IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa football team defeated Albany, 34-7, in its season-opening game Saturday night on Duke Slater Field at Kinnick Stadium.

The Hawkeyes outgained the Great Danes 358-177, with 310 of those yards coming on the ground.

Xavier Williams led the Hawkeye rushing attack with 122 yards on 11 attempts and a touchdown. Terrell Washington Jr. added 69 yards, and Jaziun Patterson totaled 47 yards. Mark Gronowski and Hank Brown each tallied a rushing score.

“I was super excited for the game out there,” Williams said. “I wanted to play well, so I was just happy to get a little spark going for our offense so we can keep things rolling. All camp long the offensive line has been putting in a bunch of work, and it showed tonight. There were open holes all day long, so it was good all around.”

Gronowski completed 8-of-15 passing attempts for 44 yards and a touchdown. Brown was 1-for-1 for four yards.

Kaden Wetjen pulled in Iowa’s lone receiving touchdown of the contest — a two-yard reception.

Defensively, TJ Hall and Zach Lutmer led the way with five tackles apiece. Max Llewellyn and Aaron Graves each recorded a sack.

Drew Stevens was 2-for-2 on field goals, connecting from 28 and 55 yards. He was 4-for-4 on extra points.

QUOTING KIRK FERENTZ

"To start out, just obviously good to get the win. Happy to get that done. I thought the players' effort was good, and good to see them get rewarded for that.

I thought the team had a really good camp, preseason camp, and I think some of the good things we saw tonight are probably the result of that, and then the flipside, too, is there's always work to do, and I think certainly tonight we'll have a lot of good teaching examples tomorrow to go off of and just some situations that we're going to have to do a better job with.

Happy about that. It's always good when you can get a win and do a lot of good things but also have a lot of things that are going to have to get corrected and try to get cleaned up a little bit.

On a positive front, came out with two penalties, and I thought that was a pretty good start there. Almost got out of the game without a turnover and couldn't quite get that done, so that was unfortunate, but for the most part clean, and certainly some highlights. You look at Drew with that great job with the field goal, and that thing still had some room to go. Rhys really did a nice job punting. Only had two punts but really -- those were both impressive as well.

Then on the other front, a lot of young guys played that haven't played much football, and start with Xavier, the most obvious one. He went in there and played like a veteran guy, which was good to see. Didn't look out of place at all and did a good job.

Terrell is not a new guy but didn't play running back very much for us last year, and I think he looked really comfortable back there.

Jaz looked like Jaz and stepped in, did a great job. Positionally a lot of guys that really haven't played much football that got their feet wet. Got three senior linebackers but none of them ever started.

Just a lot of that stuff across the board, and happy about that.

The bottom line, just good to be 1-0 right now. Going to enjoy tonight, I told the guys to do that, and then tomorrow we'll go back to work. Sunday is all about taking a look at the tape and trying to take something out of it, and I think it's every bit as important after a win as a loss.

Certainly a lot of things that we can get better at, and that's going to be the focus as we move forward here this week. That's kind of our plan right now."

PHOTOS

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Iowa got on the board first on the opening drive of the game, driving 55 yards over 13 plays before Stevens connected on a 28-yard field goal.
• Albany responded with a 68-yard, nine-play drive that ended with a nine-yard touchdown pass to the back of the end zone.
• Iowa answered with a 65-yard (60 via the rush), seven-play drive that culminated in a three-yard rushing touchdown by Williams.
• With 1:51 remaining in the first half, Gronowski connected with Wetjen for a two-yard touchdown. The score capped a seven-play, 61-yard drive that lasted 2:49.
• The Hawkeyes extended their lead with 5:27 left in the third quarter on a one-yard touchdown rush from Gronowski. The 60-yard drive lasted 14 plays and 8:28.
• With 14:18 left in the game, Stevens connected on a career-long 55-yard field goal to give Iowa a 20-point lead.
• A 12-play, 66-yard drive saw the Hawkeyes add an exclamation point with a one-yard quarterback sneak from Brown with 3:42 remaining.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

• RB Xavier Williams notched his first career 100-yard game, finishing with 122 yards on 11 carries and one touchdown. He had 94 yards on six attempts in the first half.
  • Williams is the first Iowa freshman to record a 100-yard game in his debut since Shonn Greene against Ball State in 2005 (116 yards, 18 att., 1 TD). The 122 yards are the most by a Hawkeye freshman since at least 1970 in their debut.
  • He scored on a 3-yard touchdown run in the second quarter for his first career touchdown.
  • Williams rushed for 14, 27 and 3 yards on his first three career rushing attempts on the nine-play, 68-yard scoring drive. He had a career-long 43-yard run on the following possession.
  • It is the second straight season Iowa has had a freshman record a 100-yard game (Kamari Moulton at Maryland).
• QB Mark Gronowski completed 8-of-15 attempts for 44 yards with one touchdown – a 2-yarder to Kaden Wetjen.
  • It was Gronowski’s 94th career passing touchdown.
  • He also had a 1-yard touchdown run in the third quarter – his first score as a Hawkeye and 38th career rushing TD.
  • For the game, Gronowski rushed 11 times for 39 yards with one touchdown.
  • It was also Gronowski’s 50th career win as a starter.
• QB Hank Brown had a 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter – his first career rushing touchdown.
• WR Kaden Wetjen caught a 2-yard touchdown reception on fourth-and-goal in the second quarter. It was Wetjen’s first career receiving touchdown and third career score.
• PK Drew Stevens connected on a 28-yard field goal in the first quarter and a career-long 55-yarder in the fourth. The make moved him into sole possession of third place on Iowa’s all-time field goals list with 56. 
  • The 55-yarder is tied for the fourth-longest in program history and is the longest by a Hawkeye since 2015 (Marshall Koehn vs. Pittsburgh, 57 yards).
  • Stevens is now 9-of-13 for his career from 50+ yards.
  • Stevens’ nine points gives him 255 for his career, moving him into sixth place all-time in the record books.
• LB Preston Ries had a blocked punt in the fourth quarter – Iowa’s first blocked punt since 2023 (Yahya Black vs. Northwestern).

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

• Iowa rushed for 310 yards in the game – the most in a season-opener since 2002 (376 vs. Akron).
  • It is the second time in the last six contests the Hawkeyes have surpassed 300 rushing yards (329 vs. Wisconsin).
  • It is the eighth time under OC Tim Lester that Iowa has had 200+ rushing yards.
• The Hawkeyes scored the final 31 points in the game after trailing 7-3.
• Iowa’s defense limited Albany to 177 yards of total offense – the fewest in a season opener since 2022 (120 yards).
  • The Hawkeyes limited two teams under 200 yards of total offense in 2024.
  • Iowa held Albany to 33 total yards of offense in the second half.
• The Hawkeyes had nine first-time starters in the lineup against Albany – four on offense (QB Mark Gronowski, WR Sam Phillips, OL Trevor Lauck, OL Kade Pieper) and five on defense (LB Jaxon Rexroth, LB Karson Sharar, LB Jaden Harrell, DL Jonah Pace and DL Max Llewellyn).
• Iowa won the toss and elected to receive. The Hawkeyes have played 329 games under head coach Kirk Ferentz. Iowa has opened the game on offense 239 times (154-85). The Hawkeyes have opened the game on defense 90 times (51-39).

UP NEXT

The Hawkeyes will return to action Sept. 6, traveling to Ames, Iowa, for the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series matchup against Iowa State.  The game will be televised on FOX beginning at 11 a.m. (CT).