Hawkeyes OC Tim Lester Opens Up on Impacts of Shanahan-Style Offense in Iowa

The Iowa offense took a leap forward in 2024 under offensive coordinator Tim Lester. Considering the program’s recent collapse offensively, which had consistently found its production ranked near the bottom, even an average performance last season sparked hope that Iowa is indeed heading in the right direction.

Much of that positive change can be attributed not just to Lester’s playcalling but to the scheme he has implemented at Iowa. It’s no surprise Iowa still runs a pro-style offense, which has long been the case. But it did get something of a modern upgrade, having been crafted under Lester from the Shanahan offenses that are at the forefront of offensive success in the NFL today.

“The coaches that implement it are the smartest, in my opinion, in the world,” Lester said, according to The Gazette on their Hawk Off the Press podcast. “And there’s a very small percentage of those guys that really want to coach college football. They want to coach the best players in the world, best athletes in the world, and they’re all in the NFL. … There’s just not a lot of people in the college game that know it forward and backward, to be honest with you.”

Lester Brings Shanahan System Roots to Iowa City

Lester picked up the Iowa offense from his former Western Michigan teammate Matt LeFluer, whom he served as an analyst under in Green Bay in 2023 before coming to Iowa.

The Shanahan offense is known as a simple, quarterback-friendly offense. Despite its simplicity in its reads and schemes, there’s plenty of eye-candy in the formations and shifts that avert opposing defenses’ attention. But that’s what makes it so effective. It gets the best players in a position to be successful without being too much of a burden to execute.

But of course, that’s within the framework of the NFL. With different rules, including the wider hashes in the college game, and less experienced players, Lester has had to tweak the offense to fit the college game.

Iowa’s Offense Prepares Players for the Next Level

Certainly, back to Lester’s point about coaches that typically run this system not wanting to coach college football, Iowa can find itself in an advantageous position by utilizing the scheme. It may not be the most wide-open scheme college football has ever seen, but the wide usage of Shanahan-inspired schemes at the next level makes for a unique recruiting tool in Iowa.

Players like running back Kaleb Johnson and tight end Luke Lachey were examples from the most recent NFL Draft class who were an extra bit prepared because of Lester’s use of the popular scheme. The more the NFL takes note of Iowa players having that extra edge mentally and fit schematically and drafts them accordingly, naturally, the more talent will want to suit up for the Hawkeyes at the college level.

With Foundation Set, Iowa Offense Aims Even Higher in 2025

Heading into the 2025 season, Lester has his best quarterback yet in Mark Gronowski. While there are some question marks about the unproven skill players around him, having the quarterback and one of the Big Ten’s best offensive lines in place should prove fruitful as the offense in Iowa continues to improve under Lester’s command.

There is still room to improve, after all. The Hawkeyes finished 8-5 in 2024, which was actually a step down from a worse offensive output in 2023, which was a 10-win season. Still, the offense improved in its points per game, 27.7 up from 15.4, and raised its third-down efficiency to 41%, among several other improvements across the board. Nonetheless, Hawkeye fans will want to see the improvements translated into wins in 2025.