The staff room inside the Iowa Football program just took another hit.
The Iowa Hawkeyes wrapped up the 2025 season with a 9-4 (6-3 Big Ten) record, including a win over No. 14 Vanderbilt to close out the season.
After defeating Vandy in the ReliaQuest Bowl, the Hawkeyes finally snapped a 0-13 streak against ranked teams that dates back to 2021.
During Iowa's preparation for the Bowl game, the staff took a major hit when long-time coach LeVar Woods announced he is leaving the program to join Pat Fitzgerald's staff at Michigan State.
Unfortunately for the program, it suffered another loss as another staff member announced he is leaving for a different opportunity.
Warren Ruggiero is leaving Iowa football to become a senior offensive analyst at Virginia Tech under James Franklin. Ruggiero, a widely respected offensive mind and innovator of the “Slow Mesh,” spent one season as a senior analyst at Iowa: https://t.co/7OwCwlJivN pic.twitter.com/sA5OfIkmNJ
— Tyler Tachman (@Tyler_T15) January 3, 2026
According to the Des Moines Register's Tyler Tachman, senior analyst Warren Ruggiero is leaving the Iowa program to join James Franklin's staff at Virginia Tech.
Ruggiero heads to Blacksburg after spending one season with the Hawkeyes and is credited with inventing the "slow mesh" that the Iowa offense incorporated this season.
Ruggiero is a well-respected offensive mind and is a big loss to the Hawkeye staff after showing improvement on the offensive side of the football.
After a 34-point outburst against Vanderbilt in the final game of the season, Iowa finished ranked No. 54 overall in scoring offense, averaging 29.3 points per game.
The offense's 29.3 points per game is up from 27.7 last season (ranked No. 72 overall).
It is not clear what Ruggiero's motivation is for moving to Virginia Tech.
He does hold the "senior offensive analyst" title, which is slightly different from the "senior analyst" tag he had with the Iowa program.