Tim Lester Ready to Get to Work
Tim Lester didn’t give any specific answers to what Iowa’s offense is going to look like with him as the new offensive coordinator, but that was understandable.
Lester has only been on the job for a couple of days and still hasn’t met a lot of the players.
“Everything is, ‘I've heard this’ and ‘I've heard that,’” Lester said Tuesday. “But I can't wait to see with my own eyes.”
So Lester isn’t going to commit to anything until he knows what he has with the Hawkeyes.
Lester says his motto is relationships before opportunities, so for now, it’s just about getting to know his personnel for the spring, and then what comes next.
“That's the key because I know once we have that relationship, then it's time to go to work,” he said. “I've got to show them kind of our ideas of what we want to do. I really want to see them all move around. I'm excited to start getting the playbook put together, which is going to take some time, and really watching all of last year's film to watch the guys play.
“I haven't had a chance to do that yet over this weekend, these four days, but that's what's coming soon.”
It will be a process to help rebuild an offense that has been one of the worst in the nation the last two seasons.
But Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said Lester’s lengthy list of stops throughout his coaching career can bring a versatility that the Hawkeyes need.
“In my mind, he’s a good fit for us,” Ferentz said Tuesday at a press conference introducing Lester. “Similar, in a lot of ways, to the way we’ve operated, yet a lot of different perspectives, new perspectives. That’s part of moving forward, is getting different ideas, different views, and try to implement in a way we all believe will work for us.”
“It's a process that started a couple days ago,” Lester said. “But it's an exciting process, to get everyone's opinion in and I have all kinds of playbooks, what's going to jibe with what they know and where we think we can improve.”
It is not going to be an easy rebuild.
The Hawkeyes’ 10-4 record last season, which included winning the Big Ten West Division title, couldn’t hide the ineptness of an offense that looked weak early, then got worse with injuries to key players. Iowa ranked 130th out of 130 teams in total offense and 129th in scoring offense, averaging 15.4 points per game. Three of the defeats were shutouts, including the Big Ten championship game against Michigan and in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl against Tennessee.
It’s what led to the midseason firing of offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, Kirk’s son, who was allowed to finish the season before his father set out to find his replacement.
Kirk Ferentz said he had a list of 12 candidates, had preliminary interviews with six, then more extensive conversations with four.
Lester was his choice.
Lester spent last season as a defensive analyst for the NFL’s Green Bay Packers after serving six seasons as head coach at Western Michigan. Ferentz found that experience interesting.
“It's like a year of research, and I've always joked about how it would be great to have a sabbatical like professors and go research, study,” Ferentz said.
Lester won 37 games at Western Michigan, and his offense ranked in the top 35 nationally in total offense for four consecutive seasons.
Lester was the quarterbacks coach at Purdue in 2016 when quarterback David Blough threw for 3,352 passing yards. Lester was Syracuse’s quarterbacks coach from 2013-15 and was offensive coordinator there in 2014 and 2015.
“Long story short, he has a real extensive knowledge of offensive football,” Ferentz said. “And then the most important thing in any year is knowing who your players are, where their strengths and weaknesses are, and then trying to get them in the right spot. That came across clear during the conversation portion of things over time.
“This offense is all about figuring out who we've got to get the ball to and then working from there, and hopefully we'll have a couple people to get the ball to, not just one or two.”
Lester will be implementing his offense during spring practice, when he won’t have quarterback Cade McNamara, who is still recovering from a season-ending knee injury.
Lester said McNamara’s experience is important, and knows he will still be learning the offense even if he isn’t on the field.
“The one thing I would tell you is we need to get the horses to the race,” Lester said. “Whenever Cade is ready to go, I'm looking forward to working with him. But there is absolutely zero way that you can discount his experience. When you have experience in playing in games, I'm very confident that he'll pick it up when it's time, when he's healthy, when he's ready. If he didn't have a ton of experience, I'd be more scared, more worried.
“But he's got to get healthy and be good to go when he gets his chance, and he'll be out there every single day we're out there whether he can throw it or not. He'll get a lot of learning in, but he has played games, and that is invaluable when it comes to quarterback play, so I'm excited about that part of it.”
