Why Spencer Petras returning in 2023 is great news for Iowa
Spencer Petras will return to the Iowa football program in 2023 in a non-playing role and every Hawkeye fan should be ecstatic.
Scott Dochterman of The Athletic broke the news on social media on Tuesday that quarterback Petras will stay at Iowa this fall to help the offense. Petras will not play for the University of Iowa this year. Per Dochterman, he’s not even on a football scholarship.
He does have one year of eligibility left that he can use to play at another school should he choose to go down that route. Petras is still recovering from a devastating shoulder injury he sustained in November.
If Iowa is smart, it is doing everything this year to keep him within the program. Even if he does leave next year to play the game he loves one last time, Petras is the exact type of person the Hawkeyes should look to bring back into the program for a long time.
Think about the last two seasons. Petras has been the subject of both local and national criticism for his play. He was booed by his home crowd and became the frequent butt of Iowa jokes by college football fans across the country.
No quarterback in the history of Iowa football has faced nearly the same amount of adversity as Petras. Throughout his career, Petras has faced hardship, criticism, injury and a global pandemic unprecedented for our times.
At no point did he make any excuses, and there certainly were plenty of areas in which he could. Iowa’s offensive line over the past two years has been at one of the worst levels in Kirk Ferentz’s entire tenure as head coach. The Hawkeyes’ offense was plagued with injuries all of last year.
Offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz is probably the only other person in the program to receive more condemnation than Petras. He certainly did not set his quarterback up with the best recipe for success.
Instead, Petras took all of it in stride, never wavering from his leadership duties to his fellow teammates. There is a reason all of his teammates quickly came to his defense, raving about his character and work ethic. There is a reason Petras was given the Duke Slater Golden Gavel Award by an overwhelming vote by the Iowa media. Even in times of trouble, he was always the consummate professional.
Nothing is a better example of the integrity that the San Rafael, California, native possesses than what he is doing with Iowa. The Hawkeyes moved on. They went out and found his replacement. Petras could have easily done the same. There’s no easier time to move on than now with the transfer portal. Instead, he announced his intentions to return to Iowa and support new starter Cade McNamara back in December.
That is true integrity. It checks out for Petras given everything we’ve seen and heard over his entire career as a Hawkeye. You want to talk about the Hawkeye way of doing things? That’s Spencer Petras.
When you look at Petras, you find all of the building blocks of a great coach. He’s been lauded on numerous occasions by his coaches and teammates for his work ethic and high intelligence. The best coaches are the ones with great communication and who lead. Petras is a natural-born leader who has the integrity everyone should strive for. He has a very bright future, and hopefully it can continue to be with the Iowa football program.
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