Iowa City Today

The Iowa Hawkeyes are set to open their 2025 football season against UAlbany at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City on Saturday, August 30. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:10 p.m. Central Time, with television coverage on FS1 and radio coverage through the Hawkeye Radio Network.

Iowa enters the new season receiving votes in preseason polls, ranking No. 33 in the coaches’ poll and No. 44 in the Associated Press rankings. The team returns 13 starters—six on offense, five on defense, and two specialists—from last season’s roster, which includes a total of 41 returning letterwinners.

During the College Football Playoff era, Iowa has secured 96 wins, ranking fifth in the Big Ten and eleventh nationally over that period. Among returning specialists are punter Rhys Dakin and return specialist Kaden Wetjen, both of whom received All-America honors last year. Wetjen was also awarded the Jett Award as the nation’s top returner.

At quarterback, Mark Gronowski transfers from South Dakota State after posting a record-tying 49 career wins as a starter at the FCS level. Gronowski led his previous team to two national championships and accumulated more than 10,000 passing yards along with over 1,700 rushing yards for a combined total of 130 touchdowns.

Last season under first-year offensive coordinator Tim Lester, Iowa’s offense saw significant improvement by averaging 27.7 points per game—a jump from their previous national rank of No. 132 to No. 72 in scoring offense.

The Hawkeyes have maintained consistency by winning at least eight games each year for nine consecutive seasons—a distinction shared by only four other FBS teams: Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, and Ohio State. The program is also one of seven nationwide to post eleven straight winning seasons.

Defensively, Iowa allowed an average of just 17.8 points per game in 2024 and has held opponents below twenty points per game for nine straight seasons—the longest active streak nationally by six years. The team finished eleventh nationally in scoring defense and twentieth in total defense last year.

Since the start of the 2015 season, Iowa is undefeated (78-5) when leading by eight or more points during a game and holds a strong record (32-1) when scoring at least twenty-one points since 2020.

This will be the first-ever meeting between Iowa and UAlbany. Historically, Iowa is successful in season openers with a record of 101-33-2 overall and has won ten out of its last eleven opening games under head coach Kirk Ferentz.

Saturday marks Iowa’s twenty-fifth night game at Kinnick Stadium; they hold a record of seventeen wins to seven losses under such conditions.

Mark Gronowski steps into his role as starting quarterback for Iowa this year after completing his undergraduate and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering at South Dakota State University. He is one of sixteen quarterbacks nationally who have started at least one game each year over three consecutive seasons.

The quarterback room features five first-year players—three transfers including Gronowski—and only one returning player from last season: junior Jackson Stratton.

On defense, key contributors return including Ethan Hurkett (team leader in sacks), Aaron Graves (leader in forced fumbles), and Max Llewellyn (defensive line reserve). Transfers Jonah Pace from Central Michigan and Bryce Hawthorne from South Dakota State add depth to the defensive line rotation.

In the secondary, returning starters include T.J. Hall and Deshaun Lee at defensive back along with safety Xavier Nwankpa—who moves to free safety following Quinn Schulte’s graduation—and transfer Shahid Barros joins from South Dakota.

Turnovers remain an area of strength for Iowa; last year’s squad forced twenty-four turnovers (including sixteen interceptions) across thirteen games—ranking second among Big Ten teams and seventeenth nationally for takeaways.

Kaden Wetjen became the first Hawkeye ever to win The Jet Award as college football’s top return specialist after amassing more than one thousand combined kick return yards—including two touchdowns on returns during regular-season play—and led all FBS players in kickoff return yards last season.

Senior kicker Drew Stevens begins this campaign tied for third place all-time at Iowa with fifty-four career field goals made. Last year he connected on twenty out of twenty-three attempts—including multiple field goals beyond fifty yards—and earned Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week honors following a record-setting performance against Maryland.

Punter Rhys Dakin averaged forty-four yards per punt as a freshman last year while earning FWAA Freshman All-America recognition; nearly half his punts were either fair caught or downed inside the opponent’s twenty-yard line.

Head coach Kirk Ferentz enters his twenty-seventh season leading Iowa football—making him college football's longest-tenured active head coach—with more than two hundred victories as part of both Iowa State University (where he achieved his two-hundredth win) and within Big Ten Conference play (trailing only Woody Hayes).

Longtime assistant coaches Phil Parker, LeVar Woods, Seth Wallace, Kelvin Bell—alongside strength coach Raimond Braithwaite—have together served nearly seventy combined years under Ferentz's leadership; three current assistants also played for Ferentz during their own collegiate careers at Iowa.

Public address announcer Lou Crist will call his final home opener for the Hawkeye Marching Band this weekend after serving since nineteen eighty-one.