Welcome to the first edition of “Spencer’s Sunday Thoughts” – a weekly column where I’ll share my thoughts on the week in college football. I’ll cover teams like Iowa, Iowa State, UNI and more, but also branch out to take a look at the Big Ten, Big 12 and national storylines as well.
Your humble author was in attendance for this one (as a spectator, not a media member – although I’ll likely be there in that capacity this season, too). After a sluggish start to the game, which saw UAlbany take a 7-3 lead on the Hawkeyes with 11:33 left in the first half, Iowa was able to shut down the Great Danes for the rest of the game and win comfortably.
A tip of the cap goes to the Iowa rushing attack, which carried the offense in this game. Redshirt freshman Xavier Williams led the way for 122 yards and a score, with seven players total carrying the ball at least once in the game – racking up 310 net rush yards and three scores on the day. Starter Kamari Moulton left the game early with an undisclosed injury, so having a deep RB room helped in this scenario.
The highly anticipated Hawkeye debut of quarterback Mark Gronowski ended slightly better than it started, but no question it was a disappointing first game in the black and gold for the former South Dakota State QB. Gronowski’s final stat line: 8-of-15 passing, 44 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for 39 yards and a score before leaving the game in the second half due to cramping, and Auburn transfer Hank Brown got to finish out the game.
Gronowski said he was disappointed in his play on Saturday, but added that he’s confident that he will get better week after week. “First game in Kinnick as an Iowa Hawkeye, I was a little too excited at the beginning of the game,” Gronowski said postgame. “I’ve got to get settled in a little bit more.” His head coach, Kirk Ferentz chalked up his quarterback’s performance as essentially just a bad night, adding that he’s “confident (Gronowski) will be fine.”
It’s a one-game sample size, but the Hawkeyes need a far better performance from Gronowski starting this week at Iowa State to quell any fears that fans may have that this is another failed experiment at bringing in a transfer quarterback. The pass game as a whole needs to show a lot more too, with only 16 pass attempts total in the win over Albany. The game plan for the season opener is always pretty vanilla, but Iowa will need to throw the ball to win a game or games this season – and right now it’s still unclear (or ‘Clearly Cloudy’ as Kirk Ferentz says) that they can do that.
In addition to the run game, the Iowa defense and special teams deserve recognition as positives from Saturday’s win. The defense struggled early in stopping the mobility of Albany quarterback Jack Shields, and gave up some key pass plays on the Great Danes’ touchdown drive in the second quarter, but toughened up as the game went on, giving up just 18 yards and two first downs in the second half.
On the specialists side, Iowa kicker Drew Stevens deserves recognition, as he booted a career-best 55-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter. It was the longest field goal made by a Hawkeye kicker since Marshall Koehn’s 57-yarder to beat Pittsburgh in that magical 2015 season.
The win also tied Kirk Ferentz with Woody Hayes for the most at a Big Ten school with 205 wins. If he doesn’t get win #206 at Iowa State this week, he’s almost assured to get it in two weeks at home against UMass.
I was not able to see much of this game due to being at Kinnick, but Iowa State showed no signs of a travel hangover after their week zero win over Kansas State in Dublin and rolled past South Dakota in the home opener in Ames. The Coyotes tied the game at 7 in the first quarter, but it was all Cyclones after that – as Iowa State scored 48 unanswered points after that in the rout.
You’re going to hear a lot more people on the national scene talking about Rocco Becht after another stellar performance by the Cyclones’ quarterback. Becht was 19-of-20 passing for 278 yards and three scores in the game – breaking the school record for completion percentage in the process. Ben Brahmer caught seven passes for 47 yards and two scores, while four different Cyclone players scored a rushing touchdown in the game.
Kicker Kyle Konrardy, who already inserted himself into Cyclone lore with his game-winning kick in last year’s CyHawk rivalry game, set a school record with a 63-yard field goal to end the first half. It was the longest kick in Jack Trice Stadium history and beat the school record by five yards.
This Iowa State team has all the momentum behind it coming into the rivalry game with Iowa this week, but in this series you and I both know that you can’t make broad assumptions based on a handful of games. What the Hawkeyes or Cyclones did or didn’t do in the game before CyHawk week doesn’t mean doom and gloom for either side. That said – I imagine the Cyclones will be the trendy pick considering how they’ve looked in the first two weeks of the season.
The Todd Stepsis era in Cedar Falls got off to a successful start, with a win over the Butler Bulldogs at the UNI Dome. Matt Schecklman threw for 214 yards and four scores to four different receivers in the win. The schedule gets a whole lot tougher for UNI from here on out, but it’s good to carry some positive momentum into a game at the University of Wyoming next Saturday.
National Games:
So, that Ohio State defense is still really good, huh? The Buckeyes shut down top-ranked Texas and their offense did just enough to win the week one showdown 14-7 in Columbus. Arch Manning was 17-of-30 for 170 yards, a touchdown and an interception in the game for the Longhorns, who got stopped twice in the red zone in the loss. His counterpart, Julian Sayin for the Buckeyes threw for only 126 yards in the game, but his 40-yard touchdown to Carnell Tate put Ohio State up by two scores and that was enough to pull out the win.
The hot seat is even hotter for Alabama’s Kaelin DeBoer, after the #8 Crimson Tide gave up 236 rushing yards to unranked Florida State in a 31-17 loss. Four different Seminoles scored a rushing touchdown in the win, while the Tide was held to just 87 total yards on the ground. After a 9-4 season last year, I’m certain that starting the year 0-1 is not what Alabama fans were hoping for. Good news is ‘Bama should win their next two (vs. ULM & Wisconsin) before heading to Athens to face Georgia on September 27th.
Lastly, I’ll admit I was wrong about Brian Kelly this time. With a history of underperformance by his LSU teams in season openers, I was confident that Clemson would come out victorious in Saturday night’s game in Death Valley (the one in South Carolina, not the one in Louisiana). I was wrong. Both starting quarterbacks, Garrett Nussmeier for LSU and Cade Klubnik for Clemson, threw for exactly 230 yards, but Nussmeier’s touchdown pass to Trey’Dez Green in the fourth quarter proved to be the difference in the close win for the bayou bengals. Klubnik didn’t throw a TD pass, but tossed an interception in the loss. Losing this one isn’t the end of the world for Dabo Swinney’s crew, but the early season hype in Tiger Town might quiet down a bit after a fourth straight loss to an SEC team.
What were your takeaways from week one of the college football season? Chat with me on Twitter/X or send an email to spencer@kgymradio.com!
Spencer Wagen is the host of “Spencer on Sports”, weekdays from 4-6 PM on 1600 ESPN. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @SWOnTheRadio
