Once upon a time, Mark Gronowski was a lightly recruited quarterback at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville.
“In high school, I was pretty under-recruited,” Gronowski remembers. “I only had the one scholarship offer to South Dakota State.”
Things worked out okay for him there, as he led the Jackrabbits to a pair of national championships and won 49 games as a starter, tied for the most in FCS history.
“I can’t think of words to describe it,” Gronowski said about his time in Brookings, S.D. “I’m almost just speechless thinking about – it’s kind of more than I could ever dreamed of being there and playing there.”
But with a year of eligibility left, the 23-year-old decided to enter the NCAA’s Transfer Portal, and he quickly found out big-time programs liked his winning resume and his more than 10,000 career passing yards.
“The crazy thing was just all the text messages and phone calls I was getting,” Gronowski said. “I had over 100 missed texts and probably 20 missed calls on just the first day that I was in the portal.”
There was no shortage of opportunities at the highest level, but after a visit to Iowa, the choice was clear.
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“Just being able to learn an NFL offense there and be surrounded by a bunch of coaches that are going to help me develop into a better player,” Gronowski said. “Obviously I looked at other schools as well, but I think this school has a winning culture, very similar to what we have at SDSU, and it kind of really felt like home after I went on my visit."
Gronowski strongly considered embarking on his pro career. He had an invite to the NFL Combine, and the feedback told him he’d likely be a draft pick. But, the reality of modern day college football is Name, Image and Likeness (NIL), which often makes it more appealing to pass on the pros and stay in college. With Iowa guaranteeing him more than seven figures, that’s exactly the case for the star quarterback.
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“It’s huge for my life, my family’s life, starting out life with some extra money in your pocket – [it] can set you up for the long term. And that’s really helpful,” Gronowski said. “But also, at the next level in the NFL, nothing is guaranteed. You can be on a team one week and you can be cut the next week, and there’s no promises there, but with NIL and everything like that, you have a lot more opportunities and a lot more guarantees within that.”
The guarantee he’s most excited about? It’s not money – it’s the chance to win another trophy.
“I won a national championship in FCS, and I have an opportunity to win a national championship in FBS and be one of the first players to ever do that,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of different factors that went into the process that I had to go over, and Iowa was the best fit for that. It’s going to be really exciting to play in front of 70 thousand at Kinnick Stadium, and playing Big Ten Football.”