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Iowa football's offensive coordinator Tim Lester hints at a more explosive offense for the 2026 season, moving away from traditional strategies. He emphasizes the importance of identifying playmakers and leaders within the team.
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You know. I know it. Everyone knows it. The Iowa Hawkeyes want to run the ball, play good defense, win the field position game, and suffocate teams with their tried and true strategy. Kudos are deserved, as it has won a ton of games during Kirk Ferentz's tenure.
But what if the offense looked different? What if Iowa looked like a more explosive team in 2026? Offensive coordinator Tim Lester discussed how Iowa can be explosive and what the growth looks like entering his third year calling plays.
"I like the way you asked the question. My job is about being explosive. I think I said that in my opening press conference, and it will be interesting to see.
"Coach does an unbelievable job of having us list who we think, and we do it like monthly, and we have to do the whole team, the leaders, the top-20 players, and who our top playmakers, who are the best leaders of the team, and we always hand it into him. I don't know what he does with it, but he's looking at it. He's keeping track.
"He'll bring some old ones out. Remember two years ago on this day we had this guy not even on the list, and now he's number one. It's fun to see the growth of the players.
"Yeah, year one was 100% Kaleb. Third and long, going to give it to Kaleb again, because that's our biggest chance of an explosive play, right?
"Last year No. 11 ended up being our explosive play guy. He made the most. We started doing some more things and letting him run the ball and have pass options and then DJ started coming along. It was great to get Reece back. We really kind of had the last couple of games I felt we were a pretty good balance of running and throwing and being explosive.
"This will be a totally new team. I've been pretty much calling practice the same way since I've been here. You've got to practice everything. Then on Saturdays you do the things you're good at, but you're always trying to improve on everything you do.
"So having Tony out there has helped our explosiveness a little bit. Running the same plays we've been running. We've just been getting over the top. You like that one-on-one matchup to number two, and you like it to 81. Now you like it to 14 and eight and seven. There's more options, right?
"You got to get those guys the ball. Well, there's only one way to get receivers the ball. So we've got to continue to find ways to do that. I've been coaching them up on how this offense. We still won't know until camp, right, how we have to find explosive plays. Even if we ran the triple option, you have to find ways to find explosive plays.
Tim Lester is proposing a shift towards a more explosive offense, moving away from Iowa's traditional run-heavy strategy.
Tim Lester plans to identify playmakers by regularly listing the team's top players and leaders, which he submits to the head coach for evaluation.
Iowa football's traditional strategy under Kirk Ferentz has focused on running the ball, playing strong defense, and winning the field position battle.
Tim Lester began calling plays for Iowa football in 2024, and he is entering his third year in this role.
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"Really our running backs are coming along too. It will be interesting to see if Kamari, who has been great in practice, can he take the next step and get over the 100-yard mark one time? Unbelievable. He did such a good job. I couldn't believe it.
"So we're going to continue, but obviously when you have some guys that are playmakers, you're going to have to get them the ball. We are doing some things. I've had a couple play series that, we'll call them, we had in for two years and never called them. You need to really have a guy. You need to have a couple of guys and one on the front and one on the back, and we can protect it and try to get a one-on-one matchup.
"We tinkered with it with Wetj back out there by himself. We've been getting much better at it, because we have some of the horses that we need to get that done now. It's been fun to watch even some of our coaches, like, man, I didn't really like that play in year one, in year two, but now it's starting to look pretty good. Yeah, it's amazing. Players over plays.
"So we're continuing to figure that out, but it's definitely going to look different this year than it did other years. It might change as the year goes on as we figure out what -- guys can always emerge. It's kind of a program of stories. So we'll see what the next story is, but there's definitely been some stories up front with the O-line and with Tony and Evan and even LJ in the spring. There's already starting to develop those, and it will be fun to continue to watch them grow," Tim Lester said about Iowa's offense continuing to grow.
It's undeniable that Tim Lester's offense has taken strides in the right direction, albeit in different ways. Kaleb Johnson wore teams down in a traditional ground-and-pound attack in 2024, while Mark Gronowski's legs and unique style opened things up for Iowa to run more of a zone scheme and spread teams out in 2025.
With the new receivers, a loaded running back room, and a quarterback competition, the 2026 version of Iowa figures to be a combination of both.
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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: 'It's going to look different': Tim Lester on Iowa football offense