By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Like it or not, Spencer Petras is the starting quarterback for the Iowa football team.

He started all eight games last season as a third-year sophomore, and is firmly entrenched as the starter heading into 2021 spring practice.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz held a zoom conference with the media on Tuesday and was asked since spring practice was canceled last spring due to the outbreak of the coronavirus if backups Alex Padilla and Deuce Hogan would be given a full and fair shot to show what they can do this spring with the global pandemic still a concern.

The reporter wasn’t necessarily insinuating that the competition at quarterback had been unfair, but Ferentz didn’t seem to like perhaps the wording of the question.

“We encourage our players to ignore the noise and I’m getting a little in tune to what’s going on maybe,” Ferentz said. “A little indigestion on our quarterback situation perhaps. But we plan on doing that regardless.”

What’s going on is that some fans have been reluctant to embrace Petras, a native of San Rafael, Calif., as the starter, while others, including maybe some in the media, question why the competition at quarterback hasn’t been more open and fluid.

Ferentz talked glowingly about Padilla on Tuesday, but Padilla only appeared in two games game this past season as the backup, completing 1-of-2 passes for 12 yards and rushing twice for seven yards.

“Alex has done a really nice job when he’s had the opportunity we’ve given him,” Ferentz said of the Colorado native. “So I’m happy about that. We think he’s a real quality player. Most important thing is we saw a lot of growth with Alex.”

Ferentz said Padilla showed the same growth as the backup last season as redshirt freshman that Petras had shown as the backup to Nate Stanley as a redshirt freshman during the 2019 season.

The problem for Padilla is that Petras still has two seasons of eligibility, or three seasons if Petras would choose to take the free year offered by the NCAA due to the global pandemic.

As for Hogan, he came to Iowa from Texas as a celebrated four-star recruit, and as a favorite with Iowa fans on social media.

But at this point, Hogan is third on the depth chart and faces an uphill climb.

“We plan an open competition,” Ferentz said. “But the record shows that Spencer has done a really good job. He’s our starts right now. Somebody has got to beat him out. But it’s got to be a fair competition.”

The record shows that Petras is 6-2 as a starter, and is riding a six-game winning streak, and that’s what matters more than anything to Kirk Ferentz – winning.

Petras struggled at time this past season with accuracy and with decision making.

But Iowa still won six games in a row after starting the season 0-2, and Petras played well in stretches, especially later in the season.

Iowa’s use of Petras was questioned after he attempted 50 passes during a 21-20 loss to Northwestern in just his second game as a starter.

Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz was accused of abandoning the running game against Northwestern, making the offense one-dimensional and his quarterback vulnerable.

It was easy to blame Petras after the Northwestern loss, which saw Iowa blow a 17-0 lead, because Iowa threw on virtually every down during some stretches, but with little success.

There was concern after Iowa started 0-2 that maybe the team was divided in the wake of a tumultuous offseason in which multiple former Iowa black players accused the program of racial disparities.

That was not the case, however, as Iowa reeled off six wins in a row, including a 28-7 victory over Wisconsin.

Petras was decent from a statistical standpoint, passing for 1,569 yards and nine touchdowns in eight games, while also throwing five interceptions. He passed for more than 200 yards in each of the last two games against Illinois and Nebraska, and seemed to be playing better as the season progressed.

Petras also showed a firm grasp of the huddle from the beginning, and he seems highly respected by his teammates and coaches.

And yet, some it seems would prefer that Kirk Ferentz wipe the slate clean at quarterback and open up the competition this spring.

Kirk Ferentz has been accused of being too loyal and too stubborn when it comes to switching quarterbacks.

But that seems unfair and inaccurate.

Ferentz benched Jake Christensen and replaced him with Ricky Stanzi five games into the 2008 season, and Ferentz demoted Jake Rudock shortly after the 2014 season and named C.J. Beathard the starter.

Rudock had started for two seasons when Kirk Ferentz made the switch.

In both cases, the decision to switch quarterbacks was beneficial as Stanzi and Beathard both would go on to have team and individual success.

Fans point to those two quarterback changes as examples of why it’s sometimes good to make a change.

But it’s also worth noting that Stanzi was a third-year sophomore when he became the starter, while Beathard was a fourth-year junior.

Padilla is now a redshirt sophomore while Hogan still was in high school at this time last year.

They’ll both have a chance to supplant Petras, but it won’t be easy because Petras has earned the trust of Kirk Ferentz, and he’s 6-2 as a starter.

Petras also has had to contend with a global pandemic that took away his chance to develop last spring.

“As I said all fall long, I thought Spencer did a quality job considering the circumstances; and I asked everybody to keep that in mind, which is tough to do when you’re watching games,” Kirk Ferentz said. “I get that. But you think about a guy that didn’t have spring football, didn’t have that opportunity afforded him. Didn’t have a chance to do a lot of things in the summer.

“That spring football is a really big void. I can’t overstate that because the things you learn in spring, you carry into the summer, so he didn’t have that base or foundation. So quite frankly, I’m not sure what he was doing some of the times during the summer. Is it better to practice no habits than bad habits, right? So you worry about that.”

My take on this subject is to trust the Iowa coaches because they’re at practice every day and because their main objective is to win games and graduate players.

Petras is the starter because Kirk Ferentz believes he gives Iowa the best chance to win right now.

And Kirk Ferentz has a six-game winning streak to support his case.