The
Daily Iowan
PREGAME
MEANT TO BE A HAWKEYE
How Gennings Dunker’s dream came true thanks to an unintentional run-in with Kirk Ferentz in 2018.
5 things to watch
stepped in against Albany after Kamari Moulton’s injury and totaled 122 yards, but only saw seven carries against Iowa State.
Mark Gronowski and the Iowa passing attack have been putrid to begin the year, with Gronowski tossing only 127 yards, one touchdown, and one interception through two games. Despite the bad numbers, Gronowski did show flashes against Iowa State, but several dropped passes and conservative play-calling hurt his chances of leaving Jack Trice Stadium with a win. The solution to fixing those problems? Playing an awful Massachusetts team at home. The Minutemen are coming off a home loss to Bryant and have allowed an average of 228 passing yards per contest. If the Hawkeyes don’t show improvement on Saturday, then it could be a long season for the black and gold.
Terell Washington Jr. and Jazuin Patterson received the bulk of the carries in Saturday’s loss to the Cyclones, with Patterson leading the way with 60 yards on 11 carries.
All three backs will likely see playing time against Massachusetts, but don’t expect the situation to resolve until Moulton returns.
Iowa has an experienced defensive line, but it has recorded just two sacks this season. That’s a surprising figure considering the Hawkeyes boast stalwarts Ethan Hurkett, Aaron Graves, and Max Llewellyn on the line.
Though it’s only UMass, generating pressure on the quarterback will help ease the secondary’s load and provide a much-needed confidence boost heading into Big Ten play.
Iowa’s secondary had plenty of questions entering the season, but this unit did a tremendous job limiting Iowa State star quarterback Rocco Becht to just 134 passing yards last weekend. The Cyclones tried to wrinkle the long-ball into their playbook at many different junctures, but the Hawkeyes answered the call each time. While the entire secondary performed admirably, the star of the game was fourth-year defensive back TJ Hall. The senior recorded three tackles and a multitude of pass-break-ups, including an impressive play on Dominic Overby early in the fourth quarter.
“The improvement just happens every day,” Hurkett said on Tuesday. “It’s more of a day to day type of thing. So we watch the film every day, and we critique it with a critical eye, and we come back the next day and just try to improve on that.”
UMass doesn’t have many explosive playmakers, but one name that has stood out on this Minutemen offense is third-year wide receiver Jacquon Gibson. Standing at 5-foot-11 inches tall, Gibson established himself as one of the primary receiving threats in the season-opener against Temple, recording 132 yards on 12 catches.
Kirk Ferentz and his staff weren’t sure who would be their primary running back entering the season, and through two games, the Hawkeyes still have yet to find their No. 1 back. First-year Xavier Williams
Gibson continued his performance against Bryant, totaling 89 yards on seven carries. The junior is still searching for his first touchdown of the season, but expect Phil Parker and the Iowa secondary to focus on a piece of their gameplan to make sure that doesn’t happen this weekend. Either way, Gibson will have a tough challenge.
Dunker’s dream comes true
How Gennings Dunker’s Iowa football tenure happened by accident.
It only happened because of Isaiah Bruce.
Bruce was one of 230 students at Lena-Winslow High School in 2018, and one of 2,700 residents living in Lena, Illinois. He was the first football player in the school’s history to receive a Division I offer, which came from the University of Iowa.
The following winter, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz and assistant Seth Wallace visited the northwestern Illinois town to visit Bruce. Lena-Winslow head football coach Ric Arand guided them through the school, pausing outside the cafeteria. The conversation was interrupted by a 6-foot-5, 290-pound sophomore named Gennings Dunker.
Dunker had a simple uestion for Arand, but he got more than a simple answer.
“Coach Wallace immediately went up to him and said, What si e shoe do you wear What’s your name How tall are you ’” Arand recalled the conversation to Hawk Central in 2019. “They were really interested in him from right there. They just continued looking into him.”
Next thing Dunker knew, the then 15-year-old was sitting across from Ferent at one of the lunch tables. It was at that moment that the reality of a possible college football career began to sink in.
Every day Dunker lives as a member of the Hawkeyes, he is living out his dream.
The first eight years of his life were spent in Des Moines. By default, he was in Iowa State territory, though his family strayed from the Cyclones. The Hawkeyes ruled strongly inside the household.
“We took family photos and I’m wearing Hawkeye shirts and stuff,” Dunker said. “I got a picture of me and my little brothers wearing Hawkeye shirts.”
Those pictures still exist today. So do his fifth-grade career aspirations.
“My teacher in fifth grade, Mrs. Chrisman, sent me a picture. It had some PowerPoint we did in fifth grade on what you want to be when you grow up,” Dunker said. “And I had a picture outside my skill one. It was a picture of me getting a handoff from a uarterback. I didn’t live that out. Obviously, if I touch the ball, we have problems.”
Dunker began playing football in the fifth grade. There was no youth football in Lena, but there was a league miles east in the town of Dakota. Dunker and his friends made the trip to play.
Running back was a stretch for him because he was always bigger than kids his age. Instead, he found himself among the front five on offense, blocking for the running back and the uarterback. It was simply just a hobby at the time, but it carried into high school.
Dunker went into Lena-Winslow High School as a 6-1, 180-pound raw player. He
worked his way up to the varsity level by his sophomore year, and by his junior year, he shot up to - , pounds. The si e alone should’ve drawn attention, but in a rural town away from the Chicago area, Division I scouts weren’t looking in that direction.
Except for Iowa.
Iowa’s coaching staff saw the potential in Dunker and pursued it, with Wallace and then-offensive lineman coach Tim Polasek going back to visit him on several occasions.
Dunker attended one of the Iowa football camps he was invited to in the summer of
. Ferent watched him compete and had seen enough. He gave the then-incoming high school sophomore a formal offer.
Dunker’s decision process lasted about two seconds.
“As soon as Coach Ferent gave me my offer, I committed, like, the next sentence,” Dunker said.
After winning two state championships and
graduating from high school in 2021, he finally arrived in Iowa City, just not the way that Dunker hoped.
A broken sesamoid bone plagued Dunker’s senior year of high school, and it carried over into his first year of college. Within his first two weeks with the Hawkeyes, he underwent surgery, ending his first season before it even began.
After spending the entire 2021 season recovering from an injury, Dunker suffered another injury during preparation for the Citrus Bowl, causing him to miss spring practice ahead of his second year.
Being away from the sport was hard for Dunker, but he learned a lot from being on the sidelines. Watching film and studying the guys ahead of him prepared him for when he got back onto the field, specifically veterans such as center Tyler inderbaum, tight end Sam aPorta, and linebacker ack Campbell.
“It’s not fun at all, but there are still a lot of things that you can do to make the most of it an injury ,” Dunker said. “It was a really good opportunity for me to learn and know what’s a good block and what’s not by just watching.”
“The biggest thing I learned is that injury is good for you. That was my biggest takeaway. I’ve had a couple of surgeries since being here, but just learning that it’s good for you to be hurt gives you an opportunity to step back and look at things differently and improve on things that you wouldn’t even have thought about if you were not injured.”
It took Dunker nearly years to see playing time. Patience was at the essence, and it showed when he returned, appearing in 11 games during the 2022 season and securing his first start at right guard in the - Music City Bowl victory over Kentucky. The season was a semi-breakout year for Dunker, showing off his versatility by starting games at right tackle. He helped the Hawkeyes complete four games with at least rushing yards and was awarded the Iowa offense’s Team Hustle Award and an All-Big Ten honorable mention by Big Ten media.
“To his credit, he fought through some moral leg injuries that were impeding his progress and development. And offensive line’s all about development,” Ferent said. “So, you know, he was playing catch up that way.”
Momentum from Dunker’s second season carried over into his third as he played his way into a variety of honors he won second-team All-Big Ten honors voted by coaches, was named Associated Press second-team All-Big Ten, was named third-team All-Big Ten by the media, Phil Steele third-team All-Big Ten, won the team’s Hayden Fry Award for offense, and was a part of the offensive line that was up for the oe Moore Award. Throughout his games played in ,
Dunker helped Iowa amass seven -plus rushing yard performances, the most since . The Hawkeyes’ . rushing yards per contest was the highest average for the program since 2002.
If there’s one thing to know about Dunker, it’s that he can play a perfect game or compile a great season, but the constant need for improvement will shut out his accomplishments more times than not.
“I watched a lot of tape, and I just see a lot of stuff that needs to be fixed. It kind of hurts to watch. I can only watch it for so long. ust always working on getting better every day.”
Dunker said.
Does Dunker consider himself a perfectionist?
“I try to be perfect as much as I can,” he said.
That’s why he made the decision to return to Iowa for another season. Dunker had the chance to go to the NF , and he almost certainly would have been drafted.
But he feels he has more to prove.
“He knows how to work. He understands he’s not going to be perfect, but he’s gonna strive for that every single day and work towards that,” said Iowa center ogan ones, who has played for seasons with Dunker, said. “He understands how to work and the importance of that, and then he’s going to be super physical.”
External expectations are sky-high for Dunker in , with several preseason accolades, including Phil Steele and Sporting News preseason second-team All-American nods and appearing on the preseason ombardi Award, utland Trophy, and Wuerffel Award watch lists.
et, to him, there’s no pressure. The potential accolades are irrelevant. Ask him how he feels and he’ll downplay it.
“I’m still working on a lot of things,” Dunker said. “ I don’t think I’m some great player, but I just try to do exactly what I’m told to do. The same things I worked on when I
was and came here as a freshman, I’m still working on. It’s literally the same thing every day.”
It’s hard to miss Dunker in public. Not because of his massive si e, but his fiery red mullet and mustache combo.
The motivation behind the mullet To make it to the NF .
“I did copy former Iowa guard Connor Colby because he had a season without one, a season with one. ou know, he played a lot better with it,” Dunker joked. “There’s a correlation.”
Colby was drafted by the San Francisco ers in the seventh round of the NF Draft after a stellar year with a mullet. Dunker’s chances of becoming an NF player are high, with or without it. If he doesn’t make it
to the NFL, he’ll aim to be a doctor of some sort — he is a human physiology major.
“Hopefully I didn’t take all those classes for no reason,” he said.
But Dunker is well aware that the NFL is the way to go. “At one point, he said he wanted to be a doctor, which he’s still pursuing. And, you know, the NFL wasn’t really in his thing, but he just loved playing football at Iowa, right?” Jones said. “But now it’s kind of switched, where he just loves playing football. He kind of understands the opportunity he has, and how much he’s grown into one of the best offensive tackles in the country.”
The thing about Dunker is that he has to love what he does. His genuine approach to life will never be guided by anything other than love. It’s the same reason why he loves playing Pokémon in his hotel room before games, blasting Morgan Wallen and Zach Brian in the locker room, or even living life happily without using any social media handles. His close circle would tell you the same thing. Going back to his hometown, regularly checking up on his parents, and hosting his friends in his Iowa City apartment so they can watch him play at Kinnick Stadium are acts of love he commits for his people.
Through it all, he’s kept that same circle around him, no matter what it takes.
“It’s super important [to stay in touch]. And I hope nobody, especially when they come here, loses sight of that because it’s those kinds of people that molded you.”
Whatever professional career Dunker wants to pursue, he will have a ton of love and support around him, whether that’s from his
teammates or those from small-town Lena.
“I know everyone and their third cousin in Lena because usually people will stay there. So I know everybody in their whole families,” Dunker said. “I know their parents and their grandparents and whatnot. You walk into Casey’s to grab an energy drink or something, you see someone that you went to high school with, or someone’s parents, you can just talk
to them.”
Dunker would have never returned had he not enjoyed playing for Iowa. The love for the Hawkeyes was instilled in him from birth,
running with him throughout his entire childhood and leading to a split-second commitment that ended up being one of the best decisions of his life.
Zach Ortwerth looks for success in starting role
Ortwerth was listed as the number one tight end on this week’s depth chart.
After tight end Addison strenga suffered an injury in the first uarter against Iowa State, the next man to replace him was thirdyear Zach rtwerth.
The junior didn’t record a catch in the game, but the experience prepared him for a larger role. strenga’s injury was revealed to be a season-ending Achilles injury on Tuesday, meaning that rtwerth’s role in Tim ester’s offense will take a drastic increase.
It won’t be the first time rtwerth will have stepped in for an injured veteran. Standout tight end uke achey was sidelined for several games in November , and rtwerth filled in, recording yards on three catches against Wisconsin.
“Seeing game action last year and a little bit as a freshman, it certainly helps,” rtwerth said at media availability on Sept. . “ ou know, not being your first time out there in a bigger role, but it just comes back to focusing on the little things.”
rtwerth was named to the Preseason ohn Mackey Award Watch ist, an award that recognizes the best tight end in college football. The last Iowa tight end to receive the award was T. . Hockenson in . Hockenson is one of many former Hawkeye tight ends who set and carried the standard of “Tight End University” at Iowa. From Dallas Clark to George Kittle and Sam aPorta, the list of great tight ends goes on for the Hawkeyes.
While rtwerth understands the standard has been set, he wants to help raise the bar for the next generation of tight ends who come through the program.
“It’s definitely the standard that has been set,” rtwerth said. “It’s a high standard, and pressure is a privilege playing tight end here. ou see the guys who have played before you. ou see what these guys are doing now in the NF . ou can see in our tight end room, the guys on the wall like,that’s the standard.”
“ ou’re not just trying to live up to standard, you’re trying to raise the standard,” he continued. “ ou’re trying to move that bar higher and higher. So it’s a fun thing to do work with all those guys and try to move the room forward and raise the bar.”
While rtwerth’s catches and yards in don’t jump off the page, his impact can be made without showing up in the box score.
rtwerth has received high praise from his uarterback, Mark Gronowski, who is confident that he can become the next great Iowa tight end.
Tight ends at Iowa have historically been praised for being selfless and effective blockers in the run game. Kittle and aPorta are widely regarded as two of the best blocking tight ends in the NF today, and they also have great pass-catching ability.
rtwerth recogni es that standard at Iowa
and wants to embrace the responsibility of giving himself up in the run game.
“As a tight end here, we have to be able to run block,” rtwerth said. “I think no matter what level you are or who you are, here at tight end it’s going to be important always to improve those fundamentals.”
“ rtwerth and I have a great relationship outside of football,” Gronowski said. “We hang out all the time outside of here, and he’s going to have a great opportunity in front of him. I mean, we saw that he ended up being on the preseason watch list for the Mackey Award. Now he has the opportunity to prove to everyone why he’s going to be the next great Iowa tight end. He’s been working hard in practice, and he’s going to have a great opportunity on Saturday, and we hope that he proves it.”
One on One: Jonah Pace
Pace, a transfer from Central Michigan, discussed his favorite holiday, best Halloween costume, and favorite NFL players.
The Daily Iowan: What is on your bucket list?
Jonah Pace: I would say travel the United States and get to as many stadiums as I can. I’ve been able to go to a couple of stadiums, just for playing football. Texas A&M and all those schools would be fun.
What is your favorite holiday?
Halloween is a good one.
What’s the best Halloween costume you ever wore?
There are so many. Last year, I dressed up as a hockey player, so I have to say that one. That’s what comes to mind.
Where is the coolest place you have traveled to?
I played at Penn State. That was a pretty cool experience there. Also, when I go down to Florida with my family.
What does your average weekend look like in the off-season?
Hang out with the guys, go to a pool, play some golf. Hang around with the guys at the crib, that’s about it.
What is your favorite NFL team, and who is your favorite player?
I’m a big fan of the Chicago Bears. I’ll say a couple of players. I’m a big fan of T.J. and J.J. Watt, and I also liked to watch Akiem Hicks when he was on the Bears. Those guys went crazy.
What is the dumbest way that you have injured yourself?
I fell off the counter when I was little and cracked my head open, so I’ve got some staples on there. That was pretty dumb, but I was pretty young.
What does your average weekend look like in the off-season?
Hang out with the guys, go to a pool, play some golf. Hang around with the guys at the crib, that’s about it.
What is your dream car?
I like muscle cars, old muscle cars. So I’d say a Chevy Impala or something like that.
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Kid Captain Gwendolyn Clouse celebrating joy and resilience
Diagnosed with a rare, life-limiting disorder as a baby, seven-year-old Gwendolyn will take the field at Kinnick Stadium as this week’s Kid Captain.
When Gwendolyn Clouse’s parents received a phone call that their daughter likely wouldn’t survive past her first birthday, their lives completely changed.
As a baby, Gwendolyn was diagnosed with peroxisomal
biogenesis disorder - Zellweger spectrum disorder (PBD – ZSD), a rare disease that aff ects all major organs in the body. PBD - ZSD is a progressive disorder, meaning that symptoms worsen with age.
Gwendolyn has lost her eyesight and her hearing. She wears cochlear implants in order to help her hear.
“She’s just continued to defy the odds, and we are just super blessed,” Gwendolyn’s mother, Natalie, said.
Now, the Cedar Rapids native has been selected to be the Kid Captain of the upcoming Iowa football game against UMass. Natalie was overjoyed when she heard the news.
“Someone just called my cell phone at work. I was so excited, I immediately started crying and had to shut my office door,” Natalie said.
to take her up for the wave,” Clouse said.
“When you saw everybody turn around, the whole stadium waving, it was one of the coolest experiences that I’ve ever had in my life.”
Despite her diagnosis, Gwendolyn is a happy and smiling seven year old. She enjoys swimming, hanging out with her friends, and fluffy stuffed animals. She loves school and is always excited to learn.
“The school that she goes to is remarkable. They’ve taught her how to communicate using tactile devices, so she knows a bunch of diff erent words now,” Clouse said.
Every game of the Iowa football season, a Kid Captain is selected to represent pediatric patients at Stead Family Children’s Hospital. Along with the Kid Captain program, patients at the Stead Family Children’s Hospital also get to participate in The Wave, where fans inside of Kinnick Stadium wave to the children in the hospital at the end of the first quarter.
ick Stadium
Because Gwendolyn is nonverbal, she uses a communication board with tactiles that she can feel, in order to communicate with others. Her board has words like love, break, and food on it.
The Stead Family Children’s Hospital has played a vital role in Gwendolyn’s treatment. Even with how often their family is at the hospital, they continue to make the best of their situation. Natalie and her husband will often go on “date nights” to the hospital cafeteria for some alone time. They also bring their coffee maker to the hospital.
“There’s something about that hospital. The nurses are wonderful and it’s just a welcoming environment. It’s not fun to be in the hospital but that’s a pretty good place to be in a hospital,” Natalie said.
“The first time we were ever in the hospital, she was three or four months old and we got
Gwendolyn and her family are excited to step out onto the fi eld during the game, which will take place under the lights. Natalie is grateful for this opportunity, saying that Saturday can’t come soon enough.
“It is really special knowing that there’s that moment that families can carry forever,” she said.
With a win over UMass on Saturday, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz will surpass Ohio State coach Woody Hayes and become the all-time winningest coach in Big Ten history. The 70-year-old coaching legend has won 205 games in Iowa City, and is one of only three coaches to reach 200 wins, joining Woody Hayes and Amos Alonso Stagg.