With the change over the offseason from offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, many fans hoped that a change in offensive ideology was also coming to Iowa City.
For years, Iowa has been known as a team that loves to play smashmouth football. They dictate how the game is going to be played and make it so that you hate when Iowa is scheduled for your weekend. Unfortunately, in recent years, that label of being a smashmouth, run-first squad has given way to Iowa just simply being a bad team on offense that can’t move the ball.
Now that they got rid of Ferentz, they could finally go in a different direction. Right?
Some fans were not extremely happy with the hiring of former Western Michigan head coach Tim Lester over the offseason to be the next offensive coordinator. A lot of the criticisms do make a ton of sense.
Despite being a team that was just in the Big Ten Championship, Iowa spent a really long time on a coaching search to hire a guy who really doesn’t have any success as a play-caller at the Power Four level. No offense, but Western Michigan is not a program on Iowa’s level.
Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
Lester’s offensive style on the surface is also not entirely far-removed from what Kirk Ferentz wants to do either. Lester certainly isn’t going to be mistaken for Lincoln Riley as a play-caller, however, we are already seeing ways this offseason that Iowa’s preferred style of play can be improved on.
In a column by Chad Leistikow for the Des Moines Register, current running backs coach Ladell Betts discussed the influence of Lester’s time recently in Green Bay.
“We’re running the Packers’ system. We’re running the Shanahan system,” Betts said as the Hawkeyes coaching staff visited the Packers practice a few weeks ago.
While Lester was only with the Packers for a year…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/iowa-looking-replicate-green-bay-205027416.html
Author : Hawkeyes Wire
Publish date : 2024-06-18 20:50:27
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