By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – A skeptic or naysayer would right away point to the Iowa State loss and to the lack of a vertical passing game as reasons to temper your enthusiasm for new Iowa offensive coordinator Tim Lester.

Iowa only passed for 19 yards in the second half of its 20-19 loss to the Cyclones, and rarely has Lester tried to throw downfield.

The concern is that the inability to throw downfield already has cost Iowa one game and will continue to be costly if Lester doesn’t start taking some chances.

Okay. Fair enough.

Iowa’s ability to throw downfield still leaves much to be desired, but Iowa’s ability to rush the football is something to behold.

Kaleb Johnson currently leads the nation with 685 rushing yards, and he gained a career-high 206 yards on the ground and scored three touchdowns in last Saturday’s 31-14 win at Minnesota.

Lester met with the media on Tuesday and there was no mystery or conspiracy for why Iowa rarely took chances downfield in the Minnesota game.

Minnesota had no answer for Johnson and the running game, so Lester just kept scratching where it itches by running the ball.

And whenever Iowa can outscore Minnesota 24-0 in the second half and leave Minneapolis with a 17-point win, that’s a job well done by the players and by the coaches.

“I’ve called a game where I’ve called seventy passes, and I’ve called a game where I’ve called seventy runs,” Lester said. “We were just running the ball at a really high level, and we had a lead, and we just chose not to take that risk.”

In saying we, Lester obviously means Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, whose approach to offense is about as radical as a pair of red suspenders.

Kirk Ferentz likes to play safely, and conservatively, and there is nothing safer in football than running the football.

So, the approach that Lester took in the second half against Minnesota made sense.

Iowa has a superstar emerging at running back, and a veteran offensive line that is finally playing up to its potential, and Lester deserves a lot of credit for it.

He has made subtle changes with Iowa’s zone blocking schemes and the results have been impressive, at least so far.

Iowa is currently in the first of two bye weeks and its next game is against Ohio State on Oct. 5 in Columbus, Ohio, and fair to say that game  will certainly test the offense in every way possible.

The fact that Kaleb Johnson is from Ohio will be a popular storyline heading into the game.

As for Lester, his performance so far has been more glass half full than half empty.

Yes, the passing game is a slow work in progress, but the running game is averaging 250.3 yards per game to rank 11^th in the nation.

To help put that in perspective, Iowa only averaged 234 yards per game last season.

“The guys are competing at a high level,” Lester said. “I think everyone is doing a good job of blocking for each other, quarterbacks included, last week we got involved in one, which is great.”

Lester was referring to when Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara helped to lead the way on Kaleb Johnson’s 12-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

Lester is sticking with what Iowa does best, while working each week to get better at what Iowa does the worst.

At some point, the passing game will have to deliver for Iowa to have any chance of a special season.

And when that time, Lester will be judged for how the offense responds.

But so far, the good far outweighs the bad with Tim Lester.

He took over an offense that performed at a historically low level in each of the past two season. The offense was so bad that Brian Ferentz was fired as the offensive coordinator with four games left last season despite being Kirk Ferentz’s son.

Lester still has a lot to fix, or to improve, but the offense appears to be moving in the right direction, especially on the ground.

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WRONG FIRST IMPRESSION: When it was announced in May that Jacob Gill was transferring from Northwestern to Iowa to continue his college football career, I’ll admit that I was less than impressed.

The addition of a wide receiver that hadn’t played much for offensively challenged Northwestern didn’t exactly inspire confidence.

In fact, I hadn’t even heard of Gill, who had 16 catches and scored one touchdown over three seasons with Northwestern.

But on the other hand, Iowa desperately needed help at wide receiver, so you take what you can get.

And in this case, Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa coaches took a chance on Gill, and they’re now being rewarded with Gill’s performance on the field.

Gill leads Iowa with 13 catches and 145 receiving yards, but his impact goes far beyond his receiving numbers.

The Raleigh, North Carolina native showed right away in the season opener against Illinois State the ability to make tough catches, the kind where a defender makes a vicious hit, but you still hang on to the ball.

Gill has made at least three of those catches this young season.

His ability and his willingness to block is another part of Gill’s skill set that has stood out as it certainly did in the win at Minnesota last Saturday.

Gill made a key block on two of Johnson’s three touchdowns runs against the Gophers. On Johnson’s 40-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, the 6-foot, 185-pound Gill helped to create a running lane by sealing off a defensive back.

The Iowa coaches saw something in Gill, and now we’re seeing it.

Gill and Tim Lester are both still new to the program, but they both have made the transition look easy, even though it isn’t.

I was certainly wrong in assuming that Gill would bring little to an offense that needed a lot just because he played such a minor role for Northwestern.

The Iowa passing game still leaves much to be desired. But imagine the offense without Gill playing wide receiver.

Gill was sort of overshadowed when he committed to Iowa in May because it happened less than a week after former Northwestern quarterback Brendan Sullivan had announced his commitment to Iowa.

They weren’t necessarily a package deal, but Sullivan’s decision to be a Hawkeye made Iowa more appealing to Gill.

They were friends and now they’re still teammates.

Sullivan as the backup to Cade McNamara has played far less than Gill has so far this season.

But with each passing week, Sullivan’s role seems to expand as Tim Lester is now using him in goal-line situations.

Northwestern’s loss on offense has certainly been Iowa’s gain.

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ANOTHER STAR AT CORNERBACK: The Iowa defense was fortunate to have one of the best cornerbacks in the county last season in Cooper DeJean, who now plays for the Philadelphia Eagles after being selected in the second round of the 2024 NFL draft.

It now appears that Iowa has another star emerging at cornerback in graduate student Jermari Harris.

The Chicago native made his 22^nd career start against the Gophers and he has seven career interceptions, including a 28-yard pick-six against Troy this season.

Harris has provided lock-down coverage on his side of the field this season, and he also excels against the run.

His consistency and experience have given defensive coordinator Phil Parker somebody to rely on as Parker looks for stability at the other cornerback position where T.J. Hall and Deshaun Lee both have started games this season.

“Obviously, I think Jermari Harris is really playing well,” Parker said this past Tuesday. “He’s really made some impact, interceptions, knock-aways and pass break-ups and stuff like that.”

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JUST FOR KICKS: There was reason to question Iowa’s kicking and punting heading into this season.

Junior kicker Drew Stevens struggled down the stretch of last season, so much so that he was benched against Nebraska, while Iowa had to replace four-year starting punter Tory Taylor, who won the 2023 Ray Guy Award winner as the nation’s best collegiate punter.

But so far, so good.

Stevens has made all six of his field-goal attempts, while freshman punter Rhys Dakin is averaging a respectable 43.7 yards on 23 punts.

Nobody is ready to compare Dakin to his fellow Melbourne, Australia native Tory Taylor, but with each week, Dakin seems to be getting better.

And remember, Dakin is just a freshman who hadn’t played football until coming to Iowa.

He still struggles with consistency as evidenced by his struggles against Troy. But in the win over Minnesota, Dakin was a field-changing force, much like Taylor was as a Hawkeye.

Dakin punted five times for 248 yards (career-high 49.6 yards per punt avg.) with a career-high long of 55 yards against the Gophers, landing three inside the 20-yard line.

“I think he had a really good week leading up to Minnesota and also I feel like some of the focal points were being the aggressor, being on the attack and throwing the first punch,” Iowa special teams coordinator LeVar Woods said of Dakin. “Not waiting two or three punts and taking punches in the face and then I’m going to go punt the ball.

“So, that was a focal point, and I think he responded well, the unit responded well, and we had a great day.”

As for Drew Stevens, he has had overcome what LeVar Woods calls having “false confidence” from last season.

“I think it was false confidence, and I think he would be one of the first to tell you that last year,” Woods said of Stevens. “We talk about it in our room about confidence being a feeling, an emotion.”

Woods said Stevens, who has made 40-of-50 career field goal attempts, is better now at handling the mental side of kicking.

“A lot of it for Dew is between the ears,” Woods said. “I’ve just seen this kid grow and mature every single day.