Tell me if you have heard this song and dance before. There is minimal faith in the Iowa Hawkeyes’ quarterback play as we rapidly approach the 2022 college football season. It seems that tide isn’t going to change any time soon, even as we see some evidence otherwise.
In the most recent rankings from 247Sports regarding projected starting quarterbacks in the Big Ten, the Hawkeyes have come in at No. 11, ahead of just Rutgers, Illinois, and Northwestern. They are trailing Wisconsin and Indiana, two quarterback situations they may be better than due to the inconsistency. The thoughts from 247Sports’ Nick Kosko are below.
Petras might be what he is at this point. He’s in line to start again but really didn’t show much improvement from 2020 to ‘21. Sure, Hawkeyes fans could hope, or pray, that he takes a big jump in his third year as the starter, but the team might have to go back to Alex Padilla, again. Padilla saw some action in 2021, but Petras is the guy, until he isn’t. It looks like Iowa might be held back by the quarterback position again. Yet the Hawkeyes still made a Big Ten championship game in 2021. – Kosko, 247Sports.
While the word from Iowa’s program is that the quarterback situation is more of an open competition, there seems to be an ever-growing belief that it is Petras’ job to have unless proven otherwise more so than it is a truly open competition.
Alex Padilla has the experience in the program and has shown his ability to step in and lead the Hawkeyes to wins should his number be called upon. There is also the young gun, Joey Labas, who has a smaller, but loud, contingent of Hawkeyes fans clamoring for him to get the nod. He has a rocket arm and makes things happen, but when push comes to shove, history has shown us it is less than common for Kirk Ferentz to go with the young guy.
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