The UMass football team has its sights set on an upset Saturday night when it travels to Iowa to take on the Hawkeyes for its first road game of the 2025 season.
Despite a devastating, last-second loss to FCS Bryant last weekend, the Minutemen will look to play the role of spoiler this week against a heavily favored (35.5 point spread per BetMGM Sportsbook) Hawkeyes team.
“That’s a program that’s been established,” UMass head coach Joe Harasymiak said of Iowa during his weekly media availability on Monday. “Coach [Kirk] Ferentz, what he’s done, it’s pretty rare these days in college football to be in one spot for a long time and to have an identity and not have change over.”
Ferentz has led Iowa since the 1999 season (205-125 record) and has guided the Hawkeyes to 21 bowl-game appearances (10-11 record).
Iowa beat FCS Albany in its first game of the season, 34-7, on Aug. 30, then fell to in-state rival Iowa State in the CyHawk Series last Saturday, 16-13.
Harasymiak said he has a lot of respect for Hawkeyes’ defensive coordinator Phil Parker and the culture he’s built, which dates back to Harasymiak’s days as a defensive coach within the Big Ten with Rutgers and Minnesota.
“What Coach Parker does, he does what he does and it’s unbelievable to watch from a defensive perspective,” Harasymiak said. “Not giving up an explosive play … we gave up 10 in the first two games. I think they’ve led the country several times over the last couple of years.
“Every year since I was at Minnesota in 2019, every offseason all Iowa games we broke down and watched their defense, it’s what we did,” Harasymiak continued. “It just gives you a mindset, gives you some ideas. It’s not very complicated, but it is hard, in terms of going against them.”
Through two games, Iowa has allowed 415 total yards from opposing offenses, including just 147 yards from the ground. The Minutemen have given up more than twice the amount of total yards (886) and nearly twice as many rushing yards (272).
Linebacker Jaden Harrell has pocketed the most tackles for the Hawkeyes with 13, while the entire defensive unit has managed two sacks and eight tackles-for-loss. UMass’ tackles leader is LB Derrieon Craig (17) and the group has posted two sacks and five tackles-for-loss.
Harasymiak highlighted his defensive line and linebacker bunch during Monday’s press conference, specifically, as players who’ll have to be on their A-game.
“[Iowa’s] o-line is legit,” Harasymiak said. “I have nightmares of zone and stretch, I call it stretch, from over my years at Minnesota and Rutgers … our D-line is in for a test, to say the least.
“Their identity, they’re going to be downhill in their run game, that’s what sets everything up,” Harasymiak added. “It’s going to start up front for us. We got to get downhill and make tackles. This is going to be a violent game, extremely violent.”
Both UMass and Iowa have surrendered four sacks to this point.
On the offensive side, Hawkeyes quarterback Mark Gronowski has had a conservative start, throwing for 127 yards and one touchdown across two games of action. Although, Iowa’s ground game has been solid with two players already surpassing 100 yards in Xavier Williams (148 yards, TD) and Jaziun Patterson (107 yards), plus a pair of rushing scores from Gronowski.
Between Brandon Rose, Grant Jordan and one drive with AJ Hairston, the Minutemen have mustered more than 450 passing yards in total so far. However, other than Rocko Griffin’s season-opening rushing TD, UMass hasn’t has much success running the ball with only 204 yards earned on the ground altogether.
To compare, the Hawkeyes have compiled 441 rushing yards in two games.
To make matters even more difficult for the Minutemen, Harasymiak listed nine players earlier in the week who are likely out for the Iowa contest. Rose, T.Y. Harding, Malcolm Greene, Jake McConnachie, Bo Barnes, Sullivan Weidman and Zeraun Daniel are all dealing with injuries, yet Harasymiak left open the possibility of some playing by kickoff Saturday. Josh Nobles and Zach Franks remain out for the season.
Still, Harasymiak is looking forward to the opportunity of playing at historic Kinnick Stadium, which holds nearly 70,000 fans.
“Me personally, I was in the Big Ten for six seasons, I played in all the stadiums, to me, it is by far the best Big Ten environment,” Harasymiak said.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.