By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Tim Lester has now been the Iowa offensive coordinator for 10 games.

It isn’t a huge body of work, but enough to have shown that the Iowa running game is a much easier fix than the Iowa passing game.

That probably shouldn’t come as a surprise just because of how Iowa is built, and because of how Kirk Ferentz likes to play the game of football.

Kirk Ferentz is old school, which means he believes strongly in staying ahead of the chains and controlling tempo with a methodical and time-consuming running game.

He likes to play it safe, and handing or pitching the ball to a running back is much safer than throwing downfield in the mind of Kirk Ferentz.

Lester had to realize when he joined the Iowa program this past February that Iowa was built more to run since it had a veteran offensive line and a deep and talented group of running backs, while the receiver room was thin in bodies and experience.

The Iowa offense struggled mightily to run and pass in each of the past two seasons, and that’s why Lester is here.

He was hired to replace former Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, who was fired with four games left in the 2023 season.

The rise of Kaleb Johnson and the running game has been the main storyline, and deservedly so, because it has been impressive, though a skeptic might say except for in three of Iowa’s four losses, including the most recent loss this past Friday to UCLA when Iowa was held to just 80 rushing yards.

The running game still is certainly a work in progress, but compared to recent seasons, it has taken a massive step forward, while Johnson has become a star on the rise as the Big Ten’s leading rusher with 1,328 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns.

In seven of Iowa’s 10 games this season, the running game has risen to the occasion, even in the 20-19 loss to Iowa State when Iowa rushed for 202 yards.

The problem, of course, has been the passing game, a problem that has festered in the five seasons since Nate Stanley last played quarterback for Iowa.

Stanley wasn’t a star, but he was steady and somewhat reliable.

He did sometimes unravel in big games, but for the most part Stanley was solid as a three-year starter, and he now ranks second in program history with 8,302 career passing yards and with 68 touchdown passes.

A quarterback doesn’t rack up those numbers without being pretty good.

But in the nearly five seasons since Stanley departed, the Iowa passing attack has just steadily gotten worse, a slow and costly decline.

There are times when Iowa has struggled just to complete a forward a pass, and times when Iowa makes everything related to passing look so hard while so many other teams make it look so easy.

Routine throws for most teams are sometimes difficult throws for Iowa, or so it seems.

And there isn’t one person to blame, though some would say the buck ultimately stops with Kirk Ferentz.

And fair enough.

Since Stanley last played for Iowa in 2019, six different quarterbacks have started for the Hawkeyes, but none have played very well, the six being Spencer Petras, Alex Padilla, Joe Labas, Cade McNamara, Deacon Hill and now Brendan Sullivan.

In fairness to Labas, he only started one game, which was the 21-0 victory over Kentucky in the 2022 Music City Bowl. He passed for 139 yards and one touchdown, and he avoided making any serious mistakes.

In other words, he managed the game.

But Labas also remained buried on the depth chart after McNamara and Hill both transferred to Iowa shortly after the 2022 season.

Labas has since transferred to Central Michigan where he now starts at quarterback with mixed results.

Petras now plays for Utah State where he has thrown for a lot of yards, while losing a lot of games, while Deacon Hill now plays for Utah Tech, which is better suited for his skill set.

Padilla transferred to Southern Methodist University where he played briefly in four games last season.

Rarely has passing been a strength for Iowa in 26 seasons under Kirk Ferentz.

There have been exceptions, most notably the 2002 and 2004 seasons when Iowa quarterbacks Brad Banks and Drew Tate both made first-team All-Big Ten, respectively.

But that was two decades ago.

Much has changed with how the game is played on both sides of the line of scrimmage, but it seems that Iowa’s passing attack hasn’t evolved.

There are some subtle differences with Lester now calling the passing plays, including more pre-snap motion and movement.

But the passing routes don’t look much different, at least to the casual observer.

Iowa still runs multiple underneath and horizontal routes, and rarely throws downfield, which is similar to how Brian Ferentz called the plays for his father.

That is partly due to personnel since Iowa doesn’t have many dynamic receivers.

Northwestern transfer Jacob Gill is arguably Iowa’s best receiver, and oddly enough, he had trouble getting on the field at Northwestern.

There are some young receivers on the roster that have shown promise, namely true freshman Reece Vander Zee and redshirt freshmen Dayton Howard and Jarriett Buie.

Vander Zee has three touchdown catches this season, but he has missed the last two games due to an injury.

The problems with Iowa’s passing attack are easy to identify.

The quarterbacks have struggled with accuracy and with reading coverages, while the receivers have struggled with creating separation and with route running.

Combine all those flaws together and you have an anemic passing attack.

Iowa entered last Friday’s 20-17 loss to UCLA averaging just 133.8 passing yards per game and with no player averaging more then 26.1 receiving yards per game.

With Iowa entering its second bye week, Lester will have an extra week to prepare for Iowa’s next game against Maryland on Nov. 23 in College Park, Maryland.

But it would be silly to think that he could make any significant changes to the passing game just from having an extra week to prepare.

Iowa’s problem’s go much deeper that, and right now, the quarterback position is depleted by injuries.

It’s uncertain who will start at quarterback against Maryland.

But once the season ends, Lester has to address Iowa’s passing attack.

The receivers have blocked extremely well under his watch, which has helped the running game, but Lester has to modernize the passing game and expand it so Iowa doesn’t look so predictable and limited as a passing team.

He has to upgrade the talent at receiver, and at quarterback, but of course, that is much easier said than done.

But nobody ever said being Kirk Ferentz’s offensive coordinator would be easy.