Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Tim Lester in the new offensive coordinator, Hoops Weekend Recap

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

Trent Condon is back for another week of podcasts on the Locked on Hawkeyes feed.It took 90 days, but Iowa football has its new offensive coordinator in Tim Lester. Thoughts on the hire and how Iowa football got here. Can a RPO based offense work with what Kirk Ferentz wants? We look at that. Then some thoughts on the basketball weekend after the men win at Michigan and the women beat Nebraska on Taylor Swift day. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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

After three months, the Hawkeyes finally got their offensive coordinator. It's Tim Lester. Yeah, exactly. We break it down today, Locked On Hawkeyes. 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 Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On 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 FanDuel. Make every moment more. New customers join today and you'll get $200 in bonus bets. If your first bet of $5 or more wins, visit FanDuel.com slash locked on to get started.

Well, here we are, a new weekend. Yes, the news is now official. Iowa has an offensive coordinator. Tim Lester gets the job. Former Western Mission quarterback, a former Western Michigan head coach, and a guy that was in the NFL a year ago as an analyst with the Green Bay Packers.

Not exactly an inspiring hire, not a name that makes people hopeful. I don't think that we're going to see a whole lot of innovation, that the hope that this was going to lead to some kind of big evolution from this squad and what this team has done, certainly as the offense has cratered over the last couple of seasons, I think that excitement's gone. And it felt like it was down to two guys. We talked about both these guys a week ago. And Kevin Johns, of the two, definitely had the more intriguing resume.

He was a guy that had been a play caller at a number of different places. He'd worked under a bunch of different systems. The reason that I was so excited about a guy like Kevin Johns is he was a guy that adapted to certain styles and had done it in a myriad of different ways. From Indiana, working with Kevin Wilson, one of the most brilliant offensive minds you're going to find in college football.

His ability to run that power spread offense was something I thought that was certainly intriguing at Iowa. What he did at Duke, even this year, is their offense certainly took a step back, but that was because their quarterback went down to Riley Leonard. Even with that, they won a big game with their third string quarterback. They at least gave themselves a chance, and they evolved, and they changed on the fly, losing what some people believe is a really good and a chance at a pro quarterback and Riley Leonard. And he was able to do that. And he's done the spread was with Cliff Kingsbury for a year. He's been all over the place and he has a background in the power structure of being a coordinator that has done

some good things. You don't have that with Tim Lester. Now, he was a head coach, and if you become a head coach, and he's head coach a couple of times, he's a head coach down to small-level football as a 27-year-old, and then went back to his alma mater and became the head coach there and certainly had successes. His offenses, for the most part, were good. The last year, cratered. Okay, it was a rebuilding year.

New AD came in, got him out of there. But the offenses were successful. The reason that Tim Lester on the surface to me is not a real inspiring hire. It's just that it's just kind of more of the same. Not a whole lot of excitement, kind of unremarkable, uninspiring. I mean, it's already going to be out there, right? Lackluster and lackluster. That's, headline kind of writes itself, right?

And that's what you get with Tim Lester. There just isn't a whole lot of meat to the resume. We talked about this a lot. And really over the last year, as we're seeing more and more the evolution of college football, what it's becoming. It's no longer a power five. Well, there's not going to be five after the season completes. After the school year ends and softball and baseball are done, it'll be power four. But

really, it's a power two. And Iowa is part of the power two. Now, there are only 34 offensive coordinator jobs in the power, too. And it wasn't a thought that people were going to be beating down their door to get to Iowa. It certainly has not been a destination job for an offensive coordinator since what? Bill Snyder was here back in the 80s. I mean, it's a long time ago. The last three hires now were Tim Lester. He was targeted to go to Troy.

That's where he was headed. He was going to the Sun Belt. Okay. Before that, Brian Ferentz, who didn't have anybody beating down his door to call plays, and you saw the reason for that. Before that, you had not a work Greg Davis. Again, not exactly awe-inspiring candidates here.

In fact, is there another power two program and you can throw northwestern and vanderbilt and the also rands would anybody hire any of these guys and would any of the other 33 programs hire tim lester to be their offensive coordinator in a successful program in a program that program, in a program that has stability, in a program that has hope and has a great defense and special teams and has so many positives working for it. Would anybody else make this hire? I don't think so. Is that because Kirk Ferentz is smarter than everybody else?

I don't think that either. He went safe. He wanted somebody to probably use the buzzwords that got him excited, and here we are. And how did we get to this point? Now, that's another frustrating aspect about this, is we wait 90 days and we're served up Tim Lester. Again, it's not about the guy.

It's about the way this thing played out. Kirk, kicking and screaming, saw his boy get fired. He didn't like it. And he said as much. And you understand that. And you understand that from both the family relationship and the in-season relationship. But you also have to remember that Kirk did this to himself. He was not forced to give his boy the job as offensive coordinator when he did not have the resume or the background to be a play caller. He didn't have to do that. He chose to do that. And when you choose to do things like that, and you do have bosses above you, they can make things uncomfortable for you.

And that's what they did. There is not a doubt in my mind. If Beth Getz did not step in in October and fire Brian Ferencz, that Brian would be back next season. You heard Kirk complain about the injuries and making the excuses. You know the way this would have played out.

I don't think there is a doubt he would have tried his damnedest to do it. Look how he handled this. He knew for three months this was going to happen. When Paul Chris told him no, he didn't have background. He didn't know where to go. And that's how you come up with this poo-poo platter of guys that don't have jobs or have a job lined up in the Sun Belt. How that happens, it's Kirk Ferentz. It's the control that he wants. Unremarkable, uninspiring. That's where we are today. I preferred Kevin Johns because of what he did. Tim Lester, you got a lot in front of you. So what's this going to look like? What is Iowa football and what's the offense going to do?

What needs to be done to get them even to a competent level? Instead of having an offensive coordinator, that was right there. Down to the final two, that put together offenses, game plan, called plays, and a bunch of different systems. In the power structure structure you get a mac flame out we'll see if it works i'm not confident what's it going to look like we'll get into that as we continue we do have some positivity don't worry good weekend on the hoop side of things we'll talk men's and women's basketball as well as we continue this This is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

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Trent Conant back with you once again on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We got hoops coming up for you and some good feelings as Iowa goes on the road. On the men's side gets a win. Back in Carver, Taylor Swift day for the women's team as they coast in the victory against Nebraska and a little more in-depth. And of course, there's always something, right? Always fireworks when it pertains to women's basketball. We'll get into that here momentarily, but we continue to dive down the decision of Kirk Ferentz coming up with Tim Lester to run the offense. Now, to run the offense.

Now, one thing people say, and I was trying to talk myself into some positivity about the hire. All right, he was with the Packers. Now, he wasn't an on-field coach. He was a guy that was out of work, and Matt LaFleur, who in fact was the backup quarterback to him at Western Michigan, gave him a job. It's an analyst job, not on-the-field coaching,

but an analyst. Okay. Well, he's learning from LeFleur, who is highly competent as a play caller, and what we've seen from him as head coach. That's good. One problem. Oh, look. Jordan Love, look at his ascension this year.

I mean, the improvements that guy made over the back half of the year. All those young wide receivers. You're excited. Or maybe talking yourself into this. Okay. Then read a little deeper. And Tim Lester, yes, he was an analyst with the Green Bay Packers. He was a defensive analyst.

He was breaking down what other teams were going to be doing on the offensive side and then relaying that to the defense. Okay. Some of the excitement went there. Here's one positive for you. We can probably keep betting unders and feel pretty good about it coming up next season on FanDuel. We got that going for us.

We'll be able to jump aboard with that. What's it going to look like? So RPO, run pass option. And sometimes you hear that term. You hear, all right, an RPO-based offense, and you're thinking running quarterback because, well, run pass option, and you kind of think that way with the option part. It's not always the case.

And you look at Minnesota, what, five, six years ago, when Tanner Morgan was really playing well. He's not a guy that was going to beat you with his legs, but it was a ton of RPO. And the RPO gives the ability to get the ball to the running back and a lot of easyO. And the RPO gives the ability to get the ball to the running back and a lot of easy passes out of it. One thing we do know is this passing offense needs to be completely redone. And what it has morphed into over the last couple of years, and you can argue that it was quarterback play. I mean, we went from Spencer Petras feeling like they can't find a worse quarterback play than

what we got, certainly over the final two years of Spencer Petras. It can't be worse than that. We got handed a banged up Cade McNamara. And then after he eventually went down with the torn ACL, we were served up Deacon Hill. And if there's a worse quarterback that's played in the power structure over the last decade, I like to see him because I can't remember watching him. And I watch a ton of football. Woof.

So is this Marco Lioness? Is this Cade McNamara? Is this an offense that you're comfortable with? And what are the feelings inside the walls of Fort Kinnick? Now, I wonder how this is being handled by the players. Obviously, they respect Kirk Ferentz. I think we should all respect the job that he has done. I've never been a proponent of getting the old man out of here, that he's lost his touch. But these last 90 days, the way this was handled and what

came out of the backside of it has me questioning even more. I believe that he's in a position that he should be able to go out, not whenever he wants, but if he could continue playing high-level football, that he could kind of write his final script. And I was thinking that with the right hire here, this final script could be pretty dang good. We talk about this upcoming season, 2024. Even with the new look Big Ten and the Big Ten West going away, it's not a very daunting schedule in comparison to what a lot of the other teams certainly in the conference are going to have

this year. But there was a real possibility. Is Tim Lester a guy that's going to be able to implement something very quickly with the RPO-based system? Are's going to be able to implement something very quickly with the RPO based system are they going to be able to do that over 15 spring practices and then August camp and you're going to be able to see the full look if you go back and you remember when Greg Davis took over there are some ugly moments I relay the story before I don't tell you again if you missed it at halftime looking over at my buddy who were watching the game at Soldier against Northern Illinois and saying, I hate the Greg Davis offense.

It didn't marry. It didn't work. You had a returning starting quarterback in James Vandenberg that had thrown 27 touchdowns the year before in the final year at Ken O'Keefe. He threw seven the next year. Just woof. It takes a while to implement a new system. And yes, this is going to be a new system.

Enough with the, it's just Kirk's offense because it isn't. Watch Ken O'Keefe's offense. Watch Greg Davis's. Watch the baby boys. Baby Huey. They're all different. Doesn't make them good, but they're all different. They're all things that are a change. How much is he going to be able to implement what he wants to do? That's what we have to know. We will see how this eventually plays out. It's difficult to get excited about it. I'm going to continue to break it down. You know, you go back to his time at Syracuse.

That was a disaster. He took over play-gulling duties about halfway through his first year. He wasn't good. Second year was an improvement. Still 113th in the country in offense. That's a yikes. I mean, the only time that you got to see him in a power structure, it went that bad. He was a quarterback coach at Purdue for one season,

with Darryl Hazel was a head coach at Purdue in that season. David Blau, guy that's a pretty good quarterback through 21 interceptions that year. Again, these are just points on the resume. Could it work? Sure. A lot of things can work, but it doesn't instill hope. It's not about us. It's not about hope for the fan base. It's about these players buying in. It's about a system that can work. He probably said that they play complimentary football and that got Kirk all excited and away we went. I don't know. I don't know how you can look at the two resumes between Kevin Johns and Tim Lester and come up with Lester. I don't know how they interview. But I'm also just keep coming back to, this was it.

After three months, these were your final two. After you're told no, yes, Paul Chris said no. We know that. Chris said no. That's the thing that's just befuddling me. I mean, you look around the country, you look at a place like, I don't know, South Carolina. Hell, look at what Northwestern did this year.

Northwestern went out, and they got a young, innovative offensive coordinator that put up a ton of points and won a national championship at South Dakota State. Was it Luan, I think is the last name of the OC, formerly of the Jackrabbits, and now Northwestern. Did Kirk pick up the phone? Probably not because that thing was done in December.

It was, it's a disservice and I understand. Yes, it would be a disservice to your current players if you are spending time on that when you can get ready for bowl prep. We saw that bowl prep was a bunch of garbage too. This is tough.

This is a tough one. It really is. And even looking for those silver linings, there's not a whole lot of them. We'll continue to dig. Help me out. Hit us up on the comment section on YouTube. Hit us up on Twitter. Let us know where can we find some silver lining because I am struggling to find it. So let's talk about some positives. Let's talk some hoops. We'll do that as we continue. A little hoops conversation. Nice road win for the men's team.

Now they got to continue. Wins need to continue to pile up. And bouncing back after a loss for the women's team. We'll talk some basketball as we come back here. Locked on Hawkeyes. Locked on Hawkeyes. Happy Super Bowl to all who celebrate from FanDuel. It's America's number one sportsbook.

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will take a little deeper look at things. I'll tell you right away, I jumped aboard as soon as the line came out, got the Chiefs, got that field goal. Not there anymore as the bets are piling in on Kansas City. FanDuel, they have so many ways for you to end the season with a W or two or three or even more than that. Not only can you bet on who's going to win the Super Bowl and Super Bowl 58, but FanDuel also has bets which player will score a touchdown,

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on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We got you covered here across the Lockdown Network. Locked on your team every day. Your favorite NFL, MLB. That's right. Pitchers and catchers going to be reporting here in just a couple of weeks. NBA, NHL.

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on Saturday afternoon against Nebraska. You know, there were some shaky moments early in that game, some moments where hey, maybe Nebraska's going to hang around, but well, it's always been the case. Nebraska's going to hang around, but well, it's always been the case. Kaitlin starts to get hot, knocking down some big three. She finishes with 38 points, 10 rebounds, six assists in the game and shoots a Sterling from the three-point line, eight of 15. She was incredible. Another nice game from Kate Martin. You know, she's playing

inside a lot, stuffing the stat sheet, doing a lot of little things, not just the 16, but five rebounds, four assists, helping out in a myriad of different ways in there. A falter, again, off the bench. She was really good. My excitement, though, level, it's a player that we've talked about quite a bit here, was Taylor McCabe coming in, knocking down some shots from the outside. I still think she needs to be a bigger part of this rotation.

In a game where Molly Davis didn't do a whole lot, Gabby Marshall looks like that shot's off a little bit more. Obviously, I need to get her going on the offensive end of the floor. But 92-73, coast into the victory and a cover on top of it. Kaitlyn doing her thing. There was some pushing, some shoving. She gets bounced around the floor all over the place. There's going to be frustration. We know that's the way Caitlin's wired.

I mean, she's a time bomb, right? And she's always ticking and always waiting and has something to say with the officials and things like that. But little extras sometimes stop and kind of push back into the player. Look, that's Kaitlyn Clark. It's kind of all part of it, right? What makes her tick? What makes her the player that she is? There's going to be moments that can be a little bit uncomfortable, and that's okay.

As Hawkeye fans, we can say that. If there's a line crossed, you can say that and still love the team. They don't take away your fan card if you say things like that. It's okay. And Kaitlyn, we know when she goes on the road, it's going to be, everybody's going to be there. Want to get a glimpse of her. We've seen that continue here.

You look at this week, Wednesday, when they go to Northwestern. And the Northwestern team is not very good. They got throttled by Indiana today. Almost got doubled up in that game. They're bad. And yet the ticket prices to get into Welsh Ryan are through the roof.

Not for Northwestern women's basketball, but for Kaitlin. And then next Saturday, a road trip out to Maryland. You know, Brenda Free, she's going to have a game plan and they're going to be clutching and grabbing and holding and doing their thing. She's going to have to have her head screwed on for that one because Maryland, they play physical,

and they're going to be rough with you, and you've got to be ready to play through that one. Nice win, though, bouncing back after the loss against Ohio State. Probably a good time to recalibrate, get some extra rest, get out there, and now it really goes. And the grind's going to continue here really through the rest of the season. They do have another mini-bye, if you will, before the Indiana game. Those will be off for a week before that one towards the middle of February.

But a lot of games coming up, too, back-to-back each and every week over the next couple of weeks. Road trips to Maryland, Nebraska. Those are going to be pretty tough. Penn State's playing better. That's in between the Maryland and the Nebraska games. So a little bit more difficult after this one against Northwestern coming up this week. On the men's side of things, what a turnaround from the men's team after just a terrible loss

to Maryland earlier in the week. Maryland team, that's not good. That's just not, you can't lose that game at home, but let hang around didn't deliver the knockout blow and that was kind of the story that first game against Michigan where they were ripe for the picking and just getting blown out of the building but I couldn't do it and here we are 88-78 so they're down in this game pretty big late in the first half what three and a half minutes to play something like that they're down double digits like well any hope that we had for this team gonna be off the board and and they suck you back in right away. They start knocking down shots.

Sanford was incredible, hitting shots from all over the place. Really liked what we saw out of him. Obviously, the play inside from Owen Freeman, he was really, really solid. The physicality that he played up really stood and stayed out of foul trouble, and that has to be a piece, too. Iowa for the game puts up 1.26 points per possession. that he played up, really stood and stayed out of foul trouble. And that has to be a piece too. Iowa for the game puts up 1.26 points per possession. That's elite.

The offense looked kind of as we expect the offense is supposed to look for Iowa. And they run away and get the victory. Tony Perkins, boy, this young man. TP has always been one of my favorites. When he showed up on campus, there was just something about him. And they could unlock him. You know, there's a lot of guys like Tony Perkins, guys that are a little undersized, have a little something that's just don't have the complete game, if you will. And Frank McCaffrey has done a great job of maybe giving us the best version of Tony Perkins that

you could ever have. Like he's a guy that early in his career, it could have gone close to home, could have gone to the Horizon League or the MVC, something like that, found a home and put up good numbers in a mid-major. Instead, he stuck it out and he's going to be an all-Big Ten player, third team, probably something like that, honorable mention. He's got a lot out of, obviously, the skills that he has. Really good to see and a good kid. That's really fun to see him a good kid that's a really fun to see him playing at a high level uh dicks did some good things i thought on the floor too we got to see back uh patrick mcafree was out there not a great day from him uh from the floor

dembale though getting him back out that was a great thing and then we just kind of continue to wait on what's going to happen with their young point guards we're going to see more from harding or for bowen doesn't appear that's going to be the case. Kind of this is the team. This is who they are. It's going to be that five that you're kind of used to now with Dixon, the starting lineup alongside Perkins. Sanford keeps shooting the ball though. I think they got a chance. Look, it can't just end with this though. As they inch their way back to Mount 500. just end with this, though, is they inch their way back to Mount 500. Indiana, Hoosiers are playing bad. This is a bad basketball team. They lost three straight, four of their last

five. The only win in there was at home against Minnesota. You know, that's not a good gopher team. They get beat by Illinois over the weekend. They got absolutely bludgeoned against Wisconsin before that. Blown out by Purdue. There's another one that's right there for Iowa. I mean, a very winnable game. Then you're home for Ohio State. That will be on Friday night before Penn State,

on the road, winnable, Minnesota. Then you get the return trip to Maryland, and maybe you can return the favor, much like you just did against Michigan here. Probably in that stretch, though, we're talking about over the next five, you still got to win four out of five. If you do that, you win four out of your next five. That's going to get you to eight and six. But the closing stretch, here's how they close. Home for Wisconsin. Great. At Michigan State. That doesn't go well at Illinois

neither is that home for Penn State good at Northwestern Northwestern is killing everybody that comes in there and then home for Illinois whoo yeah that's how it finishes keep piling up the wins we'll see if they can do it Tuesday night against Indiana we'll break

that game down a little bit more tomorrow on Locked On Hawkeyes thanks more tomorrow on Locked On Hawkeyes. Thanks again for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We'll continue to dig into Tim Lester, see if there's anything to get excited about. Help me out. Anything that you can do. It was a safe choice. Uninspiring.

Here we are. We're with you each and every day throughout the course of the week. Monday through Friday, your team every day. That's what we do here on the Locked On Network. And we do it for you on the Locked On Hawkeyes. Hey, Locked On has also launched the first ever national sports 24 streaming channel on YouTube. Locked On 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. Go to Locked On Sports Today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever National Sports 24-7 streaming channel. Back with you tomorrow. We got a lot going on here on the Locked On Network. LaShawn Daniels also going to join us later in the week. Former Hawkeye running back. We'll get his thoughts on the new OC.

Can an RPO-based system work for the Hawkeyes? back will get his thoughts on the new OC. Can an RPO based system work for the Hawkeyes? We'll break that down in a whole lot more. Thanks for being with us. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks.