Fifth-year Iowa senior quarterback Spencer Petras isn’t focused on the fact that there’s a quarterback competition taking place for the Hawkeyes. Petras detailed as much in his media availability with Inside the Hawkeyes’ Rob Howe and other reporters.
“I really don’t, I’m not worried about that at all. When I said competition, I’m more talking about our work on the field. We’re working really hard against the defense every single day. For myself, I’m focused on myself. I’m focused on improving the things that Brian (Ferentz) wants me to, you know, whether that be completion percentage, things like that. Any energy spent on anything else is a waste,” Petras said.
Petras started the first nine games of last season and 11 overall. He also came off the bench to help Iowa rally from a second-half deficit at Nebraska to end the regular season. Petras passed for 1,880 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, but he was intercepted nine times and completed just 57% of his passes.
The 6-foot-5, 233 pound quarterback feels he’s capable of playing better than he did at times last season.
“I think the biggest thing looking back is that I’m too smart of a player to not take advantage of coverage better than I did. Probably specifically would be, my completion percentage was at whatever it was, 57 percent. And like some games it’s, you know, you’re playing Wisconsin, if you can get 50 percent, that’s not a bad day. But for me, with how fast I can identify coverage and how fast I can get the ball out of my hands, you know, if I’m getting a soft coverage where the things that are there are going to be underneath, I need to take that more. That’s just an example, but things like that,” Petras said.
Petras has a target in mind, too.
“I know how to attack coverage. That completion percentage needs to be much higher, because it’s not a talent issue with me, it’s not a talent issue at receivers. It’s more so my own mindset with each concept right. If it’s first and 10 and I know what I’m getting, which most of the time I’m going to know what I’m getting because I study this quite a bit. How can I improve that number from 57 up to 65, around that area? And that’s what Brian has been really great at harping on as well, because that’s huge for our offense. It’s efficiency in the pass game and efficiency in the run game. And for the pass game, it looks like 65 percent. Not to say that I can’t, I’m not going to take shots, because coverage will tell me where the ball should go, but when I know that the coverage is giving up a short pass and that’s what we need, I need to take it,” Petras said.
The San Rafael, Calif., native is zeroed in on upping his completion percentage and directing Iowa’s offense to more consistent results. Petras and Iowa started the season 6-0, but finished just 10-4 after a loss in the Big Ten Championship game versus Michigan and a loss to Kentucky in the Vrbo Citrus Bowl. The Hawkeyes scored just three points against the Wolverines and then Petras was intercepted three times against the Wildcats.
“Yeah, I mean, I know obviously we’re happy to win our division, but I don’t think anyone on the team’s happy with going 10-4, especially with how we started and I think offensively specifically. For myself specifically, you know, we left a lot out there that we could have done a lot better offensively. As good as our season was last year, there’s still plenty to improve on. A lot higher of a ceiling that we can reach, so right now it’s just making sure that we’re improving on the things that showed up in the self-scout, the points of emphasis that we found when we reviewed the tape. Staying super focused on that because the work we do now will pay off in the fall,” Petras said.
It will be interesting to see how the spring plays out between Petras, junior Alex Padilla and redshirt freshman Joey Labas. One thing is for certain, though. Petras is talking and acting like someone with something to prove and someone that doesn’t plan on losing his starting quarterback job.
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