Tag: Arland Bruce IV

Saturday Tradition pinpoints Iowa’s biggest transfer portal loss

Iowa saw many additions and subtractions in the transfer portal in 2023. Saturday Tradition analyzed the Hawkeyes’ biggest portal loss.

The 2023 offseason has had a whirlwind of changes to the Iowa Hawkeyes’ roster via the transfer portal. There was the initial wave of players transferring out that felt like a mass exodus only to be followed by Iowa reloading and upgrading positions of need soon thereafter.

Some losses hurt more than others, though. Talent walking out the door is never as easily replaced as some may think and there can be a void that teams struggle to replace. Iowa lost two receivers via the portal. Arland Bruce IV and Keagan Johnson found new homes at Oklahoma State and Kansas State, respectively. Saturday Tradition took a look at Iowa’s losses via the portal and pinpointed the biggest loss.

Iowa: Arland Bruce (Oklahoma State)

It’s a tossup between Bruce and fellow receiver Keagan Johnson, who departed for Kansas State. But Bruce’s move to the more pass-oriented Cowboys brings up shades of Charlie Jones heading to Purdue last year, so I’m giving Bruce the nod.

Either way, the constant turnover at receiver is not an encouraging sign for the program.

The loss of linebacker Jestin Jacobs is also significant, but the Hawkeyes have a far better record reloading at that position without any drop-off. – Alex Hickey, Saturday Tradition

Bruce was a versatile player for the Hawkeyes in the passing game with his quickness, and he paired that with some action in the run game when called upon. Bruce totaled 44 receptions for 396 yards and two touchdowns to go with 22 rushing attempts for 112 yards and four touchdowns during his time at Iowa.

While Iowa’s biggest loss was chronicled, the Hawkeyes are a recipient of another team’s biggest loss. Iowa’s new tight end Erick All is listed as Michigan’s biggest loss.

The Wolverines compensated All’s exit by adding Indiana’s Barner, but he’s still the best Michigan player to enter the portal this offseason. He was a candidate for a breakout season if he stayed in Ann Arbor, and now he will try to do the same with former Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara at Iowa. – Hickey, Saturday Tradition

All brings in the skills to be part of one of the nation’s top tight end duos with Luke Lachey. The two will undoubtedly be targeted by Cade McNamara often this season and look to give the Hawkeyes’ passing attack an infusion of talent and success.

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Finally, Iowa is utilizing another layer with its offense

Finally, Iowa did what they should’ve done weeks ago and made some much-needed changes to the offensive scheme.

Finally, Iowa has added another layer to its offense.

Much of the criticism directed at the Iowa offense this year, besides the typical bashing of quarterback Spencer Petras, has been centered around offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz’s scheme and play calling.

Many see his offense lacking innovation and creativity, which is a completely fair assessment. In an age where we are seeing a mix of new, exciting offensive philosophies in football, Iowa’s offense has lagged behind in a bygone era.

While the rest of the college football landscape is a full menu of options, the Hawkeyes have been a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a styrofoam bowl.

Against Northwestern this past week, though, fans saw something new from the offense. More correctly, they saw the reintroduction of something that should’ve been used from game one.

Scott Dochterman of The Athletic wrote a feature on Iowa’s heavy usage of jet sweeps this past Saturday, and how it greatly impacted their best performance of the season.

On Saturday, the Hawkeyes (4-4 overall, 2-3 Big Ten) not only showed it was possible to do so; they proved it. Iowa blended motion on traditional zone runs and receiver sweeps with multiple passing plays. From the first offensive play to the last, Iowa used jet motion on nearly one-third of its plays. Of the Hawkeyes’ 65 snaps, they ran jet motion on 20. In a 33-13 win against Northwestern, Iowa totaled nearly half of its jet motions this season. – Dochterman, The Athletic.

Used very sparingly throughout the season, jet sweeps actually found success for the Hawkeyes this season. Per Dochterman’s research, in the Hawkeyes’ seven games prior to Northwestern, receivers ran four times for 27 yards and running backs had carried 11 times for 108 yards with jet motion. On passing plays accompanied by jet motion, Iowa had seven completions for 44 yards.

As Iowa mined that well more extensively this past weekend, it proved to be fruitful. The strategy was extremely effective against the Wildcats.

Against Northwestern, Iowa running backs gained 51 yards on 10 pre-snap jet motions. The receivers gained 43 yards on three jet sweeps, and quarterback Spencer Petras completed 5-of-7 passes for 49 yards with pre-snap jet motion. – Dochterman, The Athletic.

This is actually not a new layer for the Iowa offense, it’s just something that has sat in the attic over the past few years gathering dust. In 2019, Iowa used it to great effect with Ihmir Smith-Marsette. However, we saw the discontinuation of the jet sweeps and wildcat formation after some mistakes.

This is something I’ve been begging for since the offseason, and it just puzzles me as to why it’s taken so long to use. Arland Bruce IV showed last year in his limited playing time that he was an overall threat who could create with the ball in his hands. He would be perfect for the role, and it would just help out everything.

I took inspiration from the 2020 Los Angeles Rams‘ offense, specifically from a breakdown YouTuber Brett Kollman did on their offense and how they fantastically used jet sweeps. Kollman does a lot of great football breakdown videos. He’s definitely a must-subscribe.

In 2019, the Rams’ rushing attack fell off a cliff compared to the seasons prior. Of course, we sadly had to witness the sharp decline of Todd Gurley, but every back on the Rams struggled mightily. The next year, however, Rams head coach Sean McVay implemented a ton of jet motions and sweeps into the offense. It gave the rushing attack a massive boost. Seriously, the Rams rushed for 519 more yards in 2020 than the year prior.

The motion at the snap can create a lot of confusion amongst the defense. The defense now has multiple things they have to worry about, and it can really free up the run game. It also helps when you have playmakers on the outside as well. It really helped a Rams offense with Jared Goff at the helm.

Iowa has a similar problem with its offense. Petras isn’t the Big Ten’s best, and doesn’t have the mobility to scramble and make plays happen on his own. Teams are able to crash down on the running backs. Adding jet sweeps and motion at the snap could be an easy addition to the offense that could help all involved. It worked in the past, and as we saw this past Saturday, it can help an Iowa offense in desperate need now.

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Report Card: Grading the Iowa Hawkeyes’ 27-0 win over the Nevada Wolf Pack

The Iowa Hawkeyes blanked Nevada, 27-0. Naturally, the best all-around performance thus far earns improved marks in this week’s report card.

Even though Mother Nature had other ideas, ultimately, nothing could stop the Iowa Hawkeyes from turning in their best start-to-finish performance of 2022. The Hawkeyes improve to 2-1 on the season and will now turn their attention to Rutgers next Saturday night from SHI Stadium at 6 p.m. on FS1.

As a result, the Nevada Wolf Pack exit Iowa City the victim of a 27-0 shutout and drop to 1-2 on the season.

“We got off the mat and got back in the fight and did a good job in unusual circumstances tonight. So to stay focused, that was good to see. Just really pleased. We showed some progress in certain areas. Happy about that. Obviously, it was good to get Nico (Ragaini) back and Keagan (Johnson) back and then Brody (Brecht) was able to get involved a little bit too at the receiver position. So gave us a few more guys to throw to.

“All in all, the team effort was good. Again, you go 60 minutes broken down over seven hours, not easy to do. Defensively, you all saw the game, those guys played a good game. They were aggressive and very tough to run against and they made the passing yardage tough as well. I thought especially in the first half. It was a little disjointed once we got back in the second half. But in the first half I thought we had a little rhythm offensively. The run game wasn’t perfect, but we did some better things so that was encouraging,” Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz said of the victory.

Before completely turning the page over to Rutgers, let’s hand out some Nevada grades. Pull up a chair. Class in session.

After hearing ‘Nico is getting close,’ both Ragaini, Keagan Johnson absent on Week 3 depth chart

After saying it’s a possibility that wide receivers Keagan Johnson and Nico Ragaini could return, neither was listed on the two-deep.

After another performance where Iowa struggled mightily offensively, reinforcements would be a welcome sight. Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz said as much after the Hawkeyes mustered up just 150 yards of total offense and one touchdown.

“Hopefully, getting some players back would help us, but, you know, we can’t count on that. We’ve got to play with the guys we have and see if we can do a better job,” Ferentz said.

After Ferentz said that both wide receivers Keagan Johnson and Nico Ragaini were possibilities to play this week versus Nevada, neither one was listed on Iowa’s depth chart to start the week.

It’s obviously not Iowa’s only offensive problems, but it’s fair to look at the situation and see how several skill players being out has exacerbated the Hawkeyes’ issues.

“It’s certainly a factor. It’s not an excuse, but it is a factor if you do the math on it. We’ve got I think by my count, three guys that were out pretty much from the start of camp that play outside on the perimeter. Not so much Nico’s was during camp, and then Diante Vines got hurt during camp, too. He was doing really well, so you take those two guys, (Brody) Brecht was out, Keagan Johnson has been out. That’s four players that last December I would have told you we were counting on,” Ferentz said.

While the Hawkeyes ponder whether or not Spencer Petras will remain the team’s starting quarterback or if somebody else will get a chance, everyone in the black and gold is hoping Iowa’s aforementioned top skill players return in a hurry.

Though Ferentz didn’t offer a specific timeline, it does seem like Brody Brecht, Keagan Johnson and Nico Ragaini could be back soon. He updated both Brecht and Ragaini’s statuses while answering if Iowa might consider some schematic changes.

“I’m not sure that’s going to help us right now. You know, really, we just need to find some ways to move the football and score it. I’m not sure that’s going to be going to a gimmick or wholesale change. You know, I mean, as I said earlier, we’re two weeks into it now, we should have a better idea of what we can do and what we can’t do and where the hotspots are and try to compensate for that, and then hopefully we’ll get some personnel back, too. I think, you know, Nico has a chance this week. Hopefully, Brody Brecht this week three, so maybe we can get him involved. Hopefully, that’ll be part of the solution here, but we don’t have a quick fix right now,” Ferentz said.

Nico Ragaini was Iowa’s third-highest in receiving yardage last season with 331 yards. Brecht is a 6-foot-4, 217 pound redshirt freshman out of Ankeny, Iowa, that the Hawkeye coaching staff is excited about.

Meanwhile, Keagan Johnson still hasn’t played in 2022 either. He was Iowa’s top receiving yardage leader last season among wide receivers with 352 yards on 18 grabs. After a strong true freshman season, there’s plenty of excitement about what the Bellevue, Neb., native could wind up as in Iowa City.

Ferentz was also asked in the postgame media availability if Johnson had a chance to return this week.

“I think it’s a possibility. He improved for the first time I can say that. He’s improved this past week and gave us maybe a little room for optimism. I think Nico is getting close. I don’t know if he is there. We’ll know more as the week goes on, so those two guys are definitely possibilities. Vines is going to be a while,” Ferentz said.

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‘It’s not going well for him right now’: Iowa set to ‘reassess everything,’ including starting QB

After just one touchdown through two games, Kirk Ferentz said the Hawkeyes will “reassess everything,” including the starting quarterback.

After Iowa was only able to muster up 150 yards of total offense and one offensive touchdown against Iowa State, it sounds like it’s officially time for the Hawkeyes to perhaps make some personnel changes.

Starting quarterback Spencer Petras had another rough outing, throwing for just 92 yards on 12-of-26 passing with a lost fumble and an interception.

Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz was asked why stick with Petras as the team’s starting quarterback at this point.

“I guess to me, both these games he’s still not getting enough help to really do a fair assessment. He hasn’t been perfect obviously. Nobody has. We’ve got a lot of moving parts right now on offense, and then we’re shorthanded a little bit at a couple positions. We’ll keep working through it, we’ll talk about it tomorrow, you know, and see what happens moving forward,” Ferentz said.

Then, as a follow up, Ferentz was asked point blank if Petras is the team’s sure starter in game No. 3 against Nevada.

“No, I didn’t say that. I just said today he played the whole game. In my judgment, it was the best way to continue through this game, and, you know, gave it some thought, but I felt like it was our best opportunity. We’ll reassess everything tomorrow,” Ferentz said.

With the Hawkeyes mired in an offensive desert, Iowa’s 24th-year head coach was asked why he hasn’t been the type of coach historically to quickly yank quarterbacks in general. Ferentz said part of that approach has been rooted in his quarterbacks having established reputations.

“I would agree with that comment or that statement if in fact that quarterback has built up some credit, you know, he’s got an account going. We’ve been around Spencer three years now. This is his third year playing as a starter, so we’ve been around him, seen him do a lot of really good things. And as a person, as a young man, he’s stellar. He’s been really good,” Ferentz said.

With that being said, ultimately, it’s just not working right now for Iowa, and that means that all options are on the table.

“He’s got all the attributes you’re looking for, but it’s not going well for him right now. It’s not going well for anybody on the offense quite frankly. If making a change is the best thing, then we’ll consider it. If not, we’ll just keep pushing forward, see what we can do,” Ferentz said.

Last week, Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz wasn’t completely letting Petras off the hook based on poor offensive line play.

“I felt like after watching the tape, the majority of that game, we had ample opportunity in the pocket to deliver the ball and do what we needed to do as far as making the read and getting the ball out to the correct guy on time. So, is the protection perfect? No, but if you’re waiting around for perfect protection, you’re not going to be happy with it ever,” Brian Ferentz said.

And the promise was that Iowa would play the best player, whomever that ultimately is.

“And the reality is, we’ve seen both quarterbacks play. Both guys have played well. Both guys probably have had times in their career they wish they had back — with Spencer we can look as recently as a few days ago. But the reality is they both demonstrated that they can do it. And what we need to do is find consistency at that position. I can just assure you that what we’re going to do is we’re going to continue to go with the guy, whomever that is, whenever that is, that’s going to give us the best chance to win football games,” Brian Ferentz said after the South Dakota State game.

Now, the questions are more pronounced than ever. Is Petras really Iowa’s best option at quarterback? Or, what are Alex Padilla and Joey Labas not doing to get opportunities to play?

“It’s really not that. The best way I can phrase it is we have a lot more exposure to what’s going on with our players on a daily basis. You get to see them on Saturdays, obviously you get to interview them, talk to them and all that, but we see them on a daily basis, and this goes back to the spring and last fall, as well.

“It has been our estimation that Spencer is the starter, and wanted to give him that chance again today. We’re sitting here right now, clearly we have to do better, and we’ll reassess everything this week,” Kirk Ferentz said.

Ultimately, the bottom line is Iowa needs more offensive production. As such, all options have to be on the table.

“We’ll assess all that tomorrow. Obviously the statement made about points scored, we’re not going to win moving forward if we can’t score more points than that, and we have a really good defense. But you’re not going to win a game, 7 points, 10 points a game, as a rule,” Kirk Ferentz said.

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Social media reacts to another Iowa offensive dud, Cy-Hawk Series streak being snapped

After another poor offensive showing, the Iowa Hawkeyes’ winning streak over Iowa State is history. Social media reacted to the loss.

The Iowa Hawkeyes welcomed in their arch rival in the Iowa State Cyclones for the first time since the 2018 season. Unfortunately, for the first time in the past seven meetings, Iowa State handed the Hawkeyes a stinging 10-7 loss.

After a season-opening contest against South Dakota State that raised plenty of questions about Iowa’s offense, the Hawkeyes never had an answer offensively versus a Cyclones team that only mustered up 10 points of their own.

Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz backed his starting quarterback Spencer Petras as the team’s No. 1 option ahead of this rivalry game.

“Yeah, I think it is full-fledged. In my mind it is, and every player builds a resume when they’re here through the way they practice and when they play. We see more practice than we do game competition.

“But I think he’s done a lot of good things for us, and he did some good things Saturday. Some things he could have done better. I think overall right now, I think our biggest challenge is just a little bit like last year, is just team execution right now, and I want to give him a fair assessment just like I would anybody that’s in there,” Ferentz said.

At this point, though, there appears to be no other option than to give one of his other signal-callers a try. Petras finished completing 12-of-26 passes for 92 yards with no touchdown passes and an interception.

Tight end Sam LaPorta was the Hawkeyes’ leading receiver, reeling in eight grabs for 55 yards. Luke Lachey finished with a pair of grabs for 14 yards. There were only two receptions by Iowa receivers, one for 14 yards by Alec Wick and one for nine yards by Arland Bruce IV.

On the ground, Leshon Williams got the scoring started with a 9-yard touchdown run on Iowa’s first possession, but that was it. The ground game never got on track after that either. The Hawkeyes finished with 58 rushing yards as a team and Williams had 14 carries for 34 yards.

Iowa finished with three turnovers, one Petras interception and a pair of fumbles. The Hawkeyes had 150 yards of total offense. That was made up of 92 passing yards and 58 rushing yards.

Naturally, social media was not pleased with the performance. Let’s take you on a journey. Here were some of the best reactions out there to Iowa’s latest offensive disaster against Iowa State.

‘Just doing what we need to do’: Arland Bruce IV outlines how to fix Iowa’s offensive ‘week one jitters’

Iowa wide receiver Arland Bruce IV reflected on the Hawkeyes’ “week one jitters” and said the fix is “just doing what we need to do.”

Iowa didn’t inspire much hope in its season opener that all of the offensive issues that plagued the program a season ago have magically been fixed. Instead, it felt and looked like the offense had gotten worse.

Sophomore wide receiver Arland Bruce IV isn’t hitting any panic buttons, though.

“Yeah, you know the first week everybody’s going to struggle at times. There’s times that you guys probably didn’t even notice where I messed up. It’s just about everybody doing their job. I just feel like with week one jitters, everybody sometimes messes up and doesn’t really complete their job like they’re supposed to and doesn’t get the task done. It’s not really about the coverage at times. It’s just a matter of us doing what we need to do first and not worrying about what the defense is doing, so it’s just figuring out what we need to do first,” Bruce said.

According to Bruce, therein lies the fix.

“Like I just said, just doing what we need to do. Getting the job done. Everybody doing their own job, not worrying about what the person next to you is and trusting that your brother’s going to do the right thing,” Bruce said.

It echoes some of the sentiments his quarterback Spencer Petras shared about the Hawkeyes’ struggles running the football and just the overall takeaways from a day where Iowa mustered just 166 yards of total offense and zero offensive touchdowns.

“Yeah, I think it was pretty representative of just the whole day offensively,” Petras said of the run game struggles. “Without having watched the tape yet, I bet all of our bad plays were probably one guy away from going. Run game that can be. It’s one guy in a run play, it’s one guy in a pass play. Whatever that may be, so the trick is just, you know, we’ve got our first game, we’ve got our first win. Now, let’s get back to who we are, because that wasn’t representative of who we are offensively.”

After a performance that brought out the boo birds on multiple occasions, Bruce had this to say in response to the fans voicing their displeasure.

“At the end of the day, it just matters what the people in this facility, in this building, on this team think, so I don’t really think too much of it. I mean, we all know that we left some on the field, but that’s why we’re going to get in the film room, get back at it tomorrow, look at what we could have done better and what we did good,” Bruce said.

Of course, plenty of those boos were directed squarely at Petras. Dating back to the mid-October loss last season versus Purdue, the San Rafael, Calif., quarterback now has just one touchdown pass against eight interceptions in his last six games of serious playing time.

Granted, seven of those eight interceptions came in two games against Purdue and Kentucky. Still, there was Bruce on Saturday afternoon to help swat away any criticism of his team’s starting signal-caller and to assign some of the blame on himself and the rest of his offensive teammates.

“Like I said, we all made mistakes today. I’m sure Spencer probably thought he left some stuff on the field, but there’s also some things that he probably did great. Same with me. I got a penalty. I caused a penalty. It’s just things where we leave on the field and it’s just procedural penalties and just not lining up where we’re supposed to be. Just little things like that. Like I said, it’s always the basics and the little things. We get those right and we’re going to be fine,” Bruce said.

As Iowa turns its attention to its arch rival in the Iowa State Cyclones, the Hawkeyes will once again be doing so minus two of their top three wide receivers. Neither Nico Ragaini or Keagan Johnson were listed on the two-deep.

It sets the stage for Bruce to be Iowa’s primary difference maker at wide receiver. Obviously, it would be great for the Hawkeyes to find some help from the fellow receivers on the two-deep: Alec Wick, Jack Johnson and Brody Brecht.

“Yeah, that’s the great thing with college football. I mean, we probably have 12, 13 games left. Those guys are obviously going to be back in the next few weeks. The guys that we had in today I think did a great job and it was their first time getting game experience, so I think moving forward we’re going to be just fine,” Bruce said.

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Iowa’s Keagan Johnson, Jestin Jacobs absent from Hawkeyes’ Cy-Hawk week depth chart

As the Iowa Hawkeyes get ready to host the Iowa State Cyclones in the Cy-Hawk rivalry, there were some depth chart adjustments released.

With the matchup against the Iowa State Cyclones approaching, the Iowa Hawkeyes are back to work this week getting ready. That starts with a newly released depth chart and some changes in personnel.

The “non-change” that is sure to be the number one topic of conversation this week amongst Hawkeyes fans is the quarterback depth chart. Spencer Petras is listed above Alex Padilla.

One of the biggest changes comes in the fact that linebacker Jestin Jacobs is not present anywhere on the depth chart. This is on the heels of an injury sustained in week one and will likely be nursing back to health.

When asked about it, head coach Kirk Ferentz does feel that Jacobs avoided something serious.

“I assume this is good news. It wasn’t a joint. It sure looked like it on the field. So, it’s soft tissue, and those can drag out, too, as we know, but at least it wasn’t a joint. That would have been bad,” said Ferentz in regards to Jacobs’ injury.

Another change, or absence, of note is that Keagan Johnson has been removed from the depth chart in a revision. This will give Iowa Arland Bruce IV, Alec Wick, Jack Johnson and potentially a first look at Brody Brecht as the receiving group.

On a positive note, Gavin Williams is present on the running back depth chart. There were rumors floating around last weekend that he was very close to suiting up so his presence in the backfield will be a welcome site.

At cornerback, we see Terry Roberts getting the nod opposite of Riley Moss after his solid performance last week.

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Iowa may have accomplished the unthinkable: Spencer Petras, offense might have gotten worse

What happened versus South Dakota State might be worse than every Iowa fan’s worst nightmare: inexplicably, the Hawkeyes’ offense is worse.

Let’s get the “yeah, buts” out of the way right off the top. Iowa opened with the No. 3 team in the FCS in South Dakota State. The Hawkeyes did so minus their top running back and two of their top three wide receivers with both Gavin Williams and Keagan Johnson sidelined and wide receiver Nico Ragaini announced as out to start the week.

Those injuries are in addition to wide receiver Jackson Ritter and offensive lineman Justin Britt both being lost for the season. Plus, wide receiver Diante Vines isn’t expected back from his injury before at least the midway point of this season it doesn’t sound like.

It’s an offensive line that’s young in spots and looking to replace a first-round 2022 NFL draft pick in former center Tyler Linderbaum. Just to reiterate, South Dakota State is really good at the FCS level and has beaten FBS competition as recently as last season in Colorado State and hung with Minnesota in a 28-21 loss to start 2019.

All of this is true. It doesn’t change or excuse the fact that this looked and felt like rock bottom for Hawkeye quarterback Spencer Petras and the Iowa offense.

This was a flat-out embarrassing offensive performance for a program that spent all offseason looking to address a group that finished No. 121 nationally in total offense a season ago, averaging 303.7 yards per game.

Iowa ranked 101st in the country in rushing yards per game with 123.6 and 109th in passing yards per game with 180.1 last year. In 2021, Iowa registered an average of 16.5 first downs per game. In scoring offense, the Hawkeyes finished ranked No. 99, averaging 23.4 points per game.

So far, not so good in the improvement department. Iowa managed to do worse than each of those averages from last season. The Hawkeyes finished with a measly 166 yards of total offense, 109 passing yards and 57 rushing yards. Even though the score looks like the Hawkeyes tossed a conventional touchdown and PAT on the board, Iowa scored its seven points by virtue of one field goal and a pair of safeties. Oh, by the way, Iowa finished with 10 first downs and was 4-of-17 on third-down conversion tries.

In fact, Iowa’s seven points were the fewest by a winning Big Ten team since Iowa’s 6-4 triumph over Penn State in 2004. The Hawkeyes are also the first Big Ten team to win a game without scoring a touchdown since Nebraska beat Michigan State 9-6 in 2018.

At halftime, Petras was 6-of-15 passing for 41 yards with an interception. He finished 11-of-25 for 109 yards. All of the talk about this being a new-look offense sure didn’t hold up over the course of game one.

It could be as simple as Iowa truly doesn’t have a better option than Petras at quarterback. That’s what Ferentz said to start this season.

“It’s a long evaluation, and we evaluate everything, we tell our guys starting in January. Obviously we’re not doing football stuff, and both Spencer and Alex are both quality guys, but just the time on the field, I think Spencer has outperformed Alex a little bit at this point. He’s further ahead and gives us a better chance to be successful. That’s not to diminish what Alex has done. Both have improved.

“Now the thing is can we put this whole thing together and be a little bit more productive offensively. Both guys have done a good job. Spencer has continued to climb,” Ferentz said earlier this week when asked why Petras was able to secure Iowa’s starting quarterback job.

If that’s the case, then so be it, but it’s difficult for fans to reconcile not seeing other quarterbacks like Padilla or Labas get their chance outside of practice and in a game to try to deliver better for Iowa.

After all, as many in the Iowa echo chamber would pass along, right now, it doesn’t feel like it can get any worse. So, why not give those other two a chance and see if it can provide a spark?

It will get sold and painted as a positive that Iowa won the game 7-3 over South Dakota State despite offensive struggles. It’s not. It’s a negative that Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz and offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz were able to stick with Petras for the game’s entirety and win.

It sets up for the Hawkeyes to stay with a quarterback that means this team’s ceiling isn’t a Big Ten championship or maybe even a return appearance in the Big Ten Championship game. Today was the day to try out and see what it looked like once again with backup quarterback Alex Padilla or redshirt freshman Joe Labas.

Instead, the moment came and passed and now it’s on to Iowa State where tinkering at the quarterback position in-game could mean losing to your biggest rival for the first time in the past seven meetings. Obviously, the Iowa coaching staff hopes it doesn’t come to that.

The results versus the Jackrabbits indicate that it’s probably a matter of time before it does. Like the frustrating play that has defined Petras’ career at Iowa in the past, the San Rafael, Calif., native overthrew targets with regularity, struggled against pressure to identify where his open receivers were, he was intercepted on a pass behind his intended target in tight end Sam LaPorta, and missed a deep shot to wide receiver Alec Wick that could have helped sealed the game.

To be fair, Petras deserves a pass in this regard: like the subpar play that defined the back half of last season, it truly isn’t and wasn’t all his fault. The offensive line showed some serious weaknesses in game one.

Petras was under regular duress and the offensive line never could establish the Hawkeyes’ patented run game. Leshon Williams ended his day with 24 carries for a hard-earned 72 rushing yards, though he even had a costly fumble on Iowa’s lone offensive drive that seemed destined for the end zone. As a team, Iowa averaged just 1.6 yards per carry.

It’s week one, so overreactions are a dangerous game, but this was wildly uninspiring offensively from a program that needs improvement on that side of the football in the worst way.

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5 Offensive keys for the Iowa Hawkeyes against South Dakota State

Here’s five keys for the Iowa Hawkeyes on offense to get the season off to a strong start in week one against South Dakota State.

Week One is the perfect time to work out the kinks, earning some needed chemistry and playing time. While No. 2 Ohio State is playing a national contender in No. 5 Notre Dame to kick off their season, Iowa is also facing a national championship contender, albeit a very different one.

The Hawkeyes will host the South Dakota State Jackrabbits at Kinnick Stadium to kick off their season. It certainly isn’t the toughest week one slate, they didn’t elect to schedule a top 25 team like No. 12 Oregon or a returning College Football Playoff team in No. 22 Cincinnati, but SDSU is certainly not a pushover. They aimed for a bit more of an ambitious FCS opponent than say Wisconsin taking on Illinois State, a team that didn’t even muster five wins in 2021.

Expectations are high for the Hawkeyes, fresh off of their Big Ten Championship game campaign. The first team left on the outside looking in of the USA TODAY Sports AFCA coaches poll, Iowa certainly has a chip on its shoulder entering the season. After an offseason of incessant talking points, none of that matters anymore. The season is here, time to put up or shut up. Here are five keys for the Iowa offense against South Dakota State.