The time has come for the Big Ten to officially welcome its West Coast brethren to the fray as the league will
descend on Indianapolis next week for its annual media days event. Once there, select players and coaches from each
school will meet with reporters at Lucas Oil Stadium to preview what might be the most anticipated season in conference history.
With 18 teams now gracing its standings, the Big Ten expanded this year’s event from two days to three, beginning on July
23 and running through July 25. Each day features representatives from six programs:
remaining in the 2023 regular season when interim athletic director Beth Goetz issued a statement saying offensive
coordinator Brian Ferentz, who is the son of head coach Kirk Ferentz, would not be retained. By that point, the
Hawkeyes’ offense had received plenty of national attention thanks to an impotent passing attack, a rash of injuries at the
skill positions and a system that felt ill-equipped for the modern era. Iowa ranked last in the country in total offense (
234.6 yards per game), second-to-last in scoring (15.4 points per game) and fourth-to-last in passing (118.6 yards per
game), with only the service academies behind them: Navy, Army and Air Force. Forced to find a new coordinator, Kirk Ferentz plucked Lester from an analyst
role with the Green Bay Packers. Lester, 47, was the head coach at Western Michigan from 2017-22, the quarterbacks
coach at Purdue in 2016 and the offensive coordinator at Syracuse from 2014-15. He can’t do any worse.
