By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – They come from five different Midwestern states.

They combine for an average height of about 6-foot-5 and with a combined weight of 1,532 pounds.

And they were just named the best offensive line in college football.

Your 2025 Joe Moore Award winner is the Iowa offensive line featuring starters Trevor Lauck at left tackle, a third-year sophomore from Indianapolis; Beau Stephens at left guard, a senior from Blue Springs, Missouri; Logan Jones at center, a graduate student from Council Bluffs; Kade Pieper at right guard, a sophomore from Norfolk, Nebraska; and Gennings Dunker at right tackle, a senior from Lena, Illinois.

They were picked over the other two finalists, Indiana and Oregon.

Those teams both defeated Iowa in regular season by scores of 20-15 and 18-16, respectively, and they’re both in the college playoff, whereas Iowa is preparing to face Vanderbilt in the ReliaQuest Bowl on Dec. 31 in Tampa, Florida.

And yet even with that working against the Iowa offensive line, the voters for the Joe Moore Award still picked Iowa as its winner.

This marks the second time that Iowa has won the Joe Moore Award, the first time coming in 2016 when Akrum Wadley and LeShun Daniels became the first Hawkeye running back duo to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season.

Logan Jones was also recently named the winner of the Rimington Trophy, which goes to the nation’s top collegiate center, and all five of Iowa’s starting offensive linemen made at least third-team All-Big Ten, including three first-team picks: Jones, Stephens and Dunker.

A strong case could have been made for any of the three finalists to win the Joe Moore Award.

Indiana and Oregon have been dominant on offense throughout the season, with both offenses being big-plays waiting happen.

The Oregon offensive line was especially impressive in the win over Iowa as the Ducks rushed for 261 yards while Iowa barely had 100 rushing yards.

So again, there would have been justification in picking Oregon as the winner, and the same with Indiana.

But it also could be argued that the Iowa offensive line has faced more obstacles and disadvantages due to its offense being way less explosive than the other two.

Most of Iowa’s touchdowns have come on long, methodical drives in which the offensive line carved out running lanes against defenses that were designed to stop the run because they didn’t fear, or maybe even respect Iowa’s downfield passing attack.

Iowa averaged a very respectable 177.8 rushing yards per game and 4.6 yards per carry in the regular season.

Graduate quarterback Mark Gronowski rushed for 491 yards and scored 15 rushing touchdowns in the regular season, both program records for a quarterback.

Through the air, however, and despite having rock-solid pass blocking, Iowa has averaged just 137.8 passing yards per game with 10 touchdown passes.

The Iowa offensive line didn’t have the luxury of blocking for an offense that is unpredictable or explosive, and yet, it still performed at a pretty high level for much of the season.

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz climbed the coaching ladder as an offensive line coach and his influence, along with George Barnett’s influence as the Iowa offensive line coach, can’t be understated.

Both coaches have helped to shape and mold this offensive line into a cohesive and durable unit as each of the five starters didn’t miss a game this season.

It was rough at times when the three seniors were underclassmen, maybe from having to play ahead of schedule.

But they have persevered, stayed the course and trusted the process.

And now they’re being rewarded as the nation’s best offensive line.