Iowa City, Iowa Since February, Hawkeye fans have been wondering what Iowa's offense will look like under Tim Lester, and on Saturday we'll get our first look. It's been a long offseason for the Hawkeyes, with a completely revamped quarterback corps, a reinstated offensive line and potential All-American Luke Lachey opting to return. Now the easy part begins, right?
Iowa is in the process of changing the way they think about using wide receivers, but it may take them a while to accomplish that feat. Iowa has all the tools to be a really solid team on the ground, with a veteran offensive line that wants to prove itself and a talented group of backs, which is one of Leicester's biggest goals.
“First of all, we're trying to set a standard of what we can do at the line of scrimmage and what plays we can make better,” Lester said. “The truth is, we're not going to run the plays I'm going to call in Game 1 a thousand times. How many repetitions can we get in walk-throughs? How quickly can we turn this curve around? Everywhere you go, there's a normal curve with a new offense. That's the battle we've been fighting. If we can be more efficient, we can make more plays. We're working hard on that. The guys are doing a great job.”
McNamara missed all of spring football as he worked to recover from a knee injury suffered last season. Luckily, he's played a lot of college football throughout his career and understands how to truly study the game, which will be a big advantage as Lester continues to look to strengthen its offensive line.
“I've been around a lot of different offensive lines under a lot of different coordinators in my career,” McNamara said, “and the guys that were at Iowa have been around the same offensive line, so I don't think it's easy for them to go through the change.”
“I remember the first time we switched offense, my first two weeks on campus, they changed the playbook, and I was like, 'Oh man, I studied all that for nothing.'
Fortunately for Iowa, McNamara is back to 100 percent. He's played full minutes the past few weeks and feels healthy for the first time in two seasons. The former Michigan starter battled a quad strain and was never healthy during an actual game at Iowa, but he's excited about the possibilities heading into this season.
“Coming back from injury and returning to the field for the first time, there have been ups and downs throughout camp,” McNamara said, “but the hard work we've been putting in as a team is finally paying off and I'm hopeful we can be successful this year.”
The Hokies will have their most veteran offensive line in recent memory, which is why head coach George Burnett is confident in the line this season. Even better, they're healthy.
“Their conduct on a day-to-day basis, their professionalism in meetings and on the field,” Burnett said at Iowa's media day. “Their competitiveness in practice, their fundamentals are getting sharper and they have a better understanding of the offense, so they're able to bring a little more energy to the competition and that's what's going to start to have a positive impact on the team.”
“The pace of play has picked up. You see the pace, there's cohesion. They're on the same page. I think we're really just starting to feel that traction.” [with the new offense]It feels good. I believe in our group a lot.”
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