eventual FCS champions).

“Getting to witness the atmosphere there on game day — it was electric,” Gronowski said. “That was the loudest stadium that I’ve played in, by far.”

Gronowski will witness that atmosphere another seven times, this time on the home sidelines while wearing a black and gold uniform.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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