Leistikow: Hiring Warren Ruggiero shows Iowa football is determined to upgrade pass game

Posted by author March 4, 2025 Football

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In his second game after being promoted midseason to Syracuse’s offensive coordinator in 2014, Tim Lester found himself going up against another first-year offensive coordinator in Wake Forest’s Warren Ruggiero.

Lester got the better end of that matchup that year with a 30-7 win and also beat Wake Forest the following year, 30-17.

And though Lester left Syracuse after the 2015 season, he continued to watch Ruggiero’s career with the Demon Deacons. By 2021, Ruggiero was a finalist for the Broyles Award, given to the nation’s top assistant coach. And now, Lester has brought Ruggiero aboard to help his offensive staff for the Iowa football program.

Ruggiero will serve as a senior offensive analyst in 2025 for the Hawkeyes, who are reshaping their offense under Lester in his second year as offensive coordinator. A source with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed the hiring to the Register.

Ruggiero’s track record in 11 years as Wake Forest’s offensive coordinator probably makes him overqualified to fill the Hawkeyes’ running backs coach opening, which should be sorted out in the next few weeks as longtime head coach Kirk Ferentz and Lester pore through candidates to replace the recently departed Ladell Betts.

But it’s pretty common for highly proven coordinators to become analysts when they are no longer employed, because that allows them the freedom to move to another job if one comes up. Ruggiero was not retained by new Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert, who came aboard from Washington State for the 2025 season.

According to Wake Forest’s website, the Demon Deacons were the only ACC team to average at least 30 points a game in every season from 2017 through 2022. Wake Forest’s 2021 offense was Ruggiero’s best as offensive coordinator, averaging a school-record 41.0 points per game behind quarterback Sam Hartman.

When a coach overachieves at a school that historically doesn’t have much success, that is something worth noticing. Wake Forest had six winning seasons out of seven from 2016 through 2022 after having none in the previous seven.

At Iowa, it makes sense that Ruggiero (who will turn 59 in April) will work with the Hawkeyes’ new stable of quarterbacks, which is the same position he coached at Wake Forest.

Lester, of course, doubles as Iowa’s quarterbacks coach but there is a lot of work to go around with five quality guys in the room this spring: South Dakota State transfer Mark Gronowski, Northwestern transfer Brendan Sullivan, Auburn transfer Hank Brown, walk-on junior Jackson Stratton (who went 2-0 as a starter for Iowa last season) and true freshman Jimmy Sullivan.

Whatever the cost was to bring Ruggiero aboard, this seems to be a worthwhile investment. It also underscores that the Hawkeyes are serious about overhauling their offense, which was the worst in the Power Five in 2022 and 2023 but made positive strides under Lester last season − especially in the run game, which ranked No. 2 in the Big Ten and averaged 5.12 yards per carry.

The next step is to unlock the passing game, and Lester has repeatedly said that will take the most time. With the high-profile addition of Gronowski, a sixth-year senior who led South Dakota State to multiple national titles, and now picking up a proven, successful offensive coordinator to serve as analyst, it’s clear that the Hawkeyes are determined to move this offense further in a positive direction.

Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has served for 30 years with The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Sports Network. Chad is the 2023 INA Iowa Sports Columnist of the Year and NSMA Co-Sportswriter of the Year in Iowa. Join Chad’s text-message group (free for subscribers) a.t HawkCentral.com/HawkeyesTexts. Follow @ChadLeistikow on X.