Iowa City Today

Iowa Hawkeyes will face the No. 19-ranked USC Trojans in Los Angeles on Saturday, November 15, marking their first game against USC in Los Angeles since 1976. The matchup at the L.A. Coliseum is scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. CT kickoff and will be broadcast on BTN and the Hawkeye Radio Network.

Iowa enters the contest with a 6-3 overall record (4-2 Big Ten), while USC stands at 7-2 (5-1 Pac-12). The Hawkeyes became bowl eligible after their Week 9 win over Minnesota, making them eligible for postseason play for the 13th consecutive season and for the 23rd time in the last 25 years.

The team’s three losses this season have all come against ranked opponents—No. 16, No. 11, and No. 19—by a combined margin of just ten points, with each game decided in the closing minutes.

Iowa’s defense has played a significant role this season, ranking fourth nationally in both total defense (250.2 yards per game) and scoring defense (13 points per game). They are also fifth in first down defense and passing defense, as well as seventeenth in rushing defense. Defensive Coordinator Phil Parker could see his unit post its lowest single-season scoring average under his tenure if current trends continue.

Quarterback Mark Gronowski has provided versatility to Iowa’s offense by contributing both through the air and on the ground. He is currently the only player in the nation to score a touchdown in every game this season—a streak that sets a new Big Ten record for quarterbacks—and leads all FBS quarterbacks with twelve rushing touchdowns, an Iowa single-season record for his position.

Graduate running back Kamari Moulton returned from injury to lead Iowa’s rushing attack over the past six games, amassing a team-high 522 yards on 105 carries with two touchdowns.

Special teams have also contributed significantly to Iowa’s success. Graduate Kaden Wetjen was named recipient of The Jet Award as college football’s top return specialist—the first Hawkeye to earn this honor—and leads the nation in combined return yards for a second straight year. Wetjen is also noted as being "the only player in the country to score via a punt, kickoff, rushing and passing touchdown," according to team records.

Senior kicker Drew Stevens set an Iowa program record with his seventy-first career field goal during Week 8 against Penn State and tied an Iowa and Kinnick Stadium record with a fifty-eight-yard field goal against Oregon.

Head coach Kirk Ferentz continues to reach milestones during his twenty-seventh season at Iowa. He recently became "the all-time winningest coach in Big Ten Conference history" after securing his two hundred sixth victory as a member of the conference earlier this year.

Saturday's meeting will be the eleventh between Iowa and USC since their series began in Los Angeles in 1925; USC leads overall seven games to three but holds only a slight edge when hosting Iowa at home (three wins to two). Their most recent matchup was at the Holiday Bowl in 2019, where Iowa won forty-nine to twenty-four.

The Hawkeyes’ red zone efficiency ranks third among Big Ten teams and twentieth nationally—they have scored on ninety-one point nine percent of their trips inside opponents’ twenty-yard line so far this season.

Ferentz reflected on his previous experience coaching at L.A. Coliseum: "Coach Kirk Ferentz has coached in the L.A. Coliseum once before, in 1993 when he was an assistant coach for the Cleveland Browns."

As both teams prepare for Saturday's contest, several individual performances—including those by Gronowski, Wetjen, Stevens, and defensive standouts like Koen Entringer—will be closely watched as Iowa seeks its first road win over USC since before many current players were born.