By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Kirk Ferentz has now gone where no Big Ten head football coach has gone before, and oddly enough, he did so with help from the much-maligned Iowa passing game.

Graduate quarterback Mark Gronowski passed for 179 yards and two touchdowns, and he also ran for another score as Iowa crushed UMass 47-7 on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

Gronowski was replaced by backup quarterback Hank Brown late in the third quarter. Brown would go on to complete 5-of-7 passes for 55 yards and one touchdown.

With the victory, Kirk Ferentz has become the Big Ten’s all-time winningest head football coach with 206 wins.

Former Ohio State coaching legend Woody Hayes had held that distinction since 1978 with 205 victories.

“That part is surreal,” said Ferentz, who received a Gatorade bath from his players as time expired. “It’s not something you think about. It’s never been a goal of mine. Being a head coach was never really a goal, so we’ll start there.

“But the whole concept was just do the best we can in whatever we do, and things have worked out. I found a great place and have been around a lot of great people.”

Ferentz was interviewed on the field after the game by one of his former Iowa players; former defensive lineman Anthony Herron, who also played in the NFL and now works for the Big Ten Network.

The Iowa players huddled around Ferentz as he answered Herron’s questions and reflected on a career that was tough at the beginning.

But the same head coach who lost 18 of his first 20 games as the head Hawk has now won more games as a Big Ten head coach than anybody; more than Woody, more than Bo Schembechler, and more than Barry Alvarez just to name a few coaching legends.

Ferentz, who turned 70 on Aug. 1, spent nine seasons as the Iowa offensive line coach under Hayden Fry from 1981 to 1989. That adds up to 36 years as a Hawkeye, more than half of Ferentz’s life.

Ferentz also has had the opportunity to coach his three sons at Iowa, including his oldest son, Brian Ferentz, a former offensive lineman, who also used to be an Iowa assistant coach and the offensive coordinator.

“That part you can’t put a price tag on having your kids on the team,” Kirk Ferentz said on the Big Ten Network post-game interview. “Luckily, I didn’t have to coach them directly. That was a good thing.

“But it’s been special. We started our family here in 1983. So, just so many good things about being at Iowa.”

Iowa was coming off a deflating a 16-13 loss at Iowa State last Saturday, so just to get back in the win column was important.

The fact that Saturday’s win also had historical significance made it even more special.

Iowa finished with 435 yards, including a season-high 234 passing yards.

“We’re not there yet, but we’re stepping forward,” Kirk Ferentz said of Iowa’s passing game. “I think we made progress tonight. First and foremost, we showed up and played hard, which we’ve done all three weeks now.”

Iowa took the opening kick and then drove 68 yards for a touchdown on just three plays. Gronowski completed a 45-yard pass to a wide open Sam Phillips on the second play from scrimmage and a 20-yard touchdown pass to Seth Anderson on the third play from scrimmage.

Gronowski completed 11-of-19 passes for 160 yards and two touchdowns in the first half. That is 33 more passing yards then he combined to throw for in Iowa’s first two games.

Iowa also had at least three dropped passes in the first half.

“We were talking about it all week that we needed to start fast,” Gronowski said. “The first week and last week we didn’t start fast on our first drives. So it was a big emphasis in practice just to continue to keep up the tempo all throughout practice this week.

“And we showed up on that first drive. We brought a lot of energy to this one.”

Gronowski also won his 51st game as a college quarterback, breaking his tie with former Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore for most wins all time.

Gronowski won 49 games over four seasons as the starting quarterback for South Dakota State before transferring to Iowa.

Receiver Kaden Wetjen scored two touchdowns for Iowa, the first on a 20-yard run in the first quarter, while the second came on a 95-yard punt return early in the third quarter.

His return tied Bill Happel for the longest punt return in program history.

“It was really cool to get that done for him today,” Wetjen said of helping Kirk Ferentz break the record. “He taught me how to be a better man. It has been super cool to learn from him.”

The celebration on the field following Wetjen’s punt return didn’t last long, however, as UMass defensive back TJ Magee suffered what appeared to be a head or neck injury near the Iowa sideline.

Magee appeared to be unconscious and didn’t show any movement as medical personnel rushed on to the field to examine him. He was strapped to a backboard and carted off the field as fans looked on in eerie silence.

Kirk Ferentz also stood nearby and watched as medical personnel worked on Magee.

UMass then announced on social media in the fourth quarter that Magee was alert and had movement in his extremities and that he would be taken to the hospital for further evaluation.

Meanwhile, Ferentz’s climb to the top of the Big Ten coaching mountain might cause some to say that his record is simply the result of longevity since it came in his 331st game as the Iowa head coach, while Hayes coached in 276 games.

And while there is some truth in that, there is also something to be said for longevity, especially in a sport as competitive as major college football.

A head coach doesn’t last for 27 seasons in one place without doing a lot of things the right way, on and off the field.

Ferentz has been named the Big Ten Coach of the Year four times (2002, 2004, 2009, 2015). Only Michigan’s Bo Schembechler has more conference of the year award with six.

Iowa won shares of Big Ten Titles in 2002 and 2004 and Big Ten West Division titles in  2015, 2021 and 2023.

Iowa also has had just two losing seasons since 2001.

So, this career milestone is about more than just Ferentz hanging around long enough to finally get it.

Ferentz rebuilt the program where he got his first big break in college coaching, thanks to Hayden Fry hiring him as the Iowa offensive coach in 1981. Ferentz has since kept Iowa among the Big Ten’s upper division teams on a consistent basis for nearly a quarter century.

He could’ve left for other more prestigious jobs, but Ferentz has chosen to stay on what is now a record-breaking course.

Up next for Iowa is the start of Big Ten play this coming Friday night at Rutgers, which defeated Norfolk State 60-10 on Saturday in Piscataway, New Jersey.

The Scarlet Knights are 3-0 under veteran head coach Greg Schiano.

And with the game being played on a Friday night, the atmosphere in Piscataway could be electric, at least by Rutgers’ standards.

 

UMass 0 7 0  0 – 7

Iowa 20 10 10 7 – 47

I – Seth Anderson 20 pass from Mark Gronowski (Drew Stevens kick)

I – Anderson 3 pass from Gronowski (kick failed)

I – Kaden Wetjen 20 run (Stevens kick)

UM – Grant Jordan 6 run (Derek Morris kick)

I – Stevens 54 FG

I – Gronowski 13 run (Stevens kick)

I – Wetjen 95 punt return (Stevens kick)

I – Stevens 27 FG

I – KJ Parker 2 pass from Hank Brown (Stevens kick)