Every few years, the Iowa Hawkeyes and head coach Kirk Ferentz have something up their sleeves, where they quietly enter the season only to make noise when it matters. Entering 2025, there is a growing sense that Iowa could be in store for one of those types of seasons.
While some like the Hawkeyes to crush their win total, Iowa is still being underrated by metrics as the season approaches.
ESPN released its Football Power Index rankings and the Hawkeyes were chosen as a team that is entirely undervalued.
There are quite a few non-SEC teams we could choose from here, but I’m going to go with No. 39 Iowa. The Hawkeyes have more to replace on defense than usual, but a) I can’t even pretend like they’ll have anything other than a top-10 or top-15 defense until proven otherwise, and b) the offense improved significantly last year (albeit from horrific to merely mediocre) and might have made a lovely QB upgrade by bringing in South Dakota State’s Mark Gronowski. Losing running back Kaleb Johnson hurts, but this very much feels like a top-25-level team to me, one I trust quite a bit more than quite a few of the teams directly ahead of the Hawkeyes in FPI. – Bill Connelly, ESPN
Iowa’s defense is reloading its secondary and linebacker group, which creates a question mark early in the season. Phil Parker will need to find out quickly whether the less-experienced group can handle things. Up front, Iowa’s defensive line may be the strength of the entire roster and that could cover up some early growing pains.
Offensively, there is a growing sense of optimism for Iowa. Tim Lester has had even more time to install his scheme, which will feature one of the more dynamic quarterbacks that Iowa has had in recent memory. If Gronowski can take even a little bit of the load off the run game, Kamari Moulton and Jaziun Patterson are…
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Publish date : 2025-06-04 10:45:00
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