When the Iowa Hawkeyes fell short in their 20-15 loss to Indiana two weeks ago, there were questions abound regarding the final few drives. The Hawkeyes pulled even with the Hoosiers with just under 13 minutes remaining in the game, but starting QB Mark Gronowski went down on a 3-yard scramble that set up the game-tying field goal from Drew Stevens.
As we all know, backup Hank Brown came in for the final three drives and threw an interception, but even more notably, missed an open screen pass that
would have secured a victory for the Hawkeyes late in the fourth quarter.
After a week off, Iowa is now poised to head on the road to Madison to take on the Wisconsin Badgers and all eyes were on the depth chart Monday afternoon. We’ve come to know we should take these Hawkeye depth charts with a massive grain of salt, but it’s hard to look away with such a pivotal piece of information looming this week.
Noted Notables
- So again, MASSIVE grains of salt, but Mark Gronowski is listed as Iowa’s starting QB and that seems like a big deal. There were reports over the weekend of growing optimism. Last week during the coordinator availability, OC Tim Lister said things were cloudy. Over the weekend, it became clear that cloudy had turned to partly sunny as rumors spread that Gronowski’s injury was not considered season-ending. But to see him on here on Monday afternoon is still a surprise. Keep the ears to the ground as we get Kirk Ferentz media availability on Tuesday, but expect this to be a situation where Iowa plays games with the Badgers all week long and nothing that is disclosed publicly really means anything.
- Similarly, no Reece Vander Zee still for the offense. He was supposedly closer to returning so his absence on the depth could mean a setback. Or it could mean Iowa is doing what it does with the depth chart and either not taking it seriously or again, playing games with Wisconsin. This is another one to watch on Tuesday as the return of a big body target would be much needed for this offense.
- Another notable one on the offense, potentially, is Xavier Williams showing up despite his injury status. Does it mean he is back? Does it mean the staff doesn’t care about these? Does it mean they just want to throw stuff against the wall before facing a rival? Nobody knows! But it does push Terrell Washington off the depth chart for the first time after he seemingly became a coaches’ favorite (and fan punching bag). Jaz Patterson is also missing, which shouldn’t be a surprise with his injury issues, but there seems to really be no rhyme or reason here.
- One last one on offense just to note, while the Gronowski sighting as starter is the obvious headline, it’s worth at least pointing out the Jeremy Hecklinski has an OR next to Hank Brown. Brown has long been the clear #2 and came in against IU so Hecklinski showing up here in a week when Gronowski has not been practicing is at least worth some peripheral vision.
- On the other side of the ball, the news is less positive. Again, who knows what to make of all this, but we saw LB Jaden Harrell go down against IU and he is now absent from this week’s depth chart, replaced by Jaxon Rethroth. Not ideal, but if you’re looking for silver linings, perhaps Harrell’s absence means you can actually expect to see Gronowski and Williams this week on offense.
The Hawkeyes will square off against the Wisconsin Badgers in Madison under the Camp Randall lights on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 6pm CT. You can catch the action this week on FS1.
