Why Iowa hiring Tim Lester can provide much-needed offensive boost for Hawkeyes to emerge as CFP contender

The longest offensive coordinator search in the history of the world — or my memory, at least — has finally concluded. Iowa made it official on Wednesday that Green Bay Packers analyst and former Western Michigan head coach Tim Lester will be the new Hawkeyes offensive coordinator. Let the field-position battle commence.

It’s not the most exciting hire of this cycle, but it was never going to be. After decades of success playing a certain style of football, Kirk Ferentz wasn’t going to drastically change everything Iowa does offensively as he approaches the age of 70. However, just because Iowa won’t be coming out with four-receiver sets and running an Air Raid next season doesn’t mean Lester isn’t an upgrade over Brian Ferentz. A quick look at the numbers tells us this.

Here’s a look at how Western Michigan’s offense fared during Lester’s seven seasons in charge compared to Iowa’s with the younger Ferentz as offensive coordinator. You can see there’s a drastic difference in most areas.

Now, these numbers come with a caveat. The defenses Western Michigan faced in the MAC were not the same caliber as what Iowa’s dealt with in the Big Ten. What’s more interesting to me than the raw numbers, however, is what they suggest.

We think of Iowa as a run-heavy offense, but Lester’s Broncos teams ran the ball more often than Iowa. So, we could see the Hawkeyes run the ball more now that Ferentz is gone. The key difference will be what the passing game looks like.

As the numbers tell, Western Michigan may not have thrown as often, but its passing attack was more vertical than Iowa’s. It averaged 10.1 per attempt to Iowa’s 8.0. It also threw past the first down marker on average (+1.2 air yards to the sticks per throw), while Iowa threw in front (-0.8). How is that explained by approach or philosophy?

I’m no expert when it comes to building an offense or scheming a passing game, but thankfully, I know people who can explain it to me like I’m 5 years old. One current college assistant who has faced both Lester’s Western Michigan offenses and Ferentz’s Iowa offenses told me the biggest difference was that, “Iowa schemes plays so their QB doesn’t screw things up. Flood concepts with a…