Iowa Hawkeyes Earn Joe Moore Award For Most Outstanding Offensive Line

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The Foundation for Teamwork announced on Monday the University of Iowa’s offensive line as the recipient of the 2025 Joe Moore Award, with the program earning its second honor as the Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit in College Football.

In a surprise presentation inside the Hansen Football Performance Center on Iowa’s campus, the Hawkeyes' offensive line was presented with the only award in college football that celebrates a group or unit. This is the second time Iowa has earned the Joe Moore Award, and it is the fifth time a Big Ten program has captured the top honor (Iowa 2016, Michigan 2021, Michigan 2022 and Washington 2023). Iowa joins Michigan and Alabama as the only two-time winners.

“In a season when O-line continuity was challenged across college football by injuries and inexperience up front, Iowa’s unit provided the kind of dependable, physical consistency that has become increasingly rare,” said Aaron Taylor, founder of the Joe Moore Award and a CBS Sports analyst. “That ability to play steady, disciplined football with an edge – week after week – is what separated them from the rest of the pack. When the moment demanded their best, Iowa consistently answered the call.”

Taylor, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, was an All-American at the University of Notre Dame for the Award’s namesake, the legendary offensive line coach Joe Moore.

“Iowa set themselves apart through consistency and the rare blend of toughness, effort, technique, and a true willingness to finish,” said Cole Cubelic, lead sideline analyst for the SEC Network and Chairman of the Joe Moore Award voting committee. “They faced heavy boxes and constant movement all season, yet stayed patient, limited negative plays, and allowed the offense to function as designed. Iowa won because of its O-line.”

Iowa’s five starters – guards Beau Stephens and Kade Pieper, tackles Gennings Dunker and Trevor Lauck, and center Logan Jones – started all 12 games in 2025, with Jones, Stephens and Dunker combining for 120 career starts. Jones was voted the Rimington Trophy recipient as college football’s top center as well as being an Outland Trophy finalist. Together, the unit did not have its first accepted holding penalty until Game 10 at USC.

“When you watch Iowa on tape, they epitomize a unit that wins with cohesion,” said Mike Golic Jr., DraftKings and lead TNT Big 12 game analyst. “Their first steps and timing are almost hypnotic, with precise landmarks and angles, well-executed combo blocks, solid pass protection, and reliability. When margins are tight and steadiness is required, this group rarely blinked, and that consistency especially late in games is what ultimately separated them from the other outstanding finalists.”

2025 Joe Moore Award Winner at a Glance
Iowa (8-4)

• The Hawkeyes outrushed their opponents in nine of the 12 contests, compiling 245 yards in the comeback victory over Penn State on Oct. 18 and rushing for 310 yards in the season-opening win over UAlbany.
• Iowa’s average time to pressure allowed was 2.8 seconds, the fifth-longest in the country.
• The Hawkeyes had a 76 percent success rate in converting third-and-short situations, and they scored a touchdown on 93 percent of their goal-to-go situations.
• Only 13 percent of their rushes by RBs went for zero or negative yards.
• Offensive line coach: George Barnett

What The Voting Body Said: 
“This group understands strain as a skill. They don’t always win pretty, but they rarely lose clean. You see bodies on bodies, defenders moved off the line of scrimmage, and a consistent ability to keep negative plays off the stat sheet. This unit played with an edge, but also as clean and pure as any we had in college football. They earned it.”

“This group is a machine. Militant, precise, and completely bought into what they do.”

“What stands out is how connected they are. Combo blocks come off on time, blitz looks are communicated, and the interior keeps things orderly even when defenses try to muddy it up. C 65 (Landon Jones) and LG 70 played at a high level all year. RT 67 (Gennings) Dunker was a finishing machine. Played through the echo of the whistle and it was beautiful.”

“Every run is a clinic: hats, hips, and hands firing at the same time, down blocks that thump, and acceleration through contact that punishes you for being in the way.”

“Iowa’s improvement year over year showed up in the details: better pad level, more confident hands, and more urgency upon contact. They’re playing faster without playing reckless, which is a credit to both development and buy-in. (Coach George) Barnett did an outstanding job with this group, and the players clearly bought in and did their part as well.”

“This is a unit that understands its identity. They lean into physicality, trust the system, and don’t flinch when things get uncomfortable. Whether against loaded fronts and/or movement, they stayed patient and made defenders play honest football.”

“I felt their consistency is the separator. Rare free runners, limited penetration, and a steady ability to reset the line of scrimmage. Rare, if any penalties. Just clean, consistent, carnage.”

“When you watched them late in games, you saw why offensive line play still matters. The techniques held, the effort didn’t dip, and the play elevated while the operation stayed intact. Without a productive pass game, they were repeatedly leaned upon, and consistently delivered. That reliability is what allowed them to win games where it matters: at the LOS (line of scrimmage.)”

“This group reflects a program that believes in cumulative effect. No short cuts with this group. Every double team, every drive block, every finish, and every mirror dodge drill added up. The Wisconsin tape and Penn State game really showed that this group had a shot to earn the award this year.”

“They’re not flashy in pass pro because they don’t have to be, but it’s clean. Just like everything else they do.

They’re a rolling convoy. And when they double-team you, it feels personal.”

Looking Ahead
No. 23 Iowa travels to Tampa, Florida, to face No. 14 Vanderbilt in the ReliaQuest Bowl on Dec. 31, 2025, at Noon (ET) on ESPN. This is the first matchup between the two programs.

Voting Sub-Committee
The Joe Moore Award voting sub-committee is composed of individuals who are highly knowledgeable about offensive line play, including former linemen, o-line coaches, NFL talent evaluators and media analysts. This group conducts in-depth analysis by reviewing game tape every week of the season to assess both the fundamentals and subtleties of overall offensive line performance.

Joe Moore Award Credo 
Teamwork. It’s what defines football as a sport, and it is displayed in its greatest glory – in its most profound necessity – in the play of the offensive line. For it is there that individual achievement only matters if the entire unit is performing. When we execute together, great things happen. But if one player missteps, the rest of the team pays the price. That idea – along with hard work and the willingness to strive to be your best – embodies what Coach Joe Moore instilled in his players.

But it’s about more than football. It’s about how we live our lives, how we contribute to society, how we participate in the realization of great things. Teamwork is a bond. It’s a promise. And it’s a commitment to put the greater good above ourselves. It’s the greatest form of individual achievement because it requires total sacrifice – of focus, of effort, of ego. The road to success requires an unwavering commitment to purpose that creates an unbreakable bond between each of us. And it makes that success one of the greatest achievements on the planet. 

About the Joe Moore Award 
The Joe Moore Award is named after Joe Moore, widely regarded as one of the best offensive line coaches in college football history, most notably for his work at Notre Dame and the University of Pittsburgh. Coach Moore sent 52 players on to the NFL, including Bill Fralic, Mark May, Russ Grimm, Jimbo Covert, Andy Heck  and others. The Joe Moore Award trophy, crafted by legendary sports sculptor Jerry McKenna, is the largest trophy in college football, standing at a height of seven feet and weighing in at more than 800 pounds. The perpetual trophy is made available for display by the winning university until the conclusion of the following college football season.