TAMPA, Fla. — Mark Gronowski came to Iowa, after five years and two national championships at South Dakota State, with a reputation as a winner.
In the final game of his storied college career, he walked off the field at Raymond James Stadium as … a winner.
Gronowski threw for a season-high 212 yards and accounted for three touchdowns in No. 23 Iowa football’s upset win over No. 14 Vanderbilt on Dec. 31. His performance earned game MVP honors.
On a Wednesday afternoon in which the offense knew it would have to carry the day, Gronowski — whose storied college career finished with a 58-10 record as a starter — and the Hawkeyes answered the call.
Iowa scored 27 points in the game’s final 31 minutes, holding off sensational quarterback Diego Pavia’s second-half charge. Yes, the Iowa offense saved the day for the Hawkeyes.
Kirk Ferentz, who became the Big Ten Conference’s all-time bowl wins leader (11), was joking earlier this week that Gronowski had a rough day passing the ball in practice.
“He’ll do some things (in practice) where I go, ‘Really?’ When we get to the game field, he’s just a guy everybody believes in — coaches, player,” Ferentz said. “Just competes out there, tooth and nail. A big part of the reason we won today was obviously his leadership and his impact on the game.”
The last time Iowa came to Florida against an SEC opponent, two years ago, it suffered a 35-0 loss at the hands of Tennessee.
On this day, Gronowski and tight end DJ Vonnahme delivered time after time. Gronowski’s 19-yard strike to Vonnahme late in the fourth quarter on third-and-7 set up Drew Stevens’ 44-yard field goal that gave the Hawkeyes a two-score lead with 4:13 remaining.
Gronowski and the offense got the ball back, up 34-27, needing one first down to clinch it. And Gronowski’s 9-yard run on first down set up Xavier Williams’ third-and-inches run to gain a first down and set up three victory-formation kneel-downs for the finish.
Gronowski completed 16 of 22 passes and logged his highest passing total as a Hawkeye and the first Iowa player to throw for 200 yards since Cade McNamara in the 2024 season opener. He also rushed 10 times for 54 yards and a score, finishing with the fourth-most touchdowns by a player (17) in Iowa history.
After the game, before he was awarded game MVP, he didn’t take the stage until all five of his offensive linemen were up there with him. It was a relieving finish for a team that lost four games by a combined 15 points, all to top-20 opponents.
“I can’t thank coach (Ferentz) enough for just giving me an opportunity to play at the University of Iowa,” Gronowski said. “It’s been a fantastic year. Obviously, it hasn’t gone exactly how we wanted it to.”
But this was the finish they all wanted.
And, oh yeah: Iowa’s 0-for-13 string against ranked opponents is over.
“It means a lot, man. This team, we emphasize finish strong,” cornerback TJ Hall said. “Not only this game but every single day. Start fast, finish strong. We felt like after finally getting this ‘dub’ and a great win, everybody (will) be saying we finished this season out the right way.”
Nearly a record day for DJ Vonnahme
Vonnahme, the freshman tight end, was a beast. He caught seven balls for 146 yards and a 21-yard touchdown from Gronowski on a third-quarter flea-flicker. The 146 yards were the most by any Iowa receiver since Marvin McNutt in 2011 and the second-most by a tight end in school history.
Only Marv Cook’s nine catches for 159 yards, in the famous 29-27 win at Ohio State in 1987 as Cook caromed into the end zone with 2 seconds left on fourth-and-23, is better.
“I knew there was a lot of opportunity for me to get a lot of catches just based on Vanderbilt’s defense, how they kind of drop to a spot and don’t really match,” Vonnahme said. “I just assumed that every single route I was going to get the ball.”
Vonnahme, a former walk-on from Carroll Kuemper High School, was targeted seven times and made seven catches.
“The challenge is you’re in some zone pressures where you’re giving up a seam ball,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said. “And there’s one in my mind that he just was wide open in one of those critical drives at the end that we needed to stop.”
Video: Karson Sharar on how Iowa slowed Diego Pavia in 1st half
Karson Sharar meets with media after Iowa football’s 34-27 win over Vanderbilt in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
Defending Diego Pavia: How did Iowa approach the Vandy QB?
All week long, the questions persisted about how the Hawkeyes would slow down Vanderbilt’s dynamic quarterback.
And the answers, though generic, teased what the Hawkeyes would do. “Rushing lanes” was a big talking point, meaning that Iowa defensive linemen wanted to make sure they were disciplined in their pass rush, not allowing Pavia wide paths of grass.
For the first two-plus quarters, Iowa’s defensive plan was nearly flawless. Karson Sharar used a delayed blitz on Vanderbilt’s first possession to wallop Pavia for a 9-yard loss on third-and-3. Sharar tacked on another sack on Vandy’s second drive.
“We started pretty fast, brought a lot of energy and kind of hit him in the mouth right away,” Sharar said. “We continued to do that throughout the first half.”
At halftime, Iowa had a 14-3 lead, and Pavia had 2 rushing yards (thanks to minus-32 on four sacks) and 110 through the air. As a team, Vanderbilt had 8 first-half yards rushing.
Pavia got going in the third quarter, though, after Iowa had assembled a 21-3 lead. Big-time.
His 75-yard touchdown strike to Tre Richardson over the top of coverage from Hall and Xavier Nwankpa quickly sliced the lead to 21-10 and announced that Pavia would not go down quietly.
“That was a great ball,” Hall said. “I told the Vanderbilt receiver, they’re the best I’ve seen this year. Definitely. I was on top of the route, and Pavia led him all the way to the other side of the field. He’s got some wheels.
“I was sick I let that one up. But it was the same thing we’ve been saying all year, just gotta finish. I didn’t let that put me down. I knew we had to come back and finish.”
Pavia’s 11-yard rushing TD with 11:19 to go cut Iowa’s lead to 31-24.
Pavia wound up with numbers. He completed 25 of 38 passes for 347 yards and accounted for three touchdowns (two passing, one running) while leading the Commodores with 36 yards on the ground.
But when the day ended, the Commodores didn’t have enough for Gronowski and the Iowa offense.
Video: TJ Hall says Iowa ‘finished the season out the right way’
TJ Hall meets with media after Iowa football’s 34-27 win over Vanderbilt in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
Give Kaden Wetjen and Iowa’s D-line assists on the game’s most bizarre play
Wetjen has been Iowa’s game-breaking return specialist all year and pretty much single-handedly delivered the late-season home win over Michigan State. The consensus all-American said coming into this game that he would be lucky to get an opportunity in the punt-return realm, considering Vandy had punted only 23 times all year in 12 games.
Clearly fearing what Wetjen could do in the return game, Vanderbilt rolled out punter Nick Haberer to the right on fourth-and-27 from its own 15-yard line. Iowa didn’t rush the punter, so Haberer just kept going and going … and finally let loose with a booming kick that went out of bounds at Iowa’s 32. But … the foot made contact with the ball at around the 18-yard line, an illegal kick — a 5-yard penalty and loss of down.
“I started running at him,” Wetjen said. “I thought he was going to run. I’ve never seen that happen before.”
Thus, first-and-goal Iowa at Vanderbilt’s 10 with 45 seconds left in the first half.
“Unfortunate situation,” Lea said. “It was totally within the strategy we were trying to accomplish and neutralize the punt return.”
Iowa punched in a touchdown on the next play, with Gronowski hitting Reece Vander Zee in on the edge of the end zone for a 10-yard score and a 14-3 lead that stood up at halftime.
The defensive line also deserves credit for the punt gaffe. On second-and-5 from Vandy’s 37, defensive tackle Aaron Graves drew a holding flag. On third-and-15 from the 27, Ethan Hurkett and Brian Allen teamed up for a 12-yard sack on Pavia.
The illegal punt unquestionably changed the vibe of this game entering the halftime break. The Hawkeyes had seemingly squandered chance after chance (more on that later) and were on the verge of giving Vandy the lead entering halftime. Instead, the Hawkeyes pushed their lead to 11 points at the break.
How on earth did Mark Gronowski recover his own fumble?
If we want to provide yet another assist to the punt-gaffe-turned Iowa touchdown, the Hawkeyes’ quarterback deserves a nod as well.
Up 7-3 with just over four minutes left in the first half, Iowa had the ball at Vanderbilt’s 49. But Gronowski dropped back and had the football jarred loose, seemingly recovered quickly by Vanderbilt linebacker Bryce Cowan. But from the ground, Gronowski didn’t give up on the play, reaching his right arm into the assembling pile.
Gronowski is known to be built like a linebacker playing quarterback. And his strength paid off, as he was (somehow) able to wrestle the ball away from Cowan and retain control at Iowa’s 41.
“I saw his body bounce up in the air along with the ball, and I was able to stick my arm in there and get my arm over top of it,” Gronowski said. “Underneath those piles, you don’t want to know what happens under there, but I just fought for every inch of that and was able to get the ball back.”
It didn’t matter that Iowa had to punt two plays later. Gronowski saved a backbreaking turnover, setting up a Rhys Dakin punt, which eventually set up the Vanderbilt punt mistake.
Iowa lets Vanderbilt off the mat twice in the first quarter
After Vonnahme kept his balance and rumbled 51 yards all the way to Vanderbilt’s 4-yard line on second-and-14, the Hawkeyes had a golden chance to go up two touchdowns in the opening quarter.
But on first-and-goal, Gronowski’s pass for a would-be touchdown went off the hands of running back Xavier Williams, then caromed off another Vanderbilt player and was intercepted by a diving Martel Hight for a touchback.
It was a deflating play in the moment, almost like a double turnover, considering a catch there makes it 14-0 Iowa.
As for the play call, why not just run the football? Was offensive coordinator Tim Lester guilty of getting too cute? Look, Iowa entered with the No. 7 red-zone offense in the country. One of the reasons it did was because of its ability to break tendency near the goal line.
The play call was perfect. Williams was wide open, running a short slant from the far-right side of the formation. If you’re an OC and can get that kind of a layup in a congested goal-line situation, you take it 100 out of 100 times. The pass hit Williams in the hands. He’s got to catch that. That should’ve been an easy touchdown.
Iowa did force a punt off that exchange, but on the ensuing possession the Hawkeyes had a third-and-2 from their own 30 and ran Kamari Moulton for about 1.7 yards on the final play of the first quarter. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, as is his custom, decided to punt — despite having the quarter break to think about it.
Iowa punted. Vanderbilt got the ball back at its own 18. The Commodores drove more than seven minutes to reach Iowa’s 23 before settling for a 41-yard field goal to slice the deficit to 7-3 with 7:49 left in the second quarter.
Should Ferentz have gone for a first down at his own “31.7” instead? I thought so, yes. Gronowski is borderline automatic on sneaks. The offense, except for that interception, had been controlling the game and in that moment gave up some control.
Hawkeyes finish 9-4 for the third time under Kirk Ferentz
Maybe surprisingly, this is just the third time out of Ferentz’s 27 years that Iowa finished with exactly nine wins. The 9-4 record matches two of the most underrated Hawkeyes’ teams that also won bowl games here in Tampa — 2008 and 2018.
The 2018 Hawkeyes finished with a 27-22 win over Mississippi State and a season points differential of plus-174 (405-231).
The 2008 Hawkeyes finished with a 31-10 win over South Carolina and a season points differential of plus-225 (394-225).
The 2025 Hawkeyes finished with a 34-27 win over Vanderbilt and a season points differential of plus-169 (378-209).
Only the 2002 Hawkeyes had a greater points differential (plus-228) than those three teams in Ferentz’s 27 years. That’s pretty crazy to think about and provides a sense of how good this particular Iowa team stacked up against, arguably, the toughest schedule of the bunch.
Ferentz made sure to point that difference out, too. And he agreed, this win helped complete the comparison he’s made between the 2025 and 2008 teams. He’s always said the 2008 team is one of his favorites. This team was right there, too … and played tougher opponents to get to 9-4.
“All due respect to those teams that beat us in (2008) … I look at Indiana and Oregon as two of the best teams anywhere,” Ferentz said, referencing Iowa’s close losses. “If either one wins it all, it wouldn’t shock me at all. … Southern Cal, not a bad football team either. Iowa State was a highly ranked team when we played them.
“The good thing about our guys, they never went backwards and kept focusing on what the opportunities were in front of them. So to beat a ranked team, a deservedly ranked team, a 10-win, SEC football team, that’s really gratifying.”
Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has served for 31 years with The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Sports Network. Chad is the 2023 INA Iowa Sports Columnist of the Year and NSMA Co-Sportswriter of the Year in Iowa. Join Chad’s text-message group at HawkCentral.com/HawkeyesTexts. Follow @ChadLeistikow on X.
