Tim Lester on Iowa offense: 'We're going to be aggressive in everything we do'
The Iowa Hawkeyes brought in Tim Lester to be the team’s next offensive coordinator, replacing Brian Ferentz. With that, changes should be coming to the Iowa offense.
Lester broke down those changes, emphasizing that he wants his offense to be aggressive in everything that it does.
“The one thing I know everybody wants to know is what we’re going to be about, and I can tell you right now that we’re going to be a physical football team,” Tim Lester said. “We’re going to be disciplined, and we’re going to be aggressive in everything we do, from run game to pass game to keepers to RPOs to tempos.”
Tim Lester was most recently a senior analyst for the Green Bay Packers. Before that, he was the head coach at Western Michigan, the quarterbacks coach at Purdue, and the offensive coordinator at Syracuse. In his six seasons at Western Michigan, he compiled a 37-32 record.
“One thing I’ve learned in my time as a former quarterback, quarterback coach, offensive coordinator, head coach at pretty much every level, it’s about putting your players in the best position to succeed,” Lester said.
“Unfortunately, I’ve only been here a couple days and haven’t had a chance to meet all the players other than a couple that were in the hallway in the last couple days, but I’m excited to get to work with those guys and to figure out their strengths, their weaknesses, figure out where we can put them in positions to have success to help our football team win.”
Breaking down Iowa’s quarterback options amid Tim Lester era beginning
The quarterback position is still a question as the Tim Lester era begins. With that in mind, Hawkeye Report’s Tom Kakert broke down the position going into 2024.
“That’s going to be one of the things to watch this spring, Andy, I think is — because Cade McNamara is going to be out. He’s coming back from an ACL tear, so that’s 7-on-7 at best, but I don’t even know they’ll do a lot with him out there. But, you’ve got a battle between Deacon Hill and Marco Lainez to be the backup,” Kakert said.
“And if you can’t feel comfortable with Deacon Hill, and I’ve just suggested they go to Lainez for the backup position during spring ball and give him all the one reps, see what you’ve got there. Because you know what you have with Deacon Hill. You absolutely do with nine games of experience. You know what he’s capable of doing. So, and then if you’re not comfortable with what you have at quarterback, I think in the spring you look in the portal and you see what’s there and you see if you can find a backup. Or even somebody who could push Cade McNamara a little bit because, let’s be honest, Cade McNamara has been out basically the last two years with the exception of seven games in the last two seasons.”