Tim Lester Pleased with Pace of Installation

New Iowa Offensive Coordinator Sees Progress

Tim Lester estimates that 85 percent of Iowa’s new offensive playbook has been installed during the first 14 practices of the spring.

Now, the Hawkeyes’ new offensive coordinator said, it’s all about perfecting what everyone has learned.

“What to do,” Lester said on Thursday, “is different than how to do it.”

Saturday’s open practice at Kinnick Stadium will be the last chance for the Hawkeyes to work on their offense this spring, and the only chance for fans to see what it looks like.

Lester has preached patience in the installation of the offense, but he knows that there’s a time crunch. Spring practices are one step, August camp is another, and while that seems like a lot of time, it’s not.

That’s why Lester called it “a marathon and a sprint.”

Lester said when he got ready for the spring, he watched video from spring practices from last year to get an idea on how head coach Kirk Ferentz runs his workouts. 

“But I really didn't watch a ton of the games,” he said. “Our system is nothing like what's been done here in the past. I wanted to give everybody a clean slate.”

That clean slate has gone into personnel groupings. For example, Lester said, he’s had receivers at different positions to learn different routes.

“It's about getting the collective group to play the way we want, to play as hard as we want them to do, and to learn what we're doing and what's supposed to happen on each play, and we're getting closer and closer every time we're out there,” Lester said.

Lester said there is no depth chart right now.

“I do have the numbers of the plays we've run so I know every time I call a play I know how many times we've run it, I know how many times that guy has run it,” he said. “That's what's going to happen here in the next three, four months, is we see people starting to change the learning curve and they start making adjustments and seeing it the next time.

“You have to give them some bandwidth to make mistakes, and there's been plenty of them made.”

Offensive players interviewed during availabilities this spring have talked about more pre-snap motion, something defensive coordinator Phil Parker confirmed.

“What it does with some of the motion over there, you have to concentrate and focus on where your eyes are, and you have to be able to … it's like driving in Chicago during rush hour,” Parker said.

Lester is installing an offense with expected starting quarterback Cade McNamara not fully cleared for practice as he recovers from a knee injury that kept him out of most of last season.

Deacon Hill, McNamara’s backup who struggled in his nine starts last season, has been doing most of the snaps with the No. 1 offense, but Lester has also tried to get as much work as possible for quarterback Marco Lainez, who saw his first game action in January’s Citrus Bowl loss to Tennessee.

“I think it's been good,” Lester said. “They've been playing good. They have a long way to go. This is a totally new system. Mentally we have to be sharper. Our feet need to be better. I do think we've improved. But we're not even close to where we need to be there, and I'm always going to be hard on them that way.

“We have a long way to go, but I do think they've been working hard at it, and I think the game with this offense is slowing down a little bit for both of them, and it's going to give them a chance to have more success.”

Lester has especially tested Lainez.

“He's gotten more reps, for his own development,” Lester said. “I know it's like drinking through a firehose, but I put him out there on purpose, and I told him … we had a talk about it beforehand, that this is my plan for you, and it's going to be tough at times.

“There's more people sometimes going the wrong direction with his huddle, and he has to deal with the ramifications of a guard going the wrong way and a 3 technique in the backfield all of a sudden. So it's been good for him. I said, ‘I know it's going to be hard, but you need the reps.’”

Lester has liked the play up front by the offensive line and the tight ends, the most experienced groups of his offense.

“It has been fun,” Lester said. “The only reason we've had some success this spring is those guys up front and those tight ends — we've been able to move the ball a little bit, and we're going to need them. We're going to count on them. I'm not going to shy away from that. It makes playing quarterback easier, makes playing wideout easier, makes playing everything easier when you have guys up front like that.”

The marathon and the sprint are still going for this offense.

“You learn the alphabet,” Lester said. “You can write a novel, but you have to learn the alphabet first, and they're getting there.”