On Wednesday, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz spoke with the media to preview spring football practices.
Ferentz and the Hawkeyes have turned their attention to the 2025 season, and they'll have a new quarterback to lead the way -- after he returns from shoulder surgery. South Dakota State transfer QB Mark Gronowski joined the program at semester, and he's currently in the process of bouncing back from a shoulder injury he played through last season.
"The recovery has gone great," Ferentz shared. "Everything is right on schedule. He's probably a little bit ahead, that type of deal. But we'll play it conservatively."
In the meantime, Gronowski will be able to participate in spring practice in a limited capacity.
"Mark will be throwing lightly here probably in a couple weeks but not with the team," Ferentz said. "The biggest thing right now is just make sure nobody runs into him or he doesn't fall down. [We're] just being cautious with him."
Ferentz and the offensive staff led by Tim Lester are very confident in his intelligence if nothing else, and they're not too worried about him putting pads on at this point in the year.
"He's smarter than the whole coaching staff combined," Ferentz joked. "[He's a] Dean's List guy in mechanical engineering. [Learning the offense] I think is going to come really quickly for him, and Tim didn't go on the road this year so he spent a lot of time with the quarterbacks individually and collectively, more so individually, during the winter months, and I think Mark's caught on. For new players it's like learning a new system or a new language, that's the biggest difference. ... It's all going well."
Ferentz and Iowa are confident in Gronowski's smarts, and his pedigree as a football player.
"We got to see him on film, and that speaks for itself," Ferentz said. "Whether it was how he played but more importantly I think quarterback is all about -- it's a leadership position. There's no avoiding that. He clearly did that. He delivered his team to victory a lot, and that's really impressive."
No kidding. With a 49-6 career record as a starter over four seasons along with two FCS national championships, the 2023 Walter Payton Award winner did very little but win for the Jackrabbits.
"Mark is a proven player. He's done it on film," Ferentz said. "He hasn't done it at the Big Ten level necessarily, but good players are good players in my mind."
Though Ferentz and company haven't been able to see him throw much in person, Gronowski's initial impressions with the team have been positive.
"The thing I'm more impressed with the kind of person he is and his demeanor," Ferentz said. "I would call him fairly quiet, but he has a humbleness to him and a confidence to him that's very genuine. I think that whole room is really good right now."
