The months-long search for a new offensive coordinator for the Iowa football program appears to be over. Per multiple reports, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz has landed upon Tim Lester as the man to lead the Iowa offense after the departure of Brian Ferentz following the 2023 season. The news was confirmed by The Des Moines Register's Chad Leistikow and ESPN's Adam Rittenberg on Sunday afternoon:
BACKGROUND
Tim Lester joins the Iowa program with considerable midwestern roots. Lester was a star quarterback for Wheaton Warrenville South high school in Wheaton, Illinois. A knee injury in his senior season led him to Western Michigan, where he had an enormously productive college career; he threw for 11,299 passing yards and 87 touchdowns and broke 17 school records.
After brief dalliances in the XFL (the Chicago Enforcers) and arena football, Lester got into teaching and coaching. His first college coaching experience came as offensive coordinator at Elmhurst College, a Division III school in Illinois in 2002-03. Lester then spent a year as head coach at Division II Saint Joseph's, going 7-4.
After a stint as quarterback coach for Western Michigan in 2005-06 and a one-year spell as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Division III North Central in 2007, Lester returned to Elmhust as a head coach. Lester went 33-19 at Elmhurst from 2008-12, though 10 of those wins from the 2012 season (when Elmhurst went 10-2 and made the playoffs behind star running back Scottie Williams) were later vacated.
Lester left Elmhurst to serve as quarterback coach at Syracuse from 2013-15. Lester worked under Scott Shafer, a colleague on the WMU staff from 2005-06, and also served as recruiting coordinator in 2013-14 and offensive coordinator in 2014-15.
Lester then spent a year as quarterback coach at Purdue in 2016, before returning to Western Michigan again in 2017, this time as head coach. Lester replaced current Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck as the Broncos' new head coach. At WMU, Lester went 37-32 from 2017-22, peaking with 7-5 regular seasons in 2018, 2019, and 2021 (as well as a 4-2 season in the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign). Lester's Bronco teams never contended for a MAC championship and never finished higher than second in the MAC West division.
Western Michigan fired Lester after the 2022 season and he spent the 2023 season as an analyst for the Green Bay Packers. Lester and Packers head coach Matt LeFleur were teammates at Western Michigan from 1998-99.
ANALYSIS
In 2015, Lester's Syracuse offense averaged 27.3 ppg, which ranked 77th nationally. The Orange scored 30+ points four times that season and were held under 20 points just once. Syracuse finished just 119th in total offense that season, though, averaging 319.9 yards per game. The Orange's 5.11 yards per play average ranked 102nd that season. Syracuse also finished 4-8 that season after going 1-6 in 2014 after Lester took over as offensive coordinator partway through the season.
Syracuse was 117th in passing offense that season (156.8 yards per game) as Cuse QBs finished with 1881 passing yards on 53.6% completion percentage (6.1 yards per attempt), with 19 touchdowns against nine interceptions. Syracuse was 77th in rushing offense in 2015 (163.2 yards per game). Syracuse ran for 1,958 yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground.
In 2016, Purdue finished 21st in passing offense (294.9 yards per game). David Blough completed 57% of his passes and threw for 3,352 yards (6.5 yards per attempt) and 25 touchdowns, though he also threw 21 interceptions.
At Western Michigan, several of Lester's teams had strong offenses. The Broncos ranked between 9th and 39th in scoring offense from 2017-22 and between 16th and 35th in total offense from 2018-22. (The Broncos were 78th in total offense in 2017.) The Broncos averaged over 30 ppg from 2017-21 (and averaged over 40 ppg in the COVID-shortened 2020 season) and averaged over 400 yards per game between 2018 and 2021.
The bottom fell out for Western Michigan in 2022, Lester's final season in charge. Under new offensive coordinator Jeff Thorne, the Broncos crashed to 119th in scoring offense (19.0 ppg) and 235th in total offense (301.9 ypg). The Broncos were 121st in passing offense that season (165.7 ypg) and 89th in rushing offense (136.4 ypg).
At their best (from 2018-22), Lester's WMU teams had largely balanced offenses. The Broncos averaged 200 yards or more on the ground in 2018, 2019, and 2021 (and only narrowly missed that 200 ypg average in 2020, with 193.7 ypg). The Broncos also averaged 240+ yards per game through the air during that span, highlighted by a 2020 campaign in which they averaged 286.5 yards per game.
Still, assembling an offense that can light up MAC defenses is one thing. MAC defenses are a far cry from Big Ten defenses and Lester will need to prove that he can manage an offense that can be successful at the Big Ten level. Lester's only experience leading a power conference offense came almost a decade ago, with his 1.5 year stint as offensive coordinator at Syracuse and his one year role as quarterback coach at Purdue. The results at those stops do not inspire tremendous confidence, it has to be said.
If ties to the midwest matter, then Lester has those in spades. He's well-acquainted with his new recruiting territory, having spent almost his entire playing and coaching career to date in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, the heart of Big Ten country.
Lester is an interesting hire as an offensive coordinator because he's spent more time as a head coach than he has as an offensive coordinator over the course of his career thus far. Head coaching experience has been a common factor among most of Kirk Ferentz's previous offensive coordinators at Iowa, though -- Ken O'Keefe was the head coach at Allegheny College and Fordham before becoming Ferentz's first offensive coordinator and Greg Davis had experience as Tulane's head coach prior to becoming an offensive coordinator at North Carolina, Texas, and Iowa.
We'll have more information on the Lester hire as it becomes available.
