Tim Lester made spring practice more difficult for Iowa’s vaunted defense
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa linebacker Jay Higgins has a gift for making tackles, and a gift for gab.
If Tim Lester should ever need his own public relations consultant, Higgins might be up for the task based on how he described practicing against Lester’s new offense this spring.
Higgins described Lester as sort of a mad scientist whose thrives on deception and mind games to confuse and frustrate the defense.
Higgins said it took until the 13th practice this spring before he finally started to figure things out with Lester’s offense.
He also said that Lester kept it close to vest in Saturday’s open practice, hardly showing any of the pre-snap motion and movement that has reportedly been so prevalent in practice.
“They kept it simple today, smart guys,” said Higgins, who led the Big Ten in tackles last season.
Higgins joked that somebody with a camera could have been in the stands at Kinnick Stadium filming Saturday’s practice, so it was wise on Lester’s part to show very little of the offense.
Or, maybe Higgins wasn’t joking.
But whatever the case, Lester’s approach to offense apparently put Higgins and his defensive cohorts in positions they weren’t used to being in throughout spring practice.
And we’re talking about potentially one of the best defenses in the Big Ten that returns eight starters.
“There’s just so much stuff where I’m trained for eyes to be there and he knows that, and he basically just plays with us the whole time,” Higgins said of Lester. “It was really fun. It felt like a game week every time we came out to practice.
“Didn’t know what these dudes were going to run. And even if we did know what they were going to run, we’d have to put some new stuff in our defense. It was the first time in a long time that we started installing new defenses in the spring.”
And while that is certainly a rousing endorsement for Iowa’s new offensive coordinator, a skeptic probably would say, I’ll believe it when I see it.
And fair enough because fans have been told before that the offense made huge strides in the spring, and would look different in the fall, only to be disappointed in the end.
It’s impossible to reach any conclusions about the offense from just watching a two-hour practice, especially if Lester did use so little of it as Higgins suggested.
And, of course, Higgins was overly optimistic when asked about the offense because that’s what a good teammate does.
He might have laid it on a little thick when talking about Lester’s ability to deceive and confuse defenses.
But multiple players on both offense and defense have praised Lester for bringing more motion and movement to the offense, and for devising ways to confuse the defense.
On the other hand, though, it probably doesn’t take much for the offense to look different, considering how little the offense has changed in 25 seasons under Kirk Ferentz.
There was a lot of talk after Saturday’s practice, which marked the end of spring practice, that the running game made significant progress this spring, due partly to the pre-snap motion and movement that confuses the defense.
Iowa should be just fine at running back, assuming nobody leaves the program in this age of the transfer portal.
Senior Leshon Williams didn’t practice Saturday due to what he described as a minor injury, but Kaleb Johnson, Jaziun Patterson and Kamari Moulton all participated on Saturday, and each had their moments.
Williams and Johnson both have shown that they can carry the load, while Patterson had a breakout performance against Iowa State last season.
So, running back is the least of the concerns on offense, along with tight end.
Iowa returns multiple offensive linemen with starting experience, but none have come close to performing at an All-Big Ten level to this point.
That will have to change.
Iowa received a verbal commitment from North Dakota offensive lineman Cade Borud on Saturday.
Borud, a graduate of Southeast Polk High School, played center for North Dakota this past season and earned FCS All-America honors from Phil Steele.
Iowa is young and inexperienced at receiver, but with junior Kaleb Brown, Lester has somebody who could be poised for a breakout season.
Redshirt freshman Terrell Washington Jr. also made two impressive catches in Saturday’s practice from the slot position.
The Wylie, Texas native came to Iowa as a running back, and he still plays some at running back.
But Iowa desperately needs receivers that not only can catch the ball, of course, but that also can gain yards after the catch.
Brown and Washington both seem capable of filling that role.
As for the situation at quarterback, redshirt freshman Marco Lainez had some nice moments in Saturday’s practice.
He showed the same running skills that helped him gain 51 yards in the Citrus Bowl loss to Tennessee, and he also made a couple nice throws, especially one to Kaleb Brown in which Lainez put the ball in a tight window and hit Brown in stride for about a 30-yard gain.
Deacon Hill, on the other hand, struggled with some of the same things that hurt him last season as the starter for the final eight games.
He was inaccurate on some throws, and he threw the ball too hard on some throws.
So, based on just Saturday’s practice, Lainez looked better than Hill.
However, there were reportedly practices this spring when Hill looked better than Lainez.
If things go as planned with Cade McNamara, the battle between Hill and Lainez would be for the backup spot.
McNamara was limited all spring to mostly just throwing as he recovers from knee surgery.
The hope is that he will receive medical clearance in June to start practicing at full speed again.
“I think he’s doing really well,” Kirk Ferentz said of McNamara. “He’s throwing the ball well. He can’t drop back and all that stuff. But he’s throwing the ball well.”
McNamara started the first five games last season before suffering a season-ending knee injury against Michigan State.
He also led Michigan to the 2021 Big Ten title, and to the college playoff that season, as its starting quarterback.
“I think if there’s a silver lining, my experience is these guys that have played, it’s a little bit easier for them when they get started again,” Kirk Ferentz said. “It comes back quicker than a guy who hasn’t played.
“So, every situation has its own challenges. But I’m optimistic he’ll be ready to go and should be able to catch up pretty quickly.”
Iowa now heads to the offseason and has approximately four months to prepare for its season opener against Illinois State on Aug. 31 at Kinnick Stadium.
Much of the focus will be on Lester as he tries to breath life into an offense that performed so poorly in each of the past two seasons that Brian Ferentz was fired as the offensive coordinator this pat October.
Lester has made a strong impression, so far, with his ability to frustrate and confuse a very good and experienced Iowa defense.
But like with everything that happens in the spring, there is no way of knowing if it will carry to the season.
What is certain, however, is that the Iowa offense could just be average next season and that would make Lester the kind of genius that Higgins described on Saturday.
Because the bar isn’t set very high.