The new offensive coordinator for Iowa football, Tim Lester, is reportedly named.

Iowa’s hunt for a new offensive coordinator appears to have ended over the weekend, after almost three months. Ninety days prior, offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz’s son, head coach Kirk Ferentz, was upset when interim athletics director Beth Goetz declared that he would not be staying on after the season. To begin his hunt for the successor, though, Ferentz the older waited until after Iowa’s season ended—which ended in a dismal fashion with a 35-0 drubbing at the hands of Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl.

Even so, Ferentz has delayed almost four weeks to make a choice in this process, despite the fact that we have witnessed a plethora of OC hires across the nation. This is partly due to the limitations that will be imposed on the new

OC. Head coach Kirk Ferentz will ultimately be in charge of their offense. They won’t have the freedom to choose their own replacement for retiring receivers coach Kelton Copeland, nor even to alter the personnel.

In addition to other issues, this is what has caused Iowa’s top candidate in this process, Paul Chryst, a former Wisconsin OC who became a head coach, to choose to stay in Texas as an analyst for a much lower pay rather than moving back to the Midwest. The search went on for weeks after it appeared that every egg had been placed in the Chryst basket.

Kevin Johns, an offensive coordinator at Duke who has experience in a variety of offenses throughout the Big Ten (Indiana), Big 12 (Texas Tech), and ACC (Duke), appeared to be the focus of the search only last week. After Johns was seen having breakfast with Ferentz on Friday morning, the smoke on him really started to blow during the weekend. It was the first time any contender had been seen in person in Iowa City during the entire process. He appeared to be an obvious choice to be Iowa’s next OC when it was reported that he had spent almost the whole day visiting with the team and personnel inside the complex.

However, the insider-connected local media appeared to swiftly retract the

notion that Johns is the ultimate option. Ferentz would not approve of his style, which raises the question, why bring him in for an interview?

As anticipation for Johns started to wane, Tim Lester’s name started to surface as the other possible contender. Lester, in contrast to Johns, was never seen in Iowa City and, until this past weekend, had not truly been connected to the Hawkeyes. Instead, as recently as a week ago, there were rumors that he was going to Troy to take over as their next OC.

Lester was apparently selected by Ferentz and the Hawkeyes to take Brian Ferentz’s place ahead of schedule.

Lester seems like a great fit for the job on paper. In contrast, Brian’s resume seems ridiculous, and maybe his performance in Iowa City will have the same effect.

After spending a season as a senior offensive analyst with the Green Bay Packers, where he was in charge of leading the offense of the scout squad in order to get the Packer D ready for games every week, he came to Iowa City. After six seasons, he was let go from his alma university, Western Michigan, which led to his move into that post.

Lester’s tenure at WMU serves as a fanbase Rorschach test. In one sense, he completed his stay there.at 37–32 and had six years of experience as head coach. With an average of more than 420 yards and 32 points per game, his offenses were very effective. The period spanning 2019–2021 was especially impressive.

However, it’s also important to remember that Johns was the one in charge of the production and calling the plays in 2017, and that in 2022, things really went south. Furthermore, those win/loss statistics aren’t all that impressive, and it’s evident that things weren’t improving when contrasted with Fleck’s performances in his final two seasons. Lester was fired following the 2022 season as a result.

Lester’s résumé only lists four years of experience as an offensive coordinator, in addition to his mediocre head coaching performance. At D-III Elmurst were two of those. When compared to his offenses at Western Michigan, his two seasons as Syracuse’s offensive coordinator appeared significantly inferior. Lester’s attacks with the Orange only managed an average of 342 yards and little over 22 points per game.

What does this mean for the Iowa offense and how does it work with Ferentz?

For the latter, it remains to be seen, but both optimism and pessimism are warranted. On the down side, the figures when it comes to an actual OC are real. They remind me of Brian Ferentz. Proponents of optimism can highlight the advancements made at Western Michigan, particularly the section in the midst where he was supposedly calling the plays. However, critics will point out that he wasn’t the offensive coordinator for that offense, and the offense struggled in 2022 after his elite talent left for the NFL draft or the transfer portal. High caliber talent won’t exist in Iowa for the skill positions.

However, there are some positive aspects. To begin with, Lester’s offensive

is based on RPO. The idea is to establish the run while punishing opponents for giving up on a run by allowing his quarterbacks to throw in specific circumstances. Interestingly, Lester has advocated for using the tight end through the RPO to create mismatches and exploit safeties or linebackers who crash. That ought should work nicely and benefit Iowa in a lot of ways.

Lester has been known to like the extra element of having a mobile quarterback since his days at Syracuse. In particular, he thinks it’s fine to switch over quarterbacks during a drive and enjoys the extra element of having a mobile quarterback in the red zone. That would be something the fan base has been longing for, and it would be a sharp contrast to Iowa’s inclination during the last 20 years.

Perhaps most importantly, despite his offensive philosophy and effectiveness, Lester feels like a true fit with the current staff. Ferentz seems to have respected this man throughout the years; before to the 2023 meeting with WMU, he mentioned him as “having a good program going” before letting him go. Therefore, it’s possible that he can put some ideas into practice to update the offense. Nothing could be worse.

Lester goes into further detail about his coaching philosophy and methodology here: