Iowa Football News and Notes

For the third time in four years the Iowa football team came up short in their battle with in-state rival Iowa State. The ending of this one felt similar to the previous year with the Cyclones hitting a 54 yard field goal in the final minutes to secure the victory.

We have your weekly dose of news and notes from the Hawkeye football game, including handing out a few game balls to deserving Iowa players.

GAME BALLS

OFFENSE – Jaziun Patterson – There must be something about Jack Trice Stadium that brings out the best in the Florida native. In his freshman year, Patterson had one of his best games, rushing for 86 yards in the Hawkeyes win over the Cyclones. This time he was the third back into the game and once again really ran hard against the Iowa State defense. Patterson finished the day with 60 yards on the ground.

DEFENSE – T.J. Hall – Let’s go with the Iowa cornerback this week. He was really outstanding in coverage, limiting Rocco Becht to just 134 yards passing on the day for the Cyclones. Hall was credited with breaking up three passes on the day and appeared to contribute to another one in the second half. He also had three tackles on defense.

SPECIAL TEAMS – Drew Stevens – Not a lot to pick from today. Stevens was certainly hoping to get the opportunity to tie the game late on Saturday, but that didn’t happen. He did hit a pair of field goals from 31 and 36 yards in the game. He is a perfect 4-4 on the season in field goal attempts.

NEWS AND NOTES

DRESS LIST

The first road game of the season means the first dress list. That means we get to see who made the travel roster for the Hawkeyes.

QB: Gronowski, Brown, Hecklinski,

RB: Washington, Williams, Patterson, McNeil

WR: Phillips, Howard, Gill, Paker, Anderson, Wetjen, Eichmann, Vander Zee (not in uniform)

TE: Ostrenga, Ortwerth, Vonnahme, Meyer, Large, Burt

OL: Lauck, Dotzler, Stephens, Leighton Jones, Logan Jones, Myslinksi, Pieper, Winter, Dunker, Leonard, Allgeyer

DL: Llewellyn, Merriweather, Graves, Hubert, Hawthorne, Pace, Pittman, Hurkett, Allen, Gaffney, Epenesa, Anderson

LB: Rexroth, Van Kekerix, Harrell, Montgomery, Sharar, Ries, Twedt, Telander, Buffington, DeLong

DB: Hall, Watson, Lee, Godfery, Barros, Entringer, Lutmer, Kolarik, Nwankpa, Gerardy, Mota

ST: Stevens, Dakin, Speltz, Worrell, Nissen, Buhr

INJURY UPDATE

Remember when Kirk Ferentz said at the end camp that they had not been hit with significant injuries? Yeah they are piling up. Tight end Addison Ostrenga suffered a lower leg injury and it appears that he will be sidelined for an extended period of time. That will likely mean more playing time for players like DJ Vonnahme and potentially a chance for true freshman Thomas Meyer to play more than four games this year.

Iowa offensive lineman Gennings Dunker and Beau Stephens also were injured on Saturday. Kirk Ferentz said following the game that he did not believe that the injuries were serious in nature. Dunker was replaced at right tackle by Jack Dotzler and Stephens was subbed in for by Leighton Jones.

0-10 VS RANKED OPPONENTS

The struggle for the Iowa football team against ranked opponents has reached ten straight games. Iowa has not dropped their last ten contest against teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25.

CY-HAWK STRUGGLES

Iowa has also now lost three of their last four in the Cy-Hawk series. This was Iowa State’s first win at Jack Trice since 2011. The last time Iowa State won three of four in this series was 2011 to 2014. The last time the Cyclones won back to back games in this series was 2011-12.

GRONOWSKI’S DAY

It was a mixed bag of a day for Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski. It was certainly a better one than his first outing, but still not up to expectations. Gronowski was 13-24 for 83 yards in the air, which was an improvement over the 44 yards against Albany. On the ground, he was the Hawkeyes second leading rusher with 37 yards total when subtracting sacks on the last two plays for Iowa on offense. He also scored Iowa’s only touchdown of the game on a two yard run.

GILL PICKS UP THE PACE

While the passing game is still certainly a work in progress, it was a better day overall for Jacob Gill. Last year he led the Hawkeyes in receiving and showed signs that he might be ready to do that again this season. Gill hauled in five passes for 52 yards on Saturday, including a 22 yard strike from Gronowski.

LONG DRIVES

The Hawkeyes put together a pair of methodical 16 play drives on Saturday resulting in 10 points on the scoreboard. The first was in the second quarter. It was a march of 85 yards and was the longest in terms of plays since 2021 against Kent State. The second was also 16 plays and covered 77 yards. It took over 9 minutes off the clock in the third quarter and was the longest since another 9 minute drive against Illinois in 2003.

TACKLE LEADERS

The Iowa linebackers led the way on Saturday. Jaden Harrell had nine stops against the Cyclones. Linebacker Karson Sharar and safety Xavier Nwankpa chipped in with seven stops each. Iowa did not register any quarterback sacks on Saturday and had only one quarterback hurry and that was from Aaron Graves.

UP NEXT

Iowa returns to action Sept. 13, hosting UMass in its nonconference finale at Kinnick Stadium.  The game will begin at 6:30 p.m. (CT) and be televised on BTN.