By Pat Harty

Some believe that the Iowa football team’s 8-4 record is sort of misleading because it understates what truly has happened this season.

The record doesn’t show that Iowa’s four losses were against ranked opponents by a combined 15 points.

It doesn’t show how fortunate Indiana was to have escaped from Iowa City with a five-point win, or how relieved Oregon was to have left town with a two-point win.

And it doesn’t show how unified and committed this Iowa team is on and off the field.

One of the storylines heading into Wednesday’s ReliaQuest Bowl matchup between Iowa and 10-2 Vanderbilt in Tampa, Florida is that Iowa’s roster is virtually intact with no players having opted out of participating in the bowl game.

Vanderbilt was in a similar position until star tight end Eli Sowers decided to skip the bowl game.

To say his loss is significant would be an understatement.

Vanderbilt dual-threat quarterback Diego Pavia, who finished runner-up for the 2025 Heisman Trophy, gets most of the attention, and is certainly the straw that stirs the drink on offense.

But Pavia also has relied heavily on Sowers to produce.

Sowers finished 2025 sixth in the Southeastern Conference with 62 receptions and 10th in receiving yards with 769. Those numbers led to him winning the John Mackey Award as the nation’s best tight end.

Other players will have to step up, but that is much easier said then done.

So, if Iowa truly is better than its 8-4 record, and with Vanderbilt missing one of its key pieces on offense, shouldn’t Iowa win this game?

Pavia is clearly the most decorated player on either team, but Iowa also has its own individual and group star power in return specialist Kaden Wetjen, who has won back-to-back Jet Awards as the nation’s top return specialist, and its veteran offensive line, which was named the winner of the 2025 Joe Moore  Award as the nation’s top collegiate offensive line.

This will be the last chance for this Iowa team to beat an opponent that is perceived as being better, if ever so slightly, considering that Vanderbilt, even without Sowers, is favored by 4.5 points.

The Vanderbilt players thought with 10 wins for the first time in program history that they deserved to be in the 12-team playoff.

But the playoff committee thought otherwise.

Both teams will have something to prove in the bowl game beyond just the usual bowl-game chatter.

For Iowa, it is the chance to beat a ranked opponent for the first time since the 2021 season, while Vanderbilt wants to show that it deserved to be in the playoff as a 10-win team from the deep and talented Southeastern Conference.

Iowa has lost 13 straight games against ranked opponents with four of the losses coming this season to Iowa State (16-13), Indiana (20-25), Oregon (18-16) and USC (26-21).

Until this streak ends, it’ll be used to minimize whatever Iowa accomplishes, and rightfully so.

The time to end this streak is long overdue.

Vanderbilt faced six ranked opponents in the regular season and finished 4-2 in those game, losing to then-No. 10 Alabama and then-No. 20 Texas by scores of 30-14 and 34-31, respectively.

The Commodores lost to Texas despite Pavia passing for 365 yards.

To put that passing total in perspective, Iowa hasn’t had a 300-yard passer since Nate Stanley against Illinois in 2019.

Pavia, listed at 6-foot and 207 pounds, is a handful for any defense as his statistics show.

He amassed 4,018 total yards in the regular season – 3,192 passing yards and 27 touchdowns and 826 rushing yards and nine scores – and led his team to 10 wins for the first time in program history.

He certainly didn’t help his image by publicly lashing out the Heisman voters for not picking him as the winner, though he did apologize shortly thereafter.

But as a quarterback, and as a competitor, Pavia demands respect and the full attention of any defense.

Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker will have had more than three weeks to prepare for Pavia and his cohorts, and to watch the competition unfold on the field could be fascinating.

Pavia is perhaps most dangerous when a play breaks down and he is forced to improvise by leaving the pocket.

“It’s going to be a challenge for us,” Parker said. “We’re all going to have to do our jobs and make sure that we can corral him. It’s going to have to take good pursuit, good awareness, good leverage, try to contain him inside the pocket if we can.

“Not too many guys have done that yet. So it’s going to be a challenge for us. We’re looking forward to it. I think our guys prepared pretty well the last two weeks and we’re looking forward to it.”

This game on paper is an intriguing matchup, one of the best in this year’s bowl field.

Now it just has to live up to it.

If both teams play up to their potential, the game should be close and competitive.

How it plays out style wise could have a lot to say about who prevails in that Vanderbilt would probably prefer the game to be more high scoring, forcing the Iowa offense to keep up.

Iowa graduate quarterback Mark Gronowski has been his own version of Diego Pavia, at least on the field, but with far less productivity, totaling 2,020 yards.

Gronowski rushed for 491 yards and 15 touchdowns in the regular season, both of which are program records for a quarterback, and passed for 1,529 yards and eight touchdowns.

Iowa’s inability to consistently throw downfield was a problem heading into the season and it still remains a problem.

It is reasonable to assume that Vanderbilt will load the box to stop the run, while also daring Iowa to throw downfield.

Opponents almost always use that strategy against Iowa, because when Iowa struggles to stay ahead of the chains with its running game, the offense becomes rudderless.

Gronowski enters Wednesday’s game with 57 career victories, which is the most for any Division I quarterback. He won 49 games at South Dakota State as a four-year starter, along with two FCS national titles.

Hope and optimism were high when Gronowski transferred to Iowa; the thinking being that he would finally fix the problems at quarterback.

And in some ways he has with his running ability and leadership, and with his grit.

But he also has come up short from a team standpoint with the four losses.

The matchup with Vanderbilt, and with Pavia, will be a chance for Gronowski to finally get a signature win as a Hawkeye.

“Personally, it’s super important,” Gronowski said. “It’s another opportunity to go out there with the guys and kind of show what we’ve done this entire year. I think we’ve been a great football team. Obviously, we’ve come up short a couple times, and as usual, there are a couple plays you wish you could have back.

“But it’s just another opportunity and all of love playing football. It’s a kid’s game at the end of the day and all of us dreamed of being in this opportunity. and all of us are playing in the game, which I’m really proud of; all of us showing up and being here and wanting to play.”

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz and Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea both met with the media on Tuesday to discuss the matchup. And for Ferentz, it was also another opportunity to explain why bowl games still are special to him.

Making the college playoff is obviously the goal for every Power 4 team, but Ferentz sees tremendous value in playing in any bowl game.

“Every opportunity a team has to compete is special,” Ferentz said. “And when you get a chance to play in a bowl game where you’re together for another month as a team, you get one more chance to compete together, and stay in a real nice city in a really nice place and get treated really well, I don’t see how it’s a bad deal.

“But if you enjoy competition, which I think is what college football is all about, it’s hard to minimize the importance of these games.”

Lea took the opportunity on Tuesday to pay tribute to Kirk Ferentz, who is the Big Ten’s all-time winningest football coach with 212 victories. The 70-year-old Ferentz is also the longest-tenured head coach in the country with this being his 27th season.

“I want to start just by saying what an honor it is to share a stage with Coach Ferentz,” Lea said. “I think there’s a few guys in our profession that are considered to be the highest level. Certainly Coach is a part of that group. What he’s been able to build at Iowa is honestly everything that we want to build at Vanderbilt, including the long-term stability and sustained success.

“We know we have a really tough opponent tomorrow. I think that makes it such an exciting game. I think there’s similar DNA strands in both programs.

“But I just have such a respect for Coach, how he’s done it for as long as he’s done it, as high a level as he’s done it, and done it the right way, too.”

Iowa will be making its 38th bowl game appearance on Wednesday and its seventh appearance in the ReliaQuest Bowl, formerly known as the Outback Bowl.

Iowa is 3-3 all-time in the ReliaQuest Bowl.

The stage is now set for Iowa to climb above .500.

Prediction: Iowa 27, Vanderbilt 23

 

Iowa (8-4, 6-3) vs. Vanderbilt (10-2, 6-2)

When: 11 a.m.

Where: Tampa, Florida, Raymond James Stadium

TV: ESPN

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network

Series history: Iowa and Vanderbilt will meet for the first time in program history

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the season, the senior led the SEC with a 71.2 passing completion percentage. He also led with a 9.9-yard average per completion. Furthermore, he was second in the league with 27 touchdowns and fourth with 3,192 yards. In addition, his 826 rushing yards were eighth in the league to go along with nine more scores, which was sixth.

 

Wide receiver Junior Sherill had 46 receptions and seven touchdowns. Vandy’s top running back is Sedrick Alexander, who gained 550 yards and scored 11 touchdowns. Overall, the Commodores rank 12th in the nation in total offense with 468 yards a game