Iowa made a splash in the transfer portal by adding transfer quarterback Mark Gronowski from South Dakota State. Gronowski went 49-6 and won two FCS national championships with the Jackrabbits, but decided to use his final year of college eligibility in Iowa City.

While he hasn't been able to be an active participant in Iowa's spring football practice sessions due to offseason shoulder surgery, Gronowski met with the media on Thursday and discussed multiple topics, including his rehab, his work with Iowa offensive coordinator Tim Lester, his decision to choose Iowa out of the portal, and much more.

First things first: Gronowski's health is good and his recovery is actually ahead of schedule. "I'm feeling great. Ahead of schedule -- I'm going to keep getting better physically and mentally," he said.

"The training staff here has been awesome throughout the entire process, and the doctors have been great. Right now, as spring ball is progressing, I'm just continuing to get mental reps behind and trying to learn as much as I can from guys like [Brendan] Sullivan, who's had some reps here, and other guys that have been around, and also Lester. Now, starting to throw in a little bit here and there, and then going to continue to progress and hopefully be back June 1st, 100%."

"Just continue to progress on that side of things, and then once it comes June, be 100% ready to go," Gronowski said of his ongoing rehab. "[I'm] definitely ahead of schedule right now. My body feels ahead of schedule, just going to take it every day, day by day right now, and then slowly progressing."

He also explained some of what he would be doing once the calendar turns to June 1. "You know, just training with the team, doing seven on sevens with the team," he said. "I don't really know how the process works here, if we have practices or anything like that this summer. But I'm going to kind of learn as I go."

While Gronowski hasn't been able to throw the ball much since joining the Hawkeyes, he has been able to spend a lot of time with Tim Lester, even during Iowa's bowl game preparations. "When I was getting recruited, I ended up talking with him a lot," he said.

"Even during that bowl game process, he was spending time and just communicating with me and [I was] building that relationship with him. I got to spend a lot of time this winter just meeting with him every single day, learning the offense, learning the scheme, and he's learning what I like as well as a quarterback," he added. "Just having a good relationship with your offensive coordinator means a lot in those moments, and knowing what I like and knowing what he's like."

The opportunities Lester's offense will offer also excite Gronowski. "Just [the] offense as a whole, [Lester] has a lot of multiplicity to that offense, and you can do so many different things and run one play so many different ways," he enthused. "It's a lot of fun, and it makes game planning a lot of fun as well."

Gronowski also explained more about what he's been doing during Iowa's spring practices while not throwing the ball. "I'm kind of standing behind, about 15 yards [back], and really going through every single play, and trying to get every single rep that I can, because it's going to be so important when it comes fall, when it comes summer, to really get those reps and be ready to play fast when you get into the moment," he said.

"But it's been really beneficial overall, and just going through all the footwork, going through all the handoffs, going through all the drop backs, and even pointing to where I'm going to throw has been really helpful."

"This offense is very similar to my South Dakota State offense," he noted. "It's just a lot of the concepts [are similar]. It's just learning almost a new language and just learning those new words and what they mean, but all the reads and everything is very similar, so it's been helpful.

"It's not that much of a difference from my last offense as well. The last offensive coordinator that I had [Zach Lujan] ended up going to Northwestern," he said. "His offensive plays were very similar in length and like 10-play words that you're kind of just like, what did I just say again? That's why it's not too bad of a transition from that."

Don't miss out on any of our exclusive football, basketball, and recruiting coverage. Sign up with Hawkeye Beacon here.

Gronowski discussed potential opportunities in the NFL as well as why he ended up choosing Iowa out of the portal. "I definitely talked to a lot of different scouts about my opportunities in the NFL, and we kind of decided to meet my parents, my agent, that it was going to be best to come back for another year," he explained.

"[The scouts] liked a lot of things about me. I had opportunities at the Shrine Bowl and the [NFL Scouting] Combine and everything like that, but they kind of saw the injury and everything like that," he added. "I thought it would be best for myself, and I could have played through it, but to get it right, get back to 100 percent, and then to have an awesome season next season."

"I feel like I have the opportunity to show a lot [this fall]," he said. "Just the way that I can grow in an offense, and we learn a new offense, because obviously when you go to the next level, you got to learn a whole new offensive scheme, and what's great about this is [Lester] kind of brought the[Green Bay] Packers offense to here, and bringing in an NFL offense in here, and I [get to] show them that opportunity to learn that."

"But then also just showing my ability to play at the next level, and it's obviously a step up from FCS, and just being able to play with that type of speed, and that type of decision making at this kind of level is going to be important," he added.

Gronowski also elaborated on being in the portal and what led him to choose Iowa. "Yeah, that whole process, the transfer portal itself, is a crazy deal. After talking with Iowa and just the culture here, the coaches, having a Hall of Fame coach like Coach [Kirk] Ferentz, and also being very similar to what I had in South Dakota State team-wise. I got a winning culture, and that's why I ended up choosing Iowa," he explained.

"[The culture here was similar to what] I'm kind of coming from South Dakota State and I mean, Iowa has had a lot of wins in the past ten years," he added. "I think they're one of the few teams in the country that have eight wins every single season, so coming into a culture like that is really special."

While Iowa was his ultimate choice, the Hawkeyes were just one of many programs to contact him during the transfer process. "I think I had over 100 missed calls at one point, over 100 missed texts, and it was even crazier when our coaching staff at my last school left as well," he said. Jimmy Rogers, Gronowski's head coach at South Dakota State, took the head coaching job at Washington State late last year.

"That made it all worse then, just trying to help everyone out at my old school. [I did consider] a couple schools here and there, especially my old coaching staff leaving, talking with them a lot, but I thought Iowa ended up being the best bet," Gronowski explained.

Gronowski also expressed excitement at getting to play in front of Iowa fans at Kinnick Stadium -- and in particular getting to be on the other side of that experience after being on the visiting team in Iowa's 7-3 win over South Dakota State in 2022. "That's 7-3. The greatest offensive game of all time," he said, laughing.

"But no, that game was awesome. It was the loudest stadium I've ever played in. A lot of loud Kinnick Iowa fans," he added. "It was a lot of fun. It was loud, and I couldn't even hear myself at the light of scrimmage, so I'm excited to be on the other side of it next fall."

Gronowski also discussed what he learned about being a winner during his time at South Dakota State. "The biggest thing as a quarterback is just being confident," he said. "If you're confident in the huddle, you're calm in the huddle for everyone around you. You're able to be that calming influence but also bring the confidence up around you."

"And then also just having that quick decision making and that also comes with confidence. There's just knowing where you want to go with the football before the ball leaves your hand, really," he added.

Relationships are also a key part of building that winning mindset. "That's why I'm spending so much time just trying to build relationships and spend time with guys, because building that team culture and having those good, strong relationships with people really bring it, when it comes to like hard times in the field, guys are going to be together, going to play together, play for each other, the guy next to you," he explained.

"I feel like my play style is very, very versatile," he said. "I mean, I can stand the pocket, I can run the ball when I need to. When it's a third down, when you need to get a first down, I'll put my shoulder down when I have to, but slide just to protect the body when I need to as well. I know the coaches really like that, but, you know, just whatever the coaches need at that time and in the moments that we need, I'll be there for that."

Gronowski also explained which NFL quarterbacks he likes to study to try and improve his own game. "The other year I did a whole summer study of Matthew Stafford and really just watching his game, and he's one of the most impressive quarterbacks when it comes to moving defenders with their eyes and playing in that style thing," he said.

"But I also love Josh Allen's style and how he does it, and then just watching Aaron Rodgers," he added. "I know I grew up a Bears fan, and it always sucked [watching them] playing against him, but just watching him spin it and his arm angles, it's really impressive [to watch]."