Spring football is becoming more and more important in the college game. With the transfer portal and increased shuffling of coaches to new programs, it is often the first time to mesh new players and coaches on the field together.
These practices are vital for implementing new schemes, getting timing down, and starting to garner an identity ahead of the fall. For the Iowa Hawkeyes, this season’s spring practices have a renewed sense of importance with the hire of new offensive coordinator Tim Lester.
Iowa’s anemic offensive output the last few years led to the dismissal of Brian Ferentz and has now ushered in Lester. How the Hawkeyes can adapt to his offense, what it looks like, and how much control he has is CBS Sports’ biggest question for the Hawkeyes this spring.
What is the new offense going to look like? Longtime offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz is gone, replaced by former Western Michigan head coach Tim Lester. While that change itself is a significant one on the surface due to the kind of offense Lester has run at previous stops, it remains to be seen what Lester’s Iowa offense will look like.
In previous stops, Lester’s teams have run almost primarily out of the shotgun and featured plenty of RPOs. Will he be allowed to run his offense in Iowa City, or will coach Kirk Ferentz task him with running a more “Ferentz-like” version of the offense? This spring will be our first glimpse. – Tom Fornelli, CBS Sports
Does Kirk Ferentz enter the modern era of offensive football with run-pass options and more creativity than this offense has seen in recent years? That is the question Hawkeyes’ fans have been wondering since the moment that the hire was made.
There was a sense that the offense was watered down with Brian Ferentz as the offensive coordinator the last few years with the final say ultimately coming from Kirk Ferentz. Should Iowa want to improve offensively, they may need to hand the keys off the Tim Lester to implement and run his scheme to its fullest potential.
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