By Hawk Fanatic

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa offensive coordinator Tim Lester said he would be active in recruiting quarterbacks in the transfer portal and he wasn’t kidding.

Iowa landed its second quarterback from the portal since the end of the 2024 regular season as South Dakota State quarterback Mark Gronowski announced his commitment to Iowa Tuesday on X.

His commitment comes less than a month after former Auburn backup quarterback Hank Brown committed to Iowa.

Grownowski, who is the son of former Drake quarterback Ray Gronowski, was a four-year starter for South Dakota State and he led the Jackrabbits to two FCS national titles.

He was also named the recipient of the 2023 Walter Payton Award, which goes to the top offensive player at the FCS level.

The 6-foot-3, 230-pound Gronowski passed for 10,330 yards, rushed for 1,767 yards and combined for 130 touchdowns during his career with South Dakota State.

With his addition, and assuming Brendan Sullivan stays at Iowa, Lester has taken significant steps in building depth at the quarterback position.

Iowa also signed true freshman quarterback Jimmy Sullivan in its 2025 recruiting class. He has enrolled for the spring semester and will participate in spring practice.

Brendan Sullivan, who transferred from Northwestern last summer, started in Iowa’s 27-24 loss to Missouri in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 30 in Nashville, Tennessee. He also started two games in the regular season against Wisconsin and UCLA, but injured his ankle in the third quarter against UCLA.

The starting position was thought to be Brendan Sullivan’s to lose heading into spring practice, but that now seems highly unlikely with Gronowski on board.

Sullivan and Gronowski both have one season of eligibility.

Iowa has suffered from inadequate quarterback play in recent seasons.

The situation became so bad in the 2023 season that Brian Ferentz, who is son of Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, was fired as the offensive coordinator with four games left in the regular season.

Lester, a former college quarterback, and a former head coach for his alma mater, Western Michigan, was hired by Kirk Ferentz to fix the offense, and a big part of that challenge is fixing the quarterback position.

Lester also worked as an offensive analyst for the Green Bay Packers in the 2023 season, and that apparently made an impression on Gronowski.

“It’s a great coaching staff. With coach (Tim) Lester there and being in the NFL last year and bringing an NFL offense to Iowa, it’s great opportunity to develop as a player, learn an NFL offense and win a lot of games,” Gronowski said to ESPN.

Kirk Ferentz just finished his 26th season as the Iowa head coach, and with 204 wins at Iowa, he is one win from tying Woody Hayes as the Big Ten’s all-time winningest head coach.

Cade McNamara was thought to be the solution at quarterback when he transferred from Michigan to Iowa in 2023, but it just didn’t work out due to injuries and due to his struggles on the field where he started 13 games over two seasons.

McNamara is now back in the transfer portal.

Iowa has had three quarterbacks enter the portal since the end of the 2024 regular season, the others being redshirt freshman Marco Lainez and true freshman James Resar, though Resar switched to receiver about midway through the 2024 season.

Lainez announced on Monday that he has committed to Elon University, which is located in Elon, North Carolina and competes at the FCS level.

Mark Gronowski, who is from Naperville, Illinois, already has played one game in Kinnick Stadium, but it didn’t go well for him as he only completed 10-of-26 passes for 87 yards in a 7-3 loss to Iowa in the 2022 season opener.

Gronowski also had considered declaring for the 2025 NFL Draft, but he apparently liked what he heard from Iowa, and liked what he would receive in NIL money.

Brad Heinrichs, who is the CEO of the Iowa Swarm Collective, posted on X Monday asking fans to contribute to the Swarm Collective because Iowa was on the verge of making a bit of a splash in the portal.

The Iowa fans apparently rose to the challenge and helped to land a highly successful quarterback.

In other news, Iowa offensive lineman Tyler Elsbury announced on Tuesday that he will declare for the 2025 NFL Draft.

Elsbury played a key role over the past two seasons as a backup at guard and center, and he also started at center the in 2024 Music City Bowl for the injured Logan Jones.

Iowa is expected to have three returning starters on the offensive line next season in Logan Jones, tackle Gennings Dunker and guard Beau Stephens.

That also might have helped to convince Gronowski to be a Hawkeye.

He also reportedly visited Wisconsin.

COMMITTED!! #GoHawkeyes #LFG pic.twitter.com/HJdHHKPHkN

— Mark Gronowski (@mgronowski11) January 7, 2025