By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Here we go again.

Two games into the Iowa football team’s 2025 season and fans already are questioning the latest quarterback purchase from the transfer portal, the offensive play calling and why Iowa sometimes makes completing a forward pass seem almost as difficult as climbing Mount Everest with a porta potty on your back.

The names continue to change at quarterback, from Cade McNamara to Deacon Hill to Brendan Sullivan to Jackson Stratton and now Mark Gronowski, but the results, especially the passing results, have pretty much stayed the same.

Gronowski made his second start as a Hawkeye in Saturday’s 16-13 loss at Iowa State, and though he nearly doubled his passing yards compared to his first start against UAlbany, that isn’t saying much since he only passed for 44 yards against the Great Danes in the season opener.

Gronowski threw for 83 yards against the Cyclones with his longest completion gaining 22 yards.

There were at least two drops that certainly didn’t help his cause.

But with just 127 passing yards in two games, Gronowski is sort of picking up where McNamara and the other recent Iowa quarterbacks have left off, and some fans are beyond frustrated, maybe even a lot of fans based on the reaction on social media following Saturday’s loss in Ames.

The Iowa defense held its own as it almost always does, holding the Cyclones to just 238 yards and one touchdown.

Iowa also rushed for 131 yards, and while that is far from being dominant, it would’ve maybe been enough to help beat the Cyclones if the passing game had just been close to average.

Tim Lester inspired hope in his first season as the offensive coordinator in 2024 by upgrading the Iowa rushing attack as Kaleb Johnson led the Big Ten in rushing last season.

The passing game, on the other hand, never took off last season, and it continues to mostly stay grounded this season, even with a 23-year-old quarterback leading the way who threw for over 10,000 yards in four seasons as a starter for FCS power South Dakota State.

Gronowski also has a 50-6 record as a starting quarterback, and he led South Dakota State to two FCS national titles.

There is certainly a difference between playing FCS and major college football.

But to throw for over 10,000 yards, and to win that many games still is impressive at any level.

And yet, as a Hawkeye, Gronowski is only averaging 63.5 passing yards per game, and his team has a 1-1 record.

Iowa only has 131 passing yards overall in two games, which is historically bad.

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz was asked to evaluate Iowa’s passing game following the Iowa State loss.

“We need improvement and we know that, and we will,” Ferentz said. “We’ll continue to improve. I thought we took steps this week. We played a tougher defense, obviously. And it may not have shown up in the numbers the way you’d like it to. But we’re going to be fine. We’ll just keep pushing forward and see where it all goes.”

Before you rip Ferentz for being disingenuous or for being too stubborn to acknowledge the problems with the passing game, consider the circumstances.

Iowa is just two games into the Mark Gronowski experiment, which didn’t come cheap.

It would have also been out of character and counter-productive for Ferentz to have thrown his new starting quarterback under the bus, especially after just two games.

Ferentz avoids criticizing his quarterback publicly under any circumstance.

He might get carried away with his praise, but that’s just how Ferentz chooses to handle it publicly.

Ferentz said to the media after the Iowa State loss that he felt Gronowski looked ” a lot more comfortable” against the Cyclones compared to his Hawkeye debut against UAlbany.

“Certainly improved. I thought he did a good job of leading us,” Ferentz said. “There were some tough circumstances out there. But I thought he really did a good job. The biggest thing is he took a step forward and looked a lot more comfortable as a quarterback today.

“Last week, he was really pressing. So good for him to get that experience, and I really feel good about him moving forward.”

Some fans might read that comment and roll their eyes because they’ve heard this same narrative before as Ferentz has a history of defending his starting quarterback during tough times. Fans have seen Ferentz stay calm in a sea of quarterback dysfunction that ultimately comes back to haunt him, and that causes fans to assume the worst.

This extended stretch of below average quarterback play should make you appreciate what Nate Stanley accomplished as Iowa’s starting quarterback for three seasons from 2017 to 2019.

Stanley never even made third-team All-Big Ten, but he is ranked second in program history with 8,302 passing yards and with 68 touchdown passes.

Compared to Iowa’s recent quarterbacks, Stanley looks like Tom Brady.

Gronowski still has plenty of chances to show that he is worth the NIL investment that it took to land him from the transfer portal.

He has lived up to his reputation as a running quarterback, combining for 76 rushing yards in the first two games.

But he also has 27 rushing attempts in the first two games, which seems excessive for an Iowa quarterback.

For Gronowski to have carried that many times in the first two games is probably directly related to the problems with the passing game.

There was one specific play in the Iowa State game that sort of illustrates Iowa’s ongoing passing woes.

Gronowski completed a pass to receiver Jacob Gill on a side-line route early in the second quarter. Gill was pushed out of bounds at the Iowa State 12-yard line after gaining five yards.

The problem was that it was 3rd-and-7.

Iowa would settle for a 31 field goal by Drew Stevens.

Ferentz reminded his players after the Iowa State loss that two games doesn’t make a 12-game season.

Barring what would be one of the biggest upsets in program history, Iowa should get back on the winning side against lowly UMass this coming Saturday at Kinnick Stadium. The Minutemen were defeated by Bryant, 27-26, this past Saturday at home, falling to 0-2.

With a victory, Kirk Ferentz would finally move past Woody Hayes to become the Big Ten’s all-time leader in wins. They’re currently tied with 205 wins.

And it probably wouldn’t take much from the passing game to make history.

But once Big Ten play starts, the passing game will have to do its part, at least to some degree, or Iowa could be in serious trouble considering its schedule.

“We’re definitely capable,” Jacob Gill said. “We’ve got to go out there and execute at the end of the day.”

Gronowski was asked after the Iowa State loss what was the biggest thing that he learned about himself from playing in the game.

“I feel like I really came into this game a lot more confident and a lot more calm,” he said. “I was able to make a lot more better decisions throughout the game.

“We were running a ton of (run-pass options) just trying to attack those safeties that we’re trying to get aggressive in the run game.”

Gronowski did acknowledge that the offense has to be more effective early in games.

“One thing, I think we’ve got to start a little bit faster,” he said. “We had those first two drives where we started three-and-out. We’ve just got to get the ball rolling earlier in the game to really start gaining that momentum and gaining that rhythm on offense.”

If that were to happen, Gronowski and his cohorts would start to gain the trust of fans who are tired of watching Hawkeye quarterbacks struggle.

Some of the folks on social media following the Iowa State loss were asking for backup quarterback Hank Brown to be given a chance, which is hardly a surprise. The surprise would be if they didn’t ask for a quarterback change because the backup quarterback has been Iowa’s most popular player for quite some time.

At this point, words about getting better, staying the course and working hard mean very little to the fans.

They want action and results from the quarterback position, and rightfully so.