RJ Young
FOX Sports National College Football Analyst
Michael Cohen
College Football and College Basketball Writer
The Cy-Hawk rivalry has never lacked intensity, but this year’s edition carries an added layer of intrigue — with two quarterbacks squarely at the center of it.
For Iowa State’s Rocco Becht, Saturday’s matchup represents more than just a chance to beat an in-state rival that has owned the series for years. It’s an opportunity to build on a breakout 2024 campaign that ended with a program-best 11 wins, and to prove that Iowa State’s 2-0 start isn’t a fluke.
Across the field, Iowa’s Mark Gronowski enters with a résumé full of championships. The South Dakota State transfer arrived with expectations as lofty as any quarterback in recent memory, but his debut was far from memorable: 8-of-15 for just 44 yards against Albany. Now, Gronowski now gets a national stage to prove he’s ready for Power 4 football — and possibly to become the winningest QB in Division I history.
The Cy-Hawk Game has always been about state pride, but this year, it could also shape the trajectories of these two programs and the two quarterbacks.
FOX Sports’ RJ Young and Michael Cohen examine both signal-callers ahead of Saturday’s Iowa-Iowa State game (Saturday, noon ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app).
1. After leading the Cyclones to double-digit wins for the first time in program history last season, QB Rocco Becht has Iowa State off to a 2-0 start ahead of Saturday’s Cy-Hawk Game. What type of performance would it take from Becht in this game to establish himself as a legitimate early-season Heisman contender?
RJ Young: An outstanding performance against Iowa would significantly boost Becht’s Heisman chances, especially considering the body of work he’s shown so far. Becht not only led Iowa State to a program-best 11-win season in 2024, but no Big 12 team has won more games since the start of the 2023 season than the Cyclones with Becht under center.
I expect Becht will put together a third consecutive 3,000-yard passing season. If he can throw for 300 yards and three touchdowns against Iowa’s stout defense, AP and Heisman voters will continue to pay close attention to what would likely be a 3-0 start for the pride of Ames, Iowa.
Michael Cohen: One way to think about Becht’s performance on Saturday is through the framework of the Iowa defense he’ll be facing, long considered one of the best units in the country under exemplary coordinator Phil Parker, who took home the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant two years ago.
There was plenty of discussion during the offseason about whether Iowa’s defense, which only brings back four starters from a group that finished 11th nationally in scoring last season, would enter the 2025 campaign playing second fiddle to the Hawkeyes’ offense given the highly anticipated arrival of transfer quarterback Mark Gronowski, formerly of South Dakota State. It was a relatively bold theory for a program that, outside the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, hasn’t produced a top-50 scoring offense since 2018. And sure enough, even with the optimism surrounding Gronowski, it was Iowa’s defense that shined in a dominant, 34-7 win over Albany last week in which the Hawkeyes surrendered just 177 total yards and only allowed two third-down conversions. Vintage Iowa.
Quarterback Rocco Becht #3 of Iowa State runs off the field after winning 55-7 over South Dakota. (Photo by David Purdy/Getty Images)
So why does any of that matter for a question about Becht’s potential Heisman Trophy candidacy? It’s entirely possible that the Iowa defense Becht faces on Saturday could wind up being the strongest unit he plays all season given the reputations and recent statistical outlays of the two leagues. Seven teams from the Big Ten, including Iowa, finished higher in last year’s scoring defense rankings than any school from the Big 12. In fact, BYU and Utah were the league’s only teams to crack the top 35 nationally in scoring defense, finishing 18th and 25th, respectively, whereas nine Big Ten teams jammed into that same space.
Whatever Becht does this weekend might well be scrutinized to a stronger degree come October and November than some of his conference games against teams likely to field lesser defenses. This could be a make-or-break moment for his early Heisman Trophy candidacy, given the perennial strength and reputation of Iowa’s defenses under Parker. He can’t afford a misstep.
2. On the other side, Mark Gronowski arrived at Iowa this offseason with sky-high expectations, but he completed just 8 of 15 passes for 44 yards and a touchdown in the Hawkeyes’ Week 1 win over Albany. Is it too early to worry that this might just be more of the same for the Hawkeyes offensively in 2025?
Quarterback Mark Gronowski #11 of Iowa throws a pass while warming up before a matchup against Albany. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
Michael Cohen: Yes and no.
In a broader sense, it’s certainly premature to think that one disappointing outing for a player making the leap to major conference football means that Gronowski won’t be an improvement over Iowa’s revolving door at quarterback last season, when Cade McNamara, Brendan Sullivan and Jackson Stratton were all forced into duty at one time or another. Gronowski, who won two national championships at South Dakota State and captured the 2023 Walter Payton Award for the best offensive player at the FCS level, is far better than what he showed against Albany to begin the season. It would be difficult for anyone to argue otherwise given his sheer volume of production during a record-setting career with the Jackrabbits before entering the transfer portal as the No. 10 available quarterback, per the 247Sports rankings.
But it is early enough to wonder if Iowa has enough talent in the receiving corps to put forth a legitimate downfield passing attack, even with offensive coordinator Tim Lester entering his second year following a fairly successful debut in 2024. While it certainly didn’t help Gronowski’s case that wideout Reece Vander Zee, who caught 14 passes for 176 yards and three touchdowns last season, suffered an injury toward the end of camp that is expected to sideline him for a few weeks, the relative absence of vertical pass attempts against Albany was striking. Only three of Gronowski’s 15 pass attempts traveled more than 10 yards downfield, according to Pro Football Focus, with two of them falling incomplete. That exactly 20% of his attempts in Week 1 targeted players behind the line of scrimmage doesn’t exactly scream confidence in what the Hawkeyes’ receivers can do to create separation on longer routes.
So, even though Gronowski is likely to improve as he settles into a new program and adjusts to new levels of competition, it’s reasonable to harbor some doubt about whether head coach Kirk Ferentz and the staff surrounded their quarterback with enough talent.
RJ Young: Gronowski left Iowa’s Week 1 game in the third quarter with cramping issues, but I don’t believe his underwhelming passing statistics are indicative of the caliber of player he’ll be at Iowa. He’s simply been too good for that in his career.
With a win on Saturday, Gronowski and Ferentz could each become all-time number ones in wins. For Ferentz, a win against Iowa State would be his 206th and the most by any coach in Big Ten history. For Gronowski, a win on Saturday would be his 51st as a starting quarterback and the most by any QB in Division I history. And winning has always been the top priority for the Hawkeyes. They don’t win with flash, and they don’t always win with a credible offense, but they do win. And Gronowski might just be the QB capable of leading this team to a College Football Playoff appearance.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him @RJ_Young.
Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him @Michael_Cohen13.
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