Mark Gronowski is no stranger to Friday night football.

His South Dakota State squads routinely played FCS playoff games on Fridays, including a 59-0 thrashing of Albany on the way to the 2023 FCS National Championship.

Two years later, Gronowski returns to the Friday night lights donned in black and gold for Iowa’s Big Ten opener at Rutgers. It will mark the second consecutive year the Hawkeyes have played a Friday game across the country, having lost to UCLA at the Rose Bowl last November.

Though Iowa enters this contest as a slight favorite, escaping Piscataway, New Jersey with a victory will not be easy. Head coach Greg Schiano has made Rutgers a competitive out in the Big Ten since his return in 2020 and is eager to beat the Hawkeyes for the first time, but the most challenging aspect for Iowa is the short week. Game preparation is usually finished by Friday, but the Hawkeyes will be missing out on one of the most crucial necessities in sports – rest.

“The biggest thing is just the rest the extra rest day that you’re kind of missing out on, and you kind of have to ramp up the timing of when you’re running all your third down stuff, your red zone stuff,” Gronowski said. “So it really kind of forces you to take more time watch more film earlier in the week, so you can kind of understand all the different looks.”

Iowa’s offense is coming off of its best outing of the year against Massachusetts. Offensive coordinator Tim Lester emphasized aggressive play calling out of the gate, and the Hawkeyes did just that, scoring touchdowns on their first two possessions. Gronowski completed 16 of his 24 passes for 179 yards and three total touchdowns, two passing and one rushing.

While he was pleased with how the offense performed against UMass, Gronowski admitted Iowa is far from a finished product.

“I also think that we didn’t play our best, I think there’s still room for improvement,” the senior said. “There’s a lot more room to grow. So having that idea that we got to continue to improve, but also continue to be consistent with the things that we’re doing and the good things that we’re doing, and learn how to execute a little bit better on the things that were maybe fallen short of.”

On the flip side, the Scarlet Knights  come into the game with a perfect 3-0 record, including a 60-10 beatdown of Michael Vick’s Norfolk State Spartans last weekend. Rutgers is posting 46.3 points per game and has totaled 30 or more points in seven consecutive games, a program record.

Leading the Scarlet Knights offense is fourth-year quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis. If his name sounds familar to Iowa fans, it’s because it is. Kaliakmanis previously spent two seasons as the starting quarterback for rival Minnesota, leading the Golden Gophers to a 12-10 victory at Kinnick Stadium in 2023. The need for a fresh start led Kaliakmanis to the Garden State, and he has collected big numbers for Rutgers this year, completing 72 percent of his passes for 820 yards, seven touchdowns, and no interceptions.

“We’ve seen him at a different school, and he’s playing at a really high level right now, second year at Rutgers, and made some real improvement from last year,” head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Did a really nice job throwing the football.”

Generating more pressure on the quarterback is one of the Hawkeyes’ key focal points heading into conference play. Iowa has recorded just seven sacks through three games. Fourth-year defensive lineman Max Llewellyn has recorded three of those, but he stressed the need to focus on the little things.

“I just took the small details, more communication,” Llewellyn said. “Fundamentals can always get better, but [it’s a] different week, different game p lan so we all have to be on the same page.”

“There’s always something to be correct in some areas that we can get better at,” Ferentz said. “And I go through the offensive line play, probably in even more detail, but just aiming points and little things, if we can get those down better because the competition is going to keep getting tougher here, starting this week.”

Iowa’s defense is known for forcing turnovers, but the unit has yet to record one in 2025. Despite the lack of takeaways, the Hawkeyes have made up for it in other areas. Phil Parker’s defense ranks fourth in the nation for lowest yards allowed per play and has yielded just three touchdowns this year, two of which came when the opponent had a short field.

“I think the whole defense itself, is playing with a lot of a lot of confidence,” fourth-year defensive back TJ Hall said.

Hall agrees that Iowa needs to generate more turnovers, but he knows that will come with persistence and patience.

“As far as the turnovers, we’re going to work on that,” Hall said. “We work on it in practice, but at the same time, we can’t press and try to force the turnover. We know it’s going to happen as long as we’re doing our job.”

Injury updates 

Though he wasn’t listed on the depth chart, Ferentz said that there is an outside chance that second-year running back Kamari Moulton could play on Friday. Moulton suffered an injury in the first half of the season-opener against Albany and hasn’t played since.

“He [Moulton] worked yesterday and today, and looked fine, so hopefully we’ll get him ready to roll in the game as well,” Ferentz said.

First-year running back Xavier Williams went down with an injury against UMass and was later spotted wearing a sling on the sidelines. Ferentz confirmed Williams will indeed miss the Rutgers game with the injury and offered a rough timetable for his return.

“He’ll be out, probably out at least couple weeks here,” Ferentz said. “He’ll be fine, but we’re gonna lose him unfortunately.”

Second-year wide receiver Reece Vander Zee remains out with a foot injury, but Ferentz says there’s an outside chance he could return for next week’s homecoming game against Indiana on Sept. 27. Should Vander Zee miss that game, Ferentz is confident the sophomore will return after the bye week against Wisconsin on Oct. 11.