Gronowski adds Iowa wins to set Division I quarterback record at 58

Mark Gronowski finished with 58 career wins, the most ever by a starting quarterback in Division I, and that number will follow him into the NFL draft process whether scouts think it should or not. The harder question is the one his résumé forces: how much of that total is quarterback value, and how much is the product of playing in powerful systems at South Dakota State and Iowa?

The wins started piling up in Brookings, where Gronowski went 49-6 as SDSU’s starter and tied the FCS record for quarterback victories. He backed that record with back-to-back national championships in 2022 and 2023, then capped his Jackrabbits run as the 2023 Walter Payton Award winner after leading the FCS in passing efficiency at 179.67. That is not empty résumé padding. It is production, consistency and postseason proof over three seasons that made him one of the most decorated quarterbacks in FCS history.

Then he made the harder choice. Gronowski transferred to Iowa for his final season, and that move changed the lens on him. He was no longer just the dominant FCS quarterback operating behind an elite program. He had to show he could win at the Big Ten level, in a different offense, against better weekly talent and with far less margin for error. Iowa did not ask him to throw 40 times a game, but it did ask him to manage, protect the football and deliver enough explosive plays to win.

He did exactly that. Iowa’s 47-7 win over UMass on Sept. 13 gave Gronowski his 51st career Division I victory and moved him past Kellen Moore’s FBS mark. He kept going through a 9-4 season for the Hawkeyes, then finished it by beating Vanderbilt 34-27 in the ReliaQuest Bowl on Dec. 31 in Tampa. Gronowski went 16 of 22 for 212 yards, threw two touchdown passes, ran for another score and was named the game’s most valuable player.

That final push matters because it gave NFL evaluators one more layer of evidence. Gronowski is not just a winner in the abstract. He won at SDSU, won at Iowa and did it while producing 12,000-plus passing yards, more than 100 passing touchdowns and enough rushing value to make him a dual threat. Still, 58 wins does not answer every scouting question. Arm talent, timing, pocket movement and how much of his success came from system and roster strength still matter. What the record does prove is simpler and stronger: wherever he played, Gronowski kept stacking wins, and he did it long enough to make history across two levels of college football.