By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The mood was predictably upbeat after Saturday’s final spring practice at Kinnick Stadium.

Nobody on the Iowa football team was seriously injured, and we’re talking about spring practice when hope and optimism are in abundance, and when the threat of losing a game is far off in the future.

The biggest storyline this spring was the Iowa offense adjusting to having a new offensive coordinator as Tim Lester takes over for Brian Ferentz.

By all accounts, the transition has gone smoothly.

Lester has installed his offense to rave reviews from the Iowa players and coaches, as is to be expected, and from how it’s being described by both offensive and defensive players, change is coming with more pre-snap motion and movement.

It was hard to tell based on Saturday’s practice, but that was only because Lester supposedly kept a lot of his offense under wraps according to All-Big Ten linebacker Jay Higgins.

Okay, fair enough.

Time will tell.

Iowa fans are clamoring for change on offense after suffering through two of the worst seasons in program history from an offensive standpoint.

The situation was so bad that Kirk Ferentz couldn’t prevent his son from being fired in what would prove to be a 10-win season, but thanks largely to the defense and special teams.

One narrative being pushed after Saturday’s practice is that the Iowa running game has made considerable strides in 15 practices under Lester.

Assuming nobody enters the transfer portal, Iowa is stacked at running back with five currently on scholarship and two more coming as part of the 2024 recruiting class.

All they need besides staying healthy is room to operate and that brings us to by far the most important unit on the team – the offensive line.

Quarterback is considered perhaps the most important position in all team sports.

But it could be argued that a quarterback is only as good as his offensive line, especially a quarterback such as Cade McNamara, who is currently recovering from his second season-ending knee injury.

What happens at quarterback will obviously have a huge impact on Iowa’s season.

But if Iowa were to continue to fall short in sustaining a productive and consistent ground attack, it might not matter that much what happens at quarterback, especially against elite opponents.

Lester needs to fix the running game first and foremost, because even in this age of spread offenses, Iowa is built to run under Kirk Ferentz, and that won’t change with a new offensive coordinator, nor should it have to change.

Kirk Ferentz has won a lot of football games by playing a certain way.

But more times than not, especially recently, the lack of a consistent running game has kept his offense from being competitive, and that has kept Iowa from being elite.

And while there is a lot of blame to go around, including sub-par performances at quarterback and receiver, Iowa’s offensive line hasn’t lived up to its reputation for quite some time now.

That has to change, and it should change based on the amount of experience Iowa has returning on the offensive line.

Senior Mason Richman is preparing to start for his fourth straight season at left tackle, while starting guards Beau Stephens and Connor Colby, starting center Logan Jones and starting right tackle Gennings Dunker also have started multiple games, as has senior guard Nick DeJong also has started multiple games.

These six offensive linemen have combined to start 147 games, led by Richman with 39 starts, and yet none have made first- or second-team All-Big Ten.

Jones, Colby and DeJong were all third-team selections last season.

That isn’t meant as criticism, or as a way to call out the offensive line.

It’s just a fact.

Now in fairness to the offensive line, opponents often load the box against Iowa and dare the play caller, which is now Lester, to throw the ball because the passing game has left much so much to be desired over the past few seasons, and especially last season.

But on the other hand, opponents also have loaded the box against Wisconsin for years, and yet the Badgers usually find a way to gain yards on the ground.

They aren’t as good as they used to be under Barry Alvarez, but that is partly because the bar has been set so high.

Yes, the Iowa passing game has to improve to help the running game.

But at some point, an offensive line has to stand up to whatever the defense throws at it, and that time is now for the 2024 Iowa offensive line.

Richman was asked after Saturday’s practice about the running game being further along than the passing game this spring.

Richman said there has been far less of an adjustment with the running game.

“There’s maybe two plays that have different numbers compared to what we used to run, so it’s like you had a different thing,” Richman said of the running game. “But the technique, coaching, the steps, if you will, are all kind of the same.

“So, I think for a lot of the guys that was maybe an easier transition than the passing game. And we’ll get there. Obviously, we’ve gotten a lot better all spring. Trust me.

“But the running game, I think, has really taken off just because it carries over a little bit easier. There’s only a couple wrinkles with a lot of the stuff we do. And once get the hang of that, then it’s really going to go.”

This isn’t the first time that the Iowa running game has supposedly taken off in the spring.

It seems every spring we hear that the running game is rounding into shape and ready to stay ahead of the chains and control tempo, but then comes fall and it fails to live up to the hype.

Iowa has produced a long and distinguished list of standout offensive linemen under Kirk Ferentz, from Eric Steinbach to Robert Gallery to Brandon Scherff to Tyler Linderbaum, but it’s hard to remember the last time an Iowa offensive line thrived as a unit, 2002 and 2008 are two seasons that come to mind, but that’s about it.

The days of blaming youth and inexperience for the struggles on the offensive line are long gone.

George Barnett is also entering his fourth season as the Iowa offensive line coach. So, his transition has long been over.

You would be hard pressed to find an offensive line with more experience than what Iowa has at those five positions.

The offensive line will also have a new addition as North Dakota transfer Cade Borud committed to Iowa on Saturday. The Southeast Polk graduate earned FCS All-America honors last season, so he will come in battle tested.

Iowa was dealt a blow with the loss of left tackle Kadyn Proctor to the transfer portal.

But as Kirk Ferentz said recently, it’s hard to lose something that you never had.

Proctor, obviously, would have helped, but even without Proctor, the Iowa offensive line is loaded from an experience standpoint.

And remember, Kirk Ferentz climbed the ladder as an offensive line coach, including nine seasons at Iowa under Hayden Fry from 1981 to 1989 and six seasons in the NFL.

The offensive line is considered Kirk Ferentz’s area of expertise, so that’s another advantage the current offensive line has going for it.

The challenge now is to play better, both as a unit and individually.

It’s that simple.

Just play better.

There are no more excuses unless injuries were to become a factor.

The time is long overdue for this veteran Iowa offensive line to stand and deliver, and maybe even lead the way for a change.