Iowa Football Hires Packers Analyst to Oversee Infamous Offense, per Report

Tim Lester takes over an offense that scored 15.4 points per game last season.

Iowa has finally found an offensive coordinator, three months after the school announced that Brian Ferentz, the son of head coach Kirk Ferentz, would be dismissed at the end of the season. 

Tim Lester will oversee the Hawkeyes’ offense next season, as first reported by Football Scoop. He will attempt to turn around a unit that was the nation’s worst in total offense in 2023, averaging 234.6 yards per game. Iowa also tied for the second-worst scoring offense, notching only 20 touchdowns and averaging 15.4 points per game. 

Former Western Michigan coach Tim Lester takes over an Iowa offense that averaged 15.4 points per game :: Kirthmon F. Dozier/USA TODAY NETWORK

The Hawkeyes finished 10–4 overall but were outscored by a combined 61–0 in their final two games of the season, losing to Michigan and Tennessee. 

Lester, 46, spent last season as an analyst with the Green Bay Packers after six years as head coach at Western Michigan, where he also played. Before taking the job at his alma mater, Lester was a quarterbacks coach at Purdue and offensive coordinator at Syracuse. 

Prior to joining Ferentz’s staff at Iowa, Lester was set to take the offensive coordinator position at Troy under new coach Gerad Parker. Ferentz also considered Kevin Johns, who spent the past two seasons overseeing the offense at Duke, and former Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, according to reports.

Hiring Lester ends a long search for Ferentz, who reportedly talked to several candidates including former Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst, now an analyst at Texas, and former Miami Dolphins coach Joe Philbin (who was an assistant under Ferentz from 1999 to 2002).