Greg McElroy offers Iowa up as a spoiler team in 2025

Iowa has been very consistent as a program as it enters what will be the 27th season under Kirk Ferentz. Still, there have been a lot of changes coming from last season and into this one for the Hawkeyes.

In a recent episode of ‘Always College Football,’ Greg McElroy tiered the Big Ten as he ranked Iowa in tier three with the spoilers, along with Minnesota and Wisconsin. That’s based a lot on what the Hawkeyes did a year ago to find some better balance between their offensive and defensive sides of the football.

“This has been a team that has kind of adapted a little bit these last couple years,” McElroy said. “They wanted to control pace; they wanted to win field position. As a result, you did not always get the most exciting offensive style of football, but I really kind of like some of the adjustments that they made offensively last year. They nearly doubled their scoring average and had a bit of a record-setting rushing attack. However, as a result of that offensive surge, the defense took a slight step back and it led to an 8-5 record.”

Iowa, while mixing in some double-digit win seasons over the past half decade, went down to 8-5 overall in 2024. That said, the Hawkeyes had their best offense since 2020 by scoring 27.7 points with 328.8 yards, led by 197.2 in rushing, per game, while also having one of the better defenses in the country, which allowed only 17.8 points and 318.4 yards per game.

With that, McElroy gave a lot of credit to their offensive staff, as the Hawkeyes posted more than a dozen points more and nearly 100 total yards more than they did the season prior, when they were one of the worst units in the nation. Now, assuming it makes up for the production lost from RB Kaleb Johnson, Iowa could continue to trend that way offensively, especially with the interest around the addition of QB Mark Gronowski.

“Cannot overstate what Tim Lester meant to this team. He made an immediate impact last year in the run game. They went from 109th to 24th running the football, and I think that’s a great place to start. You also add Warren Ruggiero from Wake Forest as an analyst to kind of help out a little bit with the passing attack,” McElroy said. “If you can figure out a way to adequately replace Kaleb Johnson, you’re going to be just fine.

“Will be interesting to see what exactly the quarterback situation looks like because they go out and they sign Mark Gronowski, who was one of the best players in the FCS. He won the Walter Camp Player of the Year, which is the FCS Heisman, two years ago. Was a four-year starter. Won two national championships. And brings a record as a college starter of 49-6. His stats were outrageous; he also had a ton of rushing yards. This could be an offense that reverts a little bit away from the traditional run game to more of a quarterback-centric approach…This is going to be a bit of an offensive-centric football team, though, if Mark Gronowski is the guy we think he is, transferring down from South Dakota State.”

Then, defensively, McElroy expects more of the same from the Hawkeyes. They once again have lost several key names but with the longest-tenured defensive coordinator in the country, Iowa could have another unit that ranks in the Top 10, if not higher, to Top 20, as they all have for the past decade.

“Phil Parker is always going to be one of the best, and I would not expect anything less. He’s going to be great again this year, even though the numbers last year did not necessarily live up to the expectations that we’ve seen in the past – the pass rush was a little bit down, the secondary didn’t quite play as well as one would expect,” McElroy said. “There’s a little bit of a reload needed in a few different places…You’re kind of looking at a bit of a rebuild but as long as Phil Parker is there, I still think, defensively, they’re going to be sound, they’re going to be stout, they’re going to be super physical.”

That all sounds really good for Iowa as a program that has been in contention over the past 10 years in the Big Ten. However, that all said, McElroy didn’t have the Hawkeyes in the title-contending or playoff-contending tiers above tier three, considering the schedule they also have, which features several of the other top teams in the conference, let alone in college football.

“Really tough schedule considering what they’ve seen in the past. You have a brutal, brutal game against Penn State, against Oregon, and against USC on the road. That Oregon game and then USC on the road back-to-back. You also get the CyHawk Trophy. That game is on the road. You also have Wisconsin on the road. Minnesota at home, Indiana at home,” McElroy said. “So, a very difficult schedule for Iowa this year, which is why I don’t think they’re necessarily going to be in the mix for the Big Ten Championship but I wouldn’t not be surprised at all if they knock off one of those conference championship contenders.”

Again, there are few programs that you know what you’re going to get from more than Iowa, having averaged almost eight wins a season during this tenure, and nearly nine wins a season over the past decade, with much of the same formula. Still, with some of their changes of the past year and a half, the Hawkeyes could be a little different and, with that, be more interesting as a team out of the Big Ten.