‘I was more decisive than I’ve ever been’: Iowa’s Spencer Petras reflects on spring ball growth
While there’s still a quarterback competition set to be waged throughout fall camp, Iowa’s Spencer Petras sounded confident with the Hawkeyes media in how his spring and offseason has gone thus far.
Everyone that’s been paying attention knows that Petras has been staying busy attending the Manning Passing Academy and continuing his work with personal quarterback trainer Tony Racioppi.
As he should, Petras did take time for a family vacation to Alaska over the Fourth of July holiday.
“It was good. I’m wearing this shirt. I was just in Alaska for the Fourth of July. I went on a fishing trip with my parents and my godparents and their son. Caught a lot of salmon, which was fun. Long flights, so I’m kind of happy to be back and just back into the routine. But, it was a lot of fun. Went to a couple weddings. That was fun,” Petras said.
Other than that brief getaway, every other report this offseason is that Petras has been hard at work looking to perfect his craft as he and the Hawkeyes get to set to embark upon defending their 2021 Big Ten West division title.
For the first time since early in the spring, Petras sounded off with local reporters on what he took away from Iowa’s spring practices.
“I was really happy with spring ball. I just felt like I was more decisive than I’ve ever been. I felt really good how I threw the ball. Some of the changes we’ve made, I feel really good about and just I’m excited to see how it carries over to camp. We were still working through a lot of stuff schematically and now I think we’ve got a better idea of exactly where we want to go. It feels good and I’m excited,” Petras said.
Asked what precisely was different with the Hawkeyes’ offense heading into 2022, the 6-foot-5, 231 pound quarterback from San Rafael, Calif., didn’t want to divulge too much.
“We’re always trying to make our plays as schematically sound as they can be. The thing I love the most, I just think we’re a lot more detailed now. Without, I don’t want to give away too much, we’re very detailed now. I feel like I have a really good plan for every play and that excites me as an analytical guy, as a guy that can identify coverage really fast and having the solid plan. I mean, Brian’s been working his (expletive) off, trying to just detail everything. I’m really happy with how it looks right now. The real test will be training camp and getting a feel for it all, getting the reps that I need and then obviously just got to go do it in the season,” Petras said.
Iowa saw one notable wide receiver target and return specialist in Charlie Jones elect to transfer out to Purdue. That means added reps for the known returning commodities in Arland Bruce IV, Keagan Johnson and Nico Ragaini.
Petras has been pleased in the work they’ve gotten in so far this offseason and how that trio has approached their leadership roles.
“Yeah, you know, they’ve been good. The thing we have to worry about in the summer is just our strength and conditioning program is very vigorous and very demanding. So, it’s trying to toe the line between getting the work we need, but not running them too much because the worst thing would be for a guy to pull a hammy right before camp. So, that’s what we have to deal with right now, but certainly a motivated unit.
“I really love what I’ve seen from Nico and just the leadership that he’s putting out and making sure that the young guys are growing. The not-so-old veterans like Keagan and Arland have been stepping up. I’m excited to see what they can do. There’s a lot of young guys that I think have a lot of opportunity and hopefully will make a big difference this fall. Just got to get to camp and let everything go from there,” Petras said.
As Big Ten media days and fall camp near, Petras isn’t naive to the narrative that surrounds him. He’s been labeled as one of Iowa’s biggest question marks after a 2021 season where battled through injuries and finished passing for 1,880 yards and 10 touchdowns against nine interceptions.
In the spring, he discussed how his completion numbers of 57.3% was an area that he needed to improve upon. He didn’t feel then and he certainly doesn’t feel now that it’s been a talent issue with himself.
“It definitely can fuel. I mean, it kind of depends on the situation and stuff like that, but, yeah, it certainly can fuel. Sometimes it’s better to ignore it, sometimes it’s better to let it fuel you. It just kind of depends,” Petras said of how he handles criticism.
It’s true of any college football team that a large part of its success will be defined by how the quarterback play goes. Petras knows that. He remains confident in what he brings to the table for the Hawkeyes, the changes that Iowa has made schematically and their collective outlook heading into the 2022 college football season.
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