AMES, Iowa – The University of Iowa football team fell to Iowa State, 16-13, on Saturday afternoon in the annual Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series at Jack Trice Stadium.

The Cyclones outgained the Hawkeyes, 238-214, in total offense.

Quarterback Mark Gronowski completed 13 of 24 passes for 83 yards and one interception. He added 37 rushing yards and scored Iowa’s lone touchdown on the ground. Jaziun Paterson led the team with 60 rushing yards, while Jacob Gill recorded a team-high 52 receiving yards.

Defensively, Jaden Harrell paced the Hawkeyes with nine tackles, including six solo stops. Xavier Nwankpa and Karson Sharar each added seven tackles. Ethan Hurkett notched 1.5 tackles for loss, and TJ Hall broke up three passes.

Kicker Drew Stevens was perfect on the day, converting both field goal attempts from 31 and 36 yards.

QUOTING KIRK FERENTZ

"Needless to say, just a disappointing outcome for us, and I don’t think it had anything to do with our preparation or effort. Our preparation was good during the week, and our effort was good today.

I think both teams obviously played really hard. In short, we didn’t do enough to beat a good football team on their home field, and give them credit for that. The series has been, for at least the last six years, decided basically at the end of the game and by a close margin. We had our opportunities, several opportunities, during the game, and we weren’t good enough to cash in when we needed to.

The two turnovers are illustrative of that. They came up with a touchdown off a turnover, and we ended up with a field goal. The margins are always slim, and those things are really important, obviously.

I think our guys had a really positive effort out there. I thought they competed, and I saw a lot of good things. We got off to a little bit of a slow start, had a good drive before the half, and then another good drive off the 3-yard line after being down 10. We came back and tied it up, then we couldn’t finish it out. Again, credit to them on that one.

It hurts. It always has and always will. In the locker room, it’s tough. It’s not going to go away for a while here, but we’ll go back to work tomorrow. What I explained to the guys is it’s a 12-week season, it’s not two games. So, you know, we’ll go through the tape, see what we can learn, and then, most importantly, see what we can do moving forward. How we can improve. Can we use this to be a better football team moving forward? That’s where we are at right now."

PHOTOS

HOW IT HAPPENED

• QB Mark Gronowski had a 2-yard touchdown run in the second quarter – his second rushing touchdown as a Hawkeye.
  • It is Gronowski’s 39th career rushing touchdown.
  • Gronowski completed 13-24 attempts for 83 yards.
• RB Jaziun Patterson led Iowa’s rushing attack with 60 yards on 11 attempts.
• LBs Jaden Harrell (9 tackles) and Karson Sharar (7 tackles) both recorded career bests in tackles.
• DB TJ Hall had a career-high three pass breakups.
• Iowa forced the game’s first turnover at the end of the first quarter when Iowa State’s Xavier Townsend muffed a punt and it was recovered by S Koen Entringer at the Iowa State 33. It was Entringer’s first career fumble recovery
• K Drew Stevens connected on a 31-yard field goal in the second quarter and a 36-yarder in the third. He is 4-for-4 in field goal attempts this season.
  • Stevens scored seven points in the game, moving into fifth place in program history with 262 points (88 PAT, 58 FG). He ranks third all-time with his 58 field goals.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

• The Hawkeyes had 16 play scoring drives on consecutive possessions in the second and third quarters.
  • The 16-play, 85-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter was Iowa’s longest scoring drive (by plays) since the 2021 season (20 plays, 95 yards vs. Kent State).
  • The 16-play, 77-yard scoring drive in the third lasted 9:28. It is the longest scoring drive (by time) under Ferentz and Iowa’s first 9+ minute scoring drive since Nov. 1, 2003, against Illinois. (18 plays, 77 yards, 9:06).
• Iowa’s defense limited the Cyclones to 238 yards and 16 points. Iowa State entered the game averaging 39.5 points and 421 yards of total offense.
• The Hawkeyes finished the game with a 31:08-28:52 advantage in time of possession.
• Six out of the last eight meetings between Iowa and Iowa State have been one score contests.
• For the first time since 2019, the road team did not win the game.
• Twelve of the last 14 meetings have been decided by 10 points or less.
• Iowa won the toss and elected to receive. The Hawkeyes have played 330 games under head coach Kirk Ferentz. Iowa has opened the game on offense 240 times (154-86). The Hawkeyes have opened the game on defense 90 times (51-39).

UP NEXT

Iowa returns to action Sept. 13, hosting UMass in its nonconference finale at Kinnick Stadium.  The game will begin at 6:30 p.m. (CT) and be televised on BTN.