Hawk Fanatic podcast: Don Patterson says start Padilla, play Labas, and shares thoughts on Paul Chryst speculation
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Don Patterson made his usual Monday appearance during football season on the Hawk Fanatic radio show and podcast, and some of the discussion was anything but usual.
Patterson had some suggestions for how to help jumpstart the struggling Iowa offense, and one suggestion was to use three quarterbacks in Saturday’s game against Northwestern.
Patterson thinks in addition to playing both Alex Padilla and Spencer Petras at quarterback that Iowa should devise a package for redshirt freshman Joey Labas consisting of about five plays.
Patterson thinks that Iowa needs to give the Northwestern defensive players and coaches more to think about in preparation for Saturday’s game at Kinnick Stadium.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz declined to say who would start at quarterback against Northwestern while meeting with the media after last Saturday’s 54-10 loss at Ohio State.
Petras was benched for the second half against Ohio State after having committed three turnovers in the first half.
Padilla played the entire second half against Ohio State, but the results were pretty much the same as he mishandled his first snap from scrimmage that resulted in a turnover, and he also threw an interception on his second series.
Patterson, who served as Hayden Fry’s offensive coordinator at Iowa for a decade, basically said it’s time for Iowa to think outside the box a little on offense right now.
Patterson feels that Padilla deserves a chance to start against Northwestern after having been thrown into a very difficult situation at Ohio State, partly out of fairness, but also because Padilla is more mobile than Petras and can extend plays.
Brian Ferentz’s future as the Iowa offensive coordinator was also addressed during Monday’s show.
Patterson said it wouldn’t make sense to replace Brian Ferentz during the season because that would be too disruptive.
But should Kirk Ferentz decide to make a change at offensive coordinator, one name that came up during Monday’s discussion was former Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst.
Kirk Ferentz and Chryst are pretty good friends and they have much in common in terms of how they coach and how they believe football should be played.
Chryst is also a former Wisconsin quarterback, so he would bring experience to a position where Iowa has little experience from a coaching standpoint.
Chryst probably wouldn’t come cheap since he is a former head coach, and he might not come at all should the job become available.
But it’s an interesting thought.
Here is the link to Monday’s podcast: