IOWA CITY, Iowa – Ken O'Keefe started his press conference on Tuesday with a joke about what the Easter bunny wears, with his answer being10-carat gold.

His attempt at some spring humor drew laughter from reporters, who then spent the next 30 minutes asking Iowa's quarterback coach questions about the progress being made this spring.

O'Keefe said it is too early to make any decisions about the competition to be Nate Stanley's backup at quarterback. O'Keefe said the competition between sophomore Peyton Mansell, redshirt freshman Spencer Petras and true freshman Alex Padilla could stretch to fall practice.

As for Stanley, he is preparing to start for a third consecutive season and will join Drew Tate and Ricky Stanzi as the only three-year starters at quarterback under Kirk Ferentz.

The 6-foot-4, 243-pound Stanley has combined to throw 52 touchdown passes over the past two seasons. The 52 scoring strikes are the most by an Iowa quarterback in back-to-back seasons. Stanley also passed for 5,351 yards over the past two seasons.

So Stanley is firmly entrenched as the starter and has a 17-9 record behind center, but just 9-9 in conference play.

The next step for Stanley is to be more consistent with his accuracy, with his reads and with his ability to perform under pressure. He has shown flashes of brilliance, but also has struggled at key times.

O'Keefe talked about the trust that Stanley has built with his receivers and how the offense will benefit from it.

The 65-year old O'Keefe is entering his third season as the Iowa quarterbacks coach. He previously served as Iowa's offensive coordinator under Kirk Ferentz from 1999 to 2011 before leaving to coach receivers for the Miami Dolphins for four seasons.

Here are multiple videos from O'Keefe's press conference on Tuesday: