Hawkeye Beacon can confirm that Iowa has hired former Wake Forest offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Warren Ruggiero in the role of senior offensive analyst for the 2025 season.
Part of one of the more innovative offenses in college football under Dave Clawson, Ruggiero served as Clawson's OC for 15 years between Bowling Green and Wake Forest. Clawson resigned from his position as head coach in December, leaving Ruggiero seeking a new spot to continue coaching.
The 2021 Broyles Award finalist will now take his offensive philosophy and wisdom to Iowa City to serve under second-year offensive coordinator Tim Lester.
Ruggiero's offenses in Winston-Salem completely rewrote the record books, as he led the Demon Deacon offense to just under 400 school records including new marks for points scored, points per game, total offensive yards, first downs and passing yards, according to Wake Forests' Athletics website. Additionally, the Deacs were the only football program in the ACC to average at least 30 points per game each year between 2017 and 2023.
Since the start of the 2017 season, Wake Forest’s 199 touchdown passes are the most of any school in the ACC and 12th-most nationally. Additionally, Wake Forest's 362 total touchdowns are the third-most in the ACC behind Clemson and North Carolina, and rank 20th in the country. Those touchdowns have led to 2,910 total points over the past seven seasons and an average of 33.5 ppg.
In 2021 -- Ruggiero's run to a near Broyles win -- Wake Forest scored a program-best 574 points and averaged a school-record 41.0 ppg. That point total ranks 43rd in modern FBS history and was the fourth-most in ACC history. During that same 2021 campaign, the Deacons topped 35 points in a game 12 times. In the College Football Playoff Era, Wake Forest was one of seven teams (2014 Oregon, 2018 Alabama, 2018 Oklahoma, 2019 Alabama, 2019 LSU, 2020 Alabama) to accomplish that feat.
Ruggiero's most prolific passer while with Wake Forest was undoubtedly Sam Hartman, who earned Second Team All-ACC honors in 2021 and Third Team All-League accolades in 2022. Over four seasons as the signal caller for Wake Forest's offense, Hartman completed 944-of-1,597 passing attempts for 12,967 yards, 110 touchdowns and 41 picks.
Hartman was the third QB to earn All-ACC honors during Ruggiero's tenure at Wake Forest. Prior to Hartman, Jamie Newman earned All-ACC honors in 2019 and John Wolford was named an All-Conference performer in 2017.
Following the historically bad Brian Ferentz era offense in Iowa City, Lester drastically revamped the Iowa offense in his first year as offensive coordinator, but there's still plenty of room to grow -- particularly in the passing game.
Passing yards per game were almost flat from 2023 to 2024 (118.6 ypg in 2023, 131.1 ypg in 2024). In 2024, Iowa also ranked 104th in pass efficiency (124.5) and 126th in yards per completion (10.5).
Between a myriad of injuries at the quarterback position, having one of the best running backs in all of college football in Kaleb Johnson and a passing offense that was still a work in progress, the Hawkeyes could greatly benefit from having Ruggiero added to the offensive staff. Having the seasoned veteran coach get to Iowa City prior to the start of spring ball to help out Lester, Mark Gronowski, Brendan Sullivan, Hank Brown and the rest of the QB room is even better.
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