Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: New Offensive Coordinator Tim Lester press conference notes

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

Trent Condon returns with the latest edition of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast.After the new offensive coordinator Tim Lester's press conference, a breakdown of what we heard and reasons for optimism with the new look offense.Some thoughts from Kirk Ferentz's side of things as well and what he had to say and then a concerning note about Lavar Woods being interviewed to be the special teams coordinator with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInThese days every new potential hire can feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. That’s why LinkedIn Jobs helps find the right people for your team, faster and for free. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/lockedoncollege. Terms and conditions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The new Iowa offensive coordinator, Tim Lester, had his press conference, and boy, optimism running out of that one. Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you find podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube.

While you're there, make sure you hit the subscribe button. Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKDOWN for $20 off your first purchase. Well, we officially got to hear from Tim Lester. We talked earlier in the week on Friday night. Tim Lester had a short interview with Gary Dolphin before the Ohio State basketball matchup.

But a more in-depth conversation here today. And definitely a lot of big takeaways there. And on the first blush, I walked away incredibly impressed. And that, in the grand scheme of things doesn't matter um it's what we're going to see on the field obviously that is going to dictate how this goes and and the conversations that we're going to be having throughout the course of next football season but after the initial I don't want to say shock disappointment ho-hum nature of the Tim Lester hire as that was released now a week and a half

ago and the news was breaking on that Sunday, it just seems so vanilla, right? So boring. So I think at the time I said it was an uninspiring hire. And now after hearing from him and hearing what he had to say, what he can do and the kind of coach that he is, I'm pumped up about this. I really am. I mean, the excitement level that I have for him as an OC is as high as it's been, well, in a long time. Let's put it that way. Look, if you've been listening to me on the radio for the last two decades, going back to when Brian Ferentz was hired as the OC. I was one of the few detractors out there.

I did not believe in him as a game caller. I did not believe in him having the requisite background to be an offensive coordinator. And unfortunately for us, that played out over the seven years and what we saw from him. Going back before that, Greg Davis, bringing a guy off the scrap heap, a guy that his system and what he wanted to do definitely did not marry with what Iowa was.

And talking to a number of people from Texas down at the time, they had nothing but terrible things to say about him and was out on that one. This one, Kettle Keefe, I mean, when he was hired, nobody knew any of the guys, basically outside of Norm Parker, on that initial staff for Kirk Ferentz. So this is one that

I can see the forest through the trees. I can see what Tim Lester says, what he does, and eventually what I believe Kirk Ferentz is willing to do to get this offense, at minimum, back to a high level. Now, are they going to run at the pace that you're going to need to be a top 20 offense in college football? No, that has evolved. And though Iowa has worked and picked up tempo at times, they are not going to be a team that's going to get off enough plays and run enough plays to play that kind of system that puts up those kind of yardage totals and

point totals. That's not realistic. It goes back to what we talk about a lot and Kirk talks about about a lot, and that is complimentary football. And that's just not the way that Iowa is going to play but they can they get back to a baseline can we get back to a level that we have seen from this Iowa offense at times in the Kirk Ferentz era I say absolutely so let's get some thoughts here and in fact let's start with Kirk a couple of things from Kirk Ferentz as he talked, and we'll get deeper into Tim Lester because there was a lot to like. I really thought so. Kirk said he was down and had four extensive conversations

with four candidates. I think we have a pretty good idea. Obviously, Kevin Johns, Tim Lester, the two finalists for the job. How far down the path they got with Paul Christ, I think that's another one, was the Fort Jill Philbin. I don't think so. Sound like he was out of the equation pretty early in the process, and I don't know if he was willing at this part of his career to take on

what is going to be a difficult job in turning around this Iowa offense. Chip Kelly, we've talked about that weeks ago. The rumblings out there, Jim Kelly, as we know right now, is looking for an out, looking for an NFL head coaching job. Obviously, the fit doesn't make a whole lot of sense with Chip Kelly, though his offense is incredible, what they were able to do, running the football throughout the time, and a guy that certainly evolved himself as a play caller in what he does. But we'll see.

We'll see if any more names down the line come out. In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter. He talked about a reason that he liked Tim Lester is the diverse backgrounds that he has in doing things in a bunch of different systems. And Tim Lester, we'll get into this a little bit more when we talk about him on his own, but talked about the different times that he was in, the kind of schemes that he likes to run, just simply the amount of players that he likes to have on the field. Talking about going out there and going with 12, which is one running back, two tight ends.

Something he did extensively at his first stop. Talked a lot about running the football. You can understand definitely where the marriage was. Also, Kirk mentioned that he talked to a number of people. He said three or four people about Tim Lester and said good things about Lester. Okay, that's going to go with the territory. It's very rare that you have those conversations. You know, I talked to a number of people.

They didn't have great things to say, but I hired them anyway. It doesn't matter what walk of life you're in. That's not a very realistic possibility there. You have to assume one of those people, you talked about a guy that played for him a million years ago, was maybe Jerry Montgomery, who was, of course, a coach with the Packers this past season. If it was Jerry Montgomery that had the conversation about that one, just connecting some dots. What other connecting dots? I just, I'm still baffled about Kirk. He was talking about, well, first he said 25 years ago, and then he said, no, 35 years ago. I was trying to figure out where he was going. He was talking about a, and I'm not, no, 35 years ago. I was trying to figure out where he was going.

He was talking about a, and I'm not sure if it was a coach or a player, really working for their own agenda, right? And that's not the kind of people that he wants to hire. That's not what he's looking for. And we kind of go back to a guy like the UNLV, offensive coordinator, and a guy that year after year feels like he's moving up and moving out and doing the go-go offense, and he's, he's tried to glide the ladder very quickly. And that's just not the Kirk Ferentz style and the flash that goes along with it. That's not him.

And eventually you got to be true to yourself. And that's what Kirk Ferentz certainly did. I feels like with this hire, was he talking about the quarterback spot? Was it Vinny Testaverde and Bernie Kosar or Mark Ribbit? I don't know what the browns i i don't know i was confused by that one we're just trying to connect some dots help me out on the comment section if you got an answer for that one i thought that was really good um one quote that i think said a lot from kirk ferentz here it is part of tim's job is going to be to figure out what we want to emphasize. You can only practice so many things and emphasize so many things and do them well. But if that's something we deem to be good for our offense and fits in the package,

and we can execute it and not take away from other things, it's a balancing act a lot of times. But yeah, I'm open to anything right now, any ideas. So they were talking specifically about slant routes. That goes hand-in-hand with the RPO-based offense that Tim Lester ran a ton at Western Michigan. And I think that's kind of where the conversation was going there. Kirk's willing to listen and be open to new ideas because certainly what they did over the last two years plus was a disaster. And there's no two ways about it. You can make the excuses, talk about them all, the injuries,

the poor offensive line play, and it doesn't matter what scheme you have and what quarterback you have. If you're bad up front, you're going to be bad probably as an offense. But just how bad it got and how ugly that it was. I found that hopeful that the change is going to happen. Kirk Ferentz has changed. He has evolved. We have seen him a number of different times

make the evolution necessary to stay around. I mean, you don't stay at a place for 25 years playing big-time college football if you're not willing to adapt and change with it. Now, is he more rigid than other coaches? Certainly. I think all of us in different aspects of our life, as you get

older, you become more conservative and you become more entrenched in your ways. However, Kirk has shown the ability to do that and certainly hopeful. So as we continue here, we're going to talk more about Tim Lester. I thought there were so many great things out of this. Again, on the surface, right away, I was not excited about this hire. I have changed my tune completely. Will it matter? Will it change? We will see about that. But a lot of good things here. And a lot of things I believe to get excited about.

We'll do that as we continue here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Breaking down the press conference. That's right. Tim Lester speaks and Kirk Ferentz. We get to hear from him for the first time. We'll do that as we continue Lockdown Hawkeyes. We get to hear from him for the first time. We'll do that as we continue Locked on Hawkeyes.

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Download GameTime today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Trent Conant back with you once again here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Let's get into Tim Lester a little bit deeper and why my excitement for this hire certainly is elevated over the course of the last week and a half. Going through some of the quotes, some of the things that he said. First of all, one of his first comments, Tim Lester said this,

through my time in coaching, I think we've been around quite a bit of pretty good ones, and we've been able to find ways to get the ball in their hands. Talking about wide receivers, there's a lot of ways to do that, whether it's screens, whether it's straight drop back, whether it's putting them in the backfield, the flexibility of an offense is key. That's right. Folks, flexibility, not just doing the same things and expecting different results, actually going out there and seeing something different and the ability to be flexible. Yes, this is key. We talked a little bit earlier about his extensive use of 12 personnel,

having two tight ends on the field, the ability to run the football. He talked a lot about that, about physicality as well, and doing those kinds of things. One of the things I, one thing I learned in my time as a former quarterback, quarterback coach, offensive coordinator, head coach at pretty much every level, it's about putting your players in the best position to succeed. Love that one as well. Talking about explosion in the run game, being a team that runs the football, plays with physicality. Yeah, these are all things that absolutely marry with what Kirk Ferentz wants to do. And again, that's where the excitement comes. The RPO game is something that I think is a necessary ability to add to this offense and give them some kind of versatility.

Another part about that is the ability to maybe simplify things. I mean, how many times throughout the years have we heard just how difficult it is to grasp for quarterbacks, the Iowa offense. And it's because they put so much on the plate of the quarterback. It's not a look at me offense. It's not where you're looking over the sideline and you're getting all the play cards up there. And you got a picture of Bugs Bunny on one side and you got a picture of a bikini model in the other. It's none of that. It is the quarterback making the decision. And when you see, and you see a numbers game out there where you see, all right, one side is stacked. What we're going to do running the football, the audible link, all the things that they put on the plate. The simple part of that.

Tim Lester brought up something late in the press conference talking about having kind of a base of six, seven plays and then playing off of that and finding plays that makes the quarterback comfortable. Things that they're good at. That's right. Not trying to put a round peg in a square hole. Yeah, that sounds pretty good on top of it too. And he talked a lot about that, about how the varying degrees of what you can do in terms of motion, those kinds of things, though the play call is very similar of what you're doing. You could dress it up in different ways. That is something I think that would make doing you could dress it up in different ways that is something i think that would make a whole lot of sense and doing different things that obviously can adapt for what it is um a few other things on tim lester uh i got 600 pages here it is a pass plays in there figure out what he's good at and getting good at something. Jack of all trades, master of

none is not what we need to be about. We need to figure that out so we can get really good at something. That's right. This stuff, it's music to my ears. It really is. What he's saying, talking about being diverse, having an ability to go out there and adapt. I mean, adaptability is something that we haven't seen in this Iowa offense in how long. When the plan went awry, there was no chance. There was no counterpunch. We did not see that at all from this Iowa offense in the former offensive quarter.

It was just, it was something he was bad at. And he didn't have the requisite skill set to get it done. You couple that now with a real quarterback coach, not an offensive line guy, a real quarterback coach, that's going to help. Not a guy that's way out and finishing up his career with a couple of paychecks like they had previously with Ken O'Keefe at the end of his tenure. Not what they had with Brian Ferentz that has no clue about quarterback play. No, a real quarterback that played at a high level, both collegiately and professionally, a guy that did it, and a guy that's coached it for a couple of decades now. These are good things.

One other thing, talked about the route concepts and what they're trying to do. If you look at his Western Michigan teams and what he was calling plays, just how good they were at air yards down the field. You look at Iowa, they were a negative in terms of air yardage in front of or behind the sticks. Not the case when he was a coordinator and the head coach at Western Michigan. So I thought that was a big one too, what he was able to do with that. Talked about Cade Bactamara. And that's the key to all this. Because right now, the best quarterback is Cade Bactimer, and it's not close. Now, the concern, obviously, is about his health. After the season-ending injury this year, before the season even began, another injury.

The year previous at Michigan, a season-ending injury. A guy that was banged up even before that when he was playing at Michigan. Keeping him upright, keeping him healthy is paramount. I can't wait to see spring practice practice and we're going to get that. Sounds like March 21st is when we're going to get our first spring practice. I can't wait to see what Tim Lester sees and hopefully we'll have an opportunity to hear from him a couple of times in spring and what he sees outside of Cade McNamara. McNamara is likely not going to be a full go during spring practice coming off that ACL. We saw him throw in the football a little bit down at the bowl game and he was doing

those kinds of things, but the ability for him to run the true offense, even in the red Jersey, to be able to out there and playing 11 on 11 is not something I think you're going to see this spring. He'll be taking reps. He'll be taking a different kind of reps, some seven on sevens, doing things like that, but it's not going to be the full bore, and that'll give an ability to Tim Lester to see what they have in Marco Lioness, to see if there is anything that they can figure out with Deacon Hill. It's an ability where they have to go into the portal and find a backup quarterback. The coach now here with Tim Lester, having that, I think, is something that's going to be really, really important.

And finally, maybe for me the most important thing, is now we have an offensive coordinator that's going to be up in the booth, that's actually going to be able to see things that are happening from up above. There's a reason when you look across the NFL. Do you know a play caller that calls games from the field in the highest level of football? I don't know one.

I can't think of one offhand. I don't think there is one. Yes, head coaches that call plays, the Andy Reeds of the world, but also they have an ability and they have the connection with making things. Tim Lester talking about that, talking about it's too emotional on the field. He thinks that is a problem. Well, we definitely saw that with the former OC, a guy that wasn't able to call games up in the booth anymore because of a tirade he had against a booth official.

It makes a lot of sense. Having him up there, the eye in the sky, a guy that's calling the plays and seeing everything from up above, that's a step in the right direction. Not having a meathead that doesn't have the background to be able to do that, this is a huge step forward. Will he be able to do it? Will he have the autonomy to make these things work? These are the great questions that we don't know the answer to.

But from what I heard from both Kirk Ferentz and from Tim Lester, I think there is real hope amongst us. More football talk on a Wednesday edition of Lockdown Hawkeyes. We continue and some concerning news. We do know that there is one opening right now with Iowa football, and that is the wide receiver coach,

though it feels like the guy has already been hired before he's officially been hired. We'll talk about that. But LeVar Woods had an interview. And is there more to it than just the interview? We'll talk about that as we continue Locked on Hawkeyes. Today's episode of Locked on Hawkeyes is brought to you by FanDuel. Happy Super Bowl to all who celebrate from FanDuel.

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Your team every day. That's what we do here on the Locked On Network and always appreciate each and every one of you. If you're still here, make sure you hit that subscribe button as well. Greatly helps us. It helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Speaking of Lockdown, it's launched our first ever National Sports 24 streaming channel on YouTube.

And now you can find it on Amazon Fire TV. Lockdown Sports Today is here for you 24--7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Locked On plus our national shows covering every league. Find the Locked On Sports Today channel now on Amazon Fire TV. LeVar Woods, an important piece to what Iowa has done and the successes over the past seven, eight years. He's bounced around a little bit and has found certainly a big niche as a special teams coordinator. Now he has interviewed for the

special teams coordinator job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Not sure of the background there, if him and Bowles have some kind of connection, what it is, but this would be a blow. Now you look at obviously what he has done in terms of just special teams. This has been a buttoned-up unit. And you go back, oh boy, 15 years ago, when Darrell Wilson was running the special teams, it was a disaster. People forget that just because maybe we've been a little bit ruined for the successes that we had. And you go back early in Kirk's tenure,

you go back to Sean Considine blocking punts and Matt Malloy and on and on and on and making big plays there. But what Iowa's been able to do consistently year after year, S&P Plus, you look at the special teams rankings. That's an analytical site with Bill Connolly of ESPN. It'll show you that year in and year out, Iowa is elite in special teams. From coverage units, punting, kicking, you name it, Iowa has played at a high level. You know, and another important component of a special teams coordinator, we've seen the gadget plays.

You go back to Kluver against Ohio State and Polkat. Some of the other ones that we saw, that goofy one against Minnesota, they ran up there at TCF Bank Stadium, what, seven, eight years back. And it's been a while since we've seen some of those. How about Marshall Cain trying to run for a touchdown late in the half as we had, what was that, Kirk 3.0 when that was happening? We've seen different things and the gadget type of plays. But just the fundamental nature, the week-in and week-out consistency

that you're going to get from special teams and what LeVar has been able to do there. But another component is a special teams coordinator, you're working with a ton of guys. Now, a lot of your guys that you're having out there, certainly in coverage units, a lot of linebacker types, a lot of defensive backs, things like that. You got the specialists, you got returners. That's also a component there, but you're working with a myriad of different people. I mean, you talk about a wide ranging group. You're probably not going to find anything quite

like a special teams coordinator. And you think of the NFL and Dave Tobe, what're probably not going to find anything quite like a special teams coordinator. And you think of the NFL and Dave Tobe, what he's been able to do in Kansas City for decades now, and just how good he has been in that role. Special teams coordinator, John Harbaugh, before he became the Baltimore Ravens coach. That's what he was. A lot of success there. The question, though, when that news came out on Tuesday night was, is this LeVar looking to advance his career? Is this LeVar with the son that's going to be a senior next year, perhaps

looking around a little bit more and seeing what his future is going to be with a D1 athlete that's going to be coming out? Or did this have something a little bit more to it, right? Because as we know, part of the press conference from today was not just about Kirk Ferentz and Tim Lester. It was also Seth Wallace. And Seth Wallace had been named the assistant head coach, not assistant to the head coach, assistant head coach. Is that a job that LeVar thought about? Did he think he was passed over? Did he think that that's something? Did he believe that Kirk Ferentz is almost naming his successor in a way, or at least the guy he would like to see be his successor? These are all questions. There is no background among it, but it's something

certainly that jumped into my mind. And I don't think I'm alone in those thoughts and that thought process. Definitely something to ponder and think about. Now, at this time, LeVar doesn't have the job. It's not that he has been hired with Tampa Bay. He's interviewed. And the NFL is so different than it used to be. I mean, they put up on social media every time that they're interviewing somebody.

And it doesn't matter if it's Bill Belichick and coaching for a head coaching job and all the way down to a special teams coordinator or even lower than that. This is something that is out there on social media. There very well could be a lot more interviews that we don't know about that's happened to the acting staff. And we don't know eventually what this means for LeVar Woods. Is he looking to get out? Is he disappointed?

Is he frustrated? These are things we just don't know about, but is it interesting? It absolutely is. Something to keep an eye on. Boy, a fun day. Again, walked away from hearing from Tim Lester, incredibly impressed, impressed about his vision, about his ability to be adaptable, and I believe his ability to get this offense competent. You got an offensive line that's veteran. Still don't know if it's good, but it's veteran. You got 160-plus starts there out of your starting five. That's pretty dang good. They played a lot of football, and now can you use them in a style

that can actually work as opposed to the garbage we've seen over the last two and a half years a quarterback in kate mcnamara went healthy that at minimum is good i don't know if he's great i don't think you can put that on him but he's a good college quarterback a running back stable as deep as i was had in a very long time five guys have played a lot of minutes and important minutes throughout the course of the season, coupled with two incoming freshmen that there's a lot of excitement for. Tight ends, you got a preseason All-American, Luke Lachey, and on the other side, Addison Estringa. We saw a ton out of him. And then a wide receiver group, well, they got to figure that out still. With competency, with a good blocking scheme,

and a passing game that is fixed, I think this team could be all right on that side of the football. Oh, and by the way, on the other side, you return 10 of 11 starters defensively from the end of the year. Pretty, pretty good. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen. Every day we will be back with you. Tomorrow, of course, we got the doubleheader of basketball on Thursday

as it will be Penn State against Iowa, both on the men's and the women's side of things. A doubleheader on BTN. Then Friday night, it's wrestling. If you missed it yesterday, we had a crossover edition breaking down all those games, all those matches over there with Zach Saco from Lockdown Nittany Lions. Go back and make sure you check

that one out. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We'll be back with you tomorrow. Go Hawks!