Kirk Ferentz’s decision to hire Tim Lester as OC causes some concern about the search
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – If you expected Kirk Ferentz to replace his son with a rising star on offense, somebody that would be considered a home run hire as an offensive coordinator, you’re probably disappointed with the news that Tim Lester is being hired to fill the position.
If you didn’t have high expectations and figured that the list of candidates might leave something to be desired due to the condition of the Iowa offense, then you’re probably not surprised that somebody of Lester’s ilk has reportedly landed the job.
Nothing against Tim Lester, but he doesn’t exactly move the needle.
He certainly has more experience than his predecessor, Brian Ferentz, but that really isn’t saying much because Brian Ferentz was under-qualified when his father promoted him to offensive coordinator in 2017.
Lester was the head coach for Western Michigan from 2017 to 2022 and compiled a 32-27 overall record. He was fired after the Broncos finished 5-7 in 2022.
Lester spent the 2023 season as an analyst for the Green Bay Packers.
He was also the offensive coordinator and play caller for Syracuse for part of the 2014 season and for the entire 2015 season. Syracuse finished 5-14 in the games in which Lester was the play caller.
Kirk Ferentz has taken nearly three months to hire a new offensive coordinator and very little news has come out during the search.
Paul Chryst and Joe Philbin were considered candidates early in the process, with some even reporting that Chryst turned down the job earlier in January.
UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marion was then linked to the search, but his name soon faded.
Former Duke offensive coordinator Kevin Johns emerged as a candidate late in the search as did Tim Lester.
Johns reportedly interviewed for the job this past Thursday in Iowa City.
Speculation that Johns had been offered the job and would be hired grew when a photo of Johns and Kirk Ferentz sitting together at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel across from Kinnick Stadium surfaced last Friday morning on social media.
But as it turns out, a candidate that hadn’t even been mentioned until just recently is reportedly Kirk Ferentz’s choice.
Lester was reportedly set to take the offensive coordinator job for Troy when Kirk Ferentz made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
The fact that Green Bay’s season just recently ended with a loss in the playoffs might explain why it has taken Kirk Ferentz this long to make a hire.
This marks the fourth time that Kirk Ferentz will have hired an offensive coordinator as the Iowa head coach.
And while Lester’s history as a play caller is far from impressive, he can take solace in knowing that if he makes the Iowa offense just average, he will be considered a success.
To say that the bar on offense isn’t set very high right now would be an understatement.
Iowa’s offense has been in a stunning decline since the start of the 2022 season, and ranked last in FBS in 2023, averaging just 234.6 yards per game.
The Iowa program overall is pretty solid right now.
Iowa won the Big Ten West Division and 10 games this past season, and Iowa also won the division and 10 games in 2021.
Defense and special teams are rock solid as is the fan support.
But even with all of that working to Kirk Ferentz’s advantage, it doesn’t appear based on the list of candidates that many Power Five offensive coordinators were interested in being his offensive coordinator.
That is a concern, but hardly a surprise under the circumstances.
Paul Chryst currently works as an analyst for Texas after having been fired as the Wisconsin head coach in 2022, while Joe Philbin works as an advisor for Ohio State after having coached for two decades in the NFL.
Kevin Johns is currently unemployed after former Duke head coach Mike Elko chose not to take Johns with him when Elko was hired as the Texas A&M head coach in December.
Lester’s job as an analyst with the Packers has kept him involved with coaching, but it was obviously just a temporary landing spot for him.
The concern is whether Iowa’s reputation on offense made it hard for Kirk Ferentz to attract highly regarded candidates, and that Ferentz ultimately settled on Lester.
Another concern is that it might not even matter who the offensive coordinator is right now because it’s Kirk Ferentz’s offense and he expects it to function a certain way.
The name of the offensive coordinator changes every now and then under Kirk Ferentz, but the offense basically stays the same.
And if Brian Ferentz couldn’t get his father to make any changes on offense, assuming he tried, it seems likely that Tim Lester would be met with the same resistance.
Or maybe Lester believes what Kirk Ferentz believes in that Iowa just has to keep doing what it does on offense, but just do it better, and that helped Lester get the job as sort of a yes man.
Time and performance will tell.