IOWA CITY — The question came with an easy answer. Undoubtedly, Tim Lester finds it more fun to be an offensive coordinator than a head coach. “It is way more fun being an offensive coordinator,” Lester said.
Lester, who enters his first season as the offensive coordinator at Iowa this fall, spent six years as the successor to P.J. Fleck at Western Michigan from 2017 to 2022.
During his time in Kalamazoo, Lester failed to maintain Fleck’s momentum, but managed a 37-32 record before being relieved of his duties following a 5-7 finish to the 2022 season for the Broncos. Following his departure from his alma mater, Lester got a unique opportunity in the NFL by way of an old Western Michigan teammate. After spending the first 20 of his first 22 years in coaching at the collegiate level and all but one year coaching offense, Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur extended an opportunity to Lester to serve as a senior analyst on the defensive side of the ball.
Lester relished his lone year in professional football. In what Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz described as a “coaching sabbatical,” Lester took a fresh look at the game and refreshed his knowledge of the offensive system made popular by San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan. “It was a blast to study offenses,” Lester said.
“I had the unique ability to start running a system very similar to this (16) years ago. Matt (LaFleur) was at Houston with (Gary) Kubiak. (Kyle) Shanahan was the QB coach — I t.