Last year was a season to forget for the Iowa baseball team. The Hawkeyes were coming off a record-setting 44-win season and just their third NCAA tournament appearance in 33 seasons.
Many key players from that tournament team returned to the program in 2024, causing many college baseball experts to predict big things for Iowa. Not only did they predict the Hawkeyes to win the Big Ten title, but some even forecasted a run to the College World Series.
But that did not happen.
Iowa went just 31-23, sat with a rating percentage index north of 100, and watched three other conference teams – Illinois, Indiana, and Nebraska, make it to the Big Dance.
When unpacking some of the problems with the 2024 Hawkeyes, there are a handful of issues that could have caused that underachieving season. Inconsistent hitting and a series of injuries to key players were a couple of reasons for the lack of success, but pitching was arguably the biggest Achilles Heel.
In 2023, first-year pitching coach Sean McGrath guided the Hawkeye arms to become one of — if not the best — units in the Big Ten. Headlined by the starting pitching trio of Ty Langdenberg, Marcus Morgan, and Brody Brecht, the Hawkeyes led the conference with a 4.19 earned run average, 630 strikeouts, and allowed opponents to hit only .208.
With Brecht and Morgan returning for their junior seasons, the staff was expected to be one of the strong suits of the team heading into the much-anticipated 2024 campaign.
Similar to the rest of the team, this unit struggled to find consistency throughout the season. Posting a 5.79 ERA and leading the Big Ten with 327 walks, the pitching staff declined in a fair amount of categories compared to the year prior.
This output caused the departure of McGrath, putting pressure on head coach Rick Heller to find a replacement and turn around a pitching staff that was once highly regarded.
Enter Sean Kenny.
A grizzled veteran in the college baseball spectrum, Kenny has accumulated 28 years of pitching coach experience spanning all over the country.
“Coach Kenny, his reputation in the business is outstanding,” Heller said. “He brings in immense experience.”
Highlighting that “experience” was his impressive seven-year tenure at the University of Georgia. Competing in the highly touted SEC conference, Kenny aided the Bulldog pitching staff in breaking multiple school records like strikeouts, saves, and ERA — making the NCAA tournament in four of his seven years in Athens.
This has given Kenny a measuring stick to compare with when evaluating the overall talent of a pitching staff. When gauging the pieces the Hawkeyes have on this year’s pitching staff, Kenny can confidently say talent is not the issue facing this team.
“Being fortunate enough to spend six years in the SEC, you kind of compare everything with that product,” Kenny said. “I kind of learned real quick that I feel like stuff-wise we are on par with the teams in the SEC. Just on raw stuff.”
Kenny has tried to hone this raw talent by simplifying the game for his players. Aiming to improve confidence, Kenny focuses more on competing with every throw rather than working on arm mechanics or pitch shaping.
The early stages of a season with a small sample size make it very difficult for any coach to judge the talent on his team. But even after just months of working out with the team, both Kenny and Heller have seen major leaps from a handful of players.
“We were looking for someone that was a good fit for our culture and our program, and I think we found that,” Heller said.