Alex Padilla deserves a chance to start against Northwestern
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – In the spirit of fair play, Iowa quarterback Alex Padilla should start against Northwestern this coming Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.
Padilla didn’t really take advantage of his opportunity to play in Saturday’s 54-10 loss at Ohio State.
But in fairness, he was thrown into a game in which Iowa trailed 26-10 at halftime against the second-ranked team in the country that was playing at home.
Padilla hadn’t taken a single snap when Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz finally decided to bench Spencer Petras at the start of the third quarter.
And it showed.
Padilla, a fourth-year junior, mishandled his fist snap from scrimmage and that resulted in one of Iowa’s six turnovers. He also threw an interception and provided no spark for a struggling offense that so desperately needs one.
But again, it was just two quarters of playing time under horrible circumstances.
Padilla deserves a chance to compete under more manageable circumstances just to see if he might provide a spark.
Kirk Ferentz declined to say which quarterback would start against Northwestern when asked during his post-game press conference at Ohio State.
And that’s okay because there is no harm in letting it play out during practice.
It just seems that Padilla deserves a chance to start at least one game since Petras has failed repeatedly to meet the challenge as a three-year starter.
Petras, a fifth-yeare senior, made his 26th career start in the loss at Ohio State, and he performed woefully, so bad that Kirk Ferentz finally reached his breaking point and made a switch.
Petras has been given more than a fair chance to secure his starting position, but it just hasn’t worked out for him, although, he isn’t solely to blame for the problems on offense.
The offensive line has struggled with both run and pass blocking, while the receivers have struggled to get open and the running backs have struggled to find room to run.
It has just been a complete breakdown on offense.
But singling out the quarterback for criticism goes with the territory.
Padilla reportedly doesn’t practice as well as Petras does according to Kirk Ferentz, but as former NBA great Allen Iverson once said, “we’re talking about practice, not a game.”
Iowa fans are tired of hearing about how well Petras practices, only to see him struggle in games.
And while Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz is who most fans direct their anger and frustration towards, and deservedly so because his offense has been historically bad, he doesn’t decide who plays quarterback, and it’s not really his offense.
His father ultimately decides who plays quarterback, and it’s his father’s offense.
The buck stops with Kirk Ferentz.
If Brian Ferentz had the final say on who plays quarterback, we might have soon Padilla play sooner.
Padilla was asked after the Ohio State game about his chance of starting against Northwestern.
“I can’t speak to that,” he said. “That’s a coaches’ decision. I’ll be ready if they need me. I think they have (confidence in him). If they didn’t, I don’t think they’d have put me in the game today.”
Brian Ferentz caused a stir when asked at a recent press conference what would be the downside to switching quarterbacks and he responded with three words:
“What’s the upside.”
Padilla told the media on Saturday that he thinks Brian Ferentz’s words were taken out of context, and maybe they were.
But it still looked horrible from a public relationship standpoint.
To say that Padilla deserves a chance to start against 1-6 Northwestern on Saturday, doesn’t mean that Petras should be benched permanently.
Padilla started three games last season when Petras was injured, and while Padilla had his moments, he completed less than 50 percent of his passes and he didn’t play well enough in Kirk Ferentz’s opinion to supplant Petras as the starter.
So, maybe the same thing would happen again this season.
If Padilla is given a chance to start against Northwestern, but should he struggle, Kirk Ferentz could always switch back to Petras.
“I’ll work hard every day, Spencer does too, and we’ll both be ready to help the team as needed,” Padilla said Saturday.
Let the competition at quarterback be fluid because sticking with one quarterback certainly hasn’t worked.