Iowa Football History in the AP Top 25 Poll
The Iowa Hawkeyes have officially finished the 2023-24 football season as a ranked team at No. 24 in the final AP Top 25 Poll following the national championship game on Monday night.
With that in mind, we decided to take a look back at Iowa’s history in the AP Poll, see how many times each head coach finished with a ranked team, and much more.
Kirk Ferentz (1999-present)
Overall Record at Iowa: 196-119 (.622)
Ranked in final AP Poll: 11 times in 25 seasons.
2023: #24
2021: #23
2020: #16
2019: #15
2018: #25
2015: #9
2009: #7
2008: #20
2004: #8
2003: #8
2002: #8
Hayden Fry (1979-1998)
Overall Record at Iowa: 143-89-6 (.613)
Ranked in final AP Poll: 10 times in 20 seasons.
1996: #18
1995: #25
1991: #10
1990: #18
1987: #16
1986: #16
1985: #10
1984: #16
1983: #14
1981: #18
Bob Commings (1974-1978)
Overall Record at Iowa: 17-38 (.309)
Ranked in final AP Poll: 0 times in 5 seasons.
Frank Lauterbur (1971-1973)
Overall Record at Iowa: 4-28-1 (.136)
Ranked in final AP Poll: 0 times in 3 seasons.
Ray Nagel (1966-1970)
Overall Record at Iowa: 16-32-2 (.340)
Ranked in final AP Poll: 0 times in 5 seasons.
Jerry Burns (1961-1965)
Overall Record at Iowa: 16-27-2 (.378)
Ranked in final AP Poll: 0 times in 5 seasons.
Forest Evashevski (1952-1960)
Overall Record at Iowa: 52-27-4 (.651)
Ranked in final AP Poll: 5 times in 9 seasons.
1960: #3
1958: #2
1957: #6
1956: #3
1953: #9
Leonard Raffensperger (1950-1951)
Overall Record at Iowa: 5-10-3 (.361)
Ranked in final AP Poll: 0 times in 2 seasons
Edward Anderson (1939-1942, 1946-1949)
Overall Record at Iowa: 35-33-2 (.514)
Ranked in final AP Poll: 1 time in 8 seasons
1939: #9
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Note: While the AP Poll currently lists the Top 25 teams in the nation, from 1936 to 1961 it only ranked 20 teams and from 1962 to 1967 only 10 teams were recognized. From 1968 to 1988, the AP again resumed its Top 20 before expanding to the current 25 teams in 1989.
