IOWA CITY -- After several years of abysmal performance in Iowa City, the Hawkeyes were in need of a major offensive overhaul. Tim Lester has been tasked with quite an undertaking.

To start, he's emphasizing not looking at the past.

"The first time I stood in front of [the offense] I said 'This is about our team, our year, our offense,'" Lester said. "Nothing that happens in the past matters. It's been fun -- they're really not worried about any of that."

Well, they're not completely overlooking last season's dead-last, 130th-ranked offense in the country. It's helped frame some goals for this season.

"You look at where you were last year, and you try to cut it in half," he said. "You can't be unrealistic and say you want to be ranked first in something. It's stepping stones. When you're setting goals, you want them to be attainable. That's what we did at the last place I was at, and we attained most of them."

Day-by-day, they're focused on incremental improvement.

"At the end of the day, we need to just focus on getting better," Lester said. "If we can get better everyday, the numbers will take care of themselves. Right now, we've just got to focus on getting better."

Lester believes the team can make those goals happen in 2024 as well.

"It's the way they’re working," he said. "Having experience at quarterback, offensive line, tight end and running back helps, too. Things are going in the right direction, and that has to happen. We're nowhere near where we need to be come game day, but I've been happy with our start."

It doesn't hurt that he's been able to cultivate quick relationships with the players, either. For him, that was the number one priority in installing his new offense.

“The buy-in from the players is always the biggest thing," he said. "You come in and you’re bringing a lot of new stuff. They have really embraced it along with the leadership in the room, especially the offensive line leadership. We have enough veterans in the room. They’re excited and once they take ownership in it, it really gives us a chance to go.”

One of -- if not the -- biggest responsibility for the players is learning the terminology within Lester's Shanahan-style offense.

"It's a new language," he said. "They've really embraced the opportunity to learn it. It is a lot of words, and I can't stop that. ... The difference is that we'll be able to do a lot of things. Every word talks to somebody else. The tight ends in particular, they have a lot of different words that mean a lot of different things."

There are some positives to all those words, though.

"It's an advantage once you get over the stigma of 'Oh, it's long,'" Lester said. "We do have wristbands. Now, I can't talk to them and give them plays, but for the most part, we just use the wristband to read it off. Everyone has to listen to their piece of the puzzle that will help them go out and execute.

Lucky for Lester, his presumed starter under center is Cade McNamara, who already understood some of the new verbiage from his days at Michigan.

"Some of the new plays aren't new to him," Lester said. "He's thrown a lot of the balls, whether it's a route they hadn't run here before or something like that. Having that knowledge is huge."

With just over three weeks till kickoff, it's all still a work in progress. Particularly installing every play Lester brought to Iowa City.

"I'd say we're about 80% of the way there," Lester said. "We're getting there. It comes down to situational stuff now. Most of our base stuff is in. We've got some red zone stuff, some two-minute, end of the game stuff to put in. We did install six today, and there are eight. What's left is very minimal."

In addition to adding what's left, he wants to fine-tune what the players have already learned.

"We've got to sharpen the sword," he said. "We've got to execute it against this pressure, against that pressure. We've got to do it when we're against Cover 2, Cover 4, Cover 6 -- all the different coverages. So, now we're just trying to get our reps in now that they know what they're doing."

He's happy with how the guys have picked everything up to this point, and he's anxious to keep working.

"They're starting to see it. They're starting to see how it works," he smiled. "They've been working hard. Against our defense, it's hard to have a ton of success, but we're having success when we can. We're able to move the ball down the field in two-minute drill, which is really hard to do. So, it's been fun to watch them. We've got a long way to go, but it's been a good start."