Hawkeye Football: How Did Iowa’s Offense Stack Up in Week One?

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Much has been made about Brian Ferentz’s revised contract with minimum targets for wins and points per game this season. Ahead of Iowa’s week one matchup with Utah State, those thresholds of seven total wins and 25 points per game seemed incredibly attainable. The Hawkeyes have won at least seven games every year since 2012 (excluding the COVID-shortened 2020 season). And with the softer schedule and influx of offensive weaponry via the transfer portal, moving into the top-half of scoring offenses nationally didn’t seem unreasonable.

But the Hawkeyes kicked off their 2023 campaign with a home matchup against a Utah State team that was expected to finish near the bottom of the Mountain West with major question marks on defense. The season opener was supposed to be a game for Brian Ferentz and the offense to open things up, keep their foot on the gas and build some cushion on the drive for 325 over the remainder of the season.

[Best narrator voice]

The offense did not open things up. They did not keep their foot on the gas. And they did not build any sort of cushion.

Rather, the Hawkeyes failed to score 25 points in the opener, managing just 24 total points. That was good for 79th nationally. The result is Iowa needing to score 27.4 points per game over the final 11 games of the season to meet the 25 point per game threshold.

So, while the Hawkeyes did not meet their internal thresholds for keeping Brian Ferentz employed after this season, we want to know if the offense met your expectations in the season opener. And not just the offense as a whole - what about new QB Cade McNamara?

And of course, it’s hate week. How do you see this one playing out in week two?