'It's going to look different': Tim Lester on Iowa football offense

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.