Iowa senior tight end Addison Ostrenga will miss the remainder of the 2025 season after suffering an Achilles injury in the first quarter of the Week 2 loss to Iowa State, coach Kirk Ferentz confirmed Tuesday. Ostrenga underwent surgery on Monday.
“It’s really unfortunate,” Ferentz said. “Addison’s a great young guy. You hate to have anybody lose playing time, and he’s one of our senior guys, a leader, just a tremendous young person.”
The injury is another blow to an already strained Hawkeyes offense, which has struggled to move the ball through the air despite the transfer addition of South Dakota State transfer quarterback Mark Gronowski. Through Week 2, Iowa ranks tied for last in the FBS with just 3.3 yards per pass attempt and worst among Power Four teams with just 65.5 passing yards per game.
Ostrenga caught one pass for eight yards on just two targets before the injury. In the previous two seasons, the 6-foot-4, 248-pound tight end caught a combined 46 passes for 306 yards and three touchdowns.
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Without Ostrenga, the Hawkeyes tight end room — which has produced seven NFL Draft picks since 2014, including each of the past three years — will lean on junior Zach Ortwerth and graduate transfer Hayden Large, as well as redshirt freshman DJ Vonnahme.
The loss is just the latest setback for Iowa. Promising sophomore wide receiver Reece Vander Zee is already expected to miss roughly a month with a foot injury, and running back Kamari Moulton, who went down in the season opener, is expected to be sidelined for a couple of weeks, according to Ferentz.
The continued loss of weapons on offense results in a unit increasingly dependent on predictable rushing plays. According to CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli, Iowa runs on 66.7% of its snaps — the sixth-highest rate in the nation — and has a 44% success rate on those carries. That’s enough to keep the average third down distance at 4.8 yards — the fourth-lowest mark in the FBS.
The problem, as Fornelli points out, is the Hawkeyes’ offense has become painfully predictable, allowing defenses to anticipate plays and forcing Gronowski into tough situations.
In 2024, Iowa averaged 27.7 points per game under first-year offensive coordinator Tim Lester, a modest improvement from previous seasons but still only 72nd in the FBS and eighth in the Big Ten. Early results in 2025 suggest those struggles have continued, raising questions about the effectiveness of Ferentz’s offense, even as he remains the longest-tenured active coach in the FBS.
Remember the so-called “Drive to 325” provision, introduced after the 2022 season? It required Iowa to average at least 25 points per game and win seven contests for offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz — Ferentz’s son — to retain his position. Despite a 10-win season and a Big Ten Championship Game appearance, the Hawkeyes’ offense never came close, finishing with just 216 points (15.4 per game), second-lowest in the FBS behind only Kent State.
With key contributors sidelined and an offense already lacking versatility, Iowa faces an uphill battle to generate consistent production in 2025. The combination of injuries, predictable play-calling and limited passing threats makes it unlikely the Hawkeyes can overcome these setbacks, leaving the team heavily reliant on its running game and defensive performance.
Unless the unit can unlock the full potential of Gronowski, who won two FCS national championships and the Walter Payton Award — the FCS equivalent of the Heisman Trophy — the 2025 season could prove frustratingly stagnant for a program trying to keep pace in the Big Ten.
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