Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz confirmed senior Spencer Petras will start Saturday in the Hawkeyes' season opener against South Dakota State.
Petras and junior Alex Padilla both received snaps during spring practice and fall camp.
"It's a long evaluation and we evaluate everything to our guys, starting in January," Ferentz said Tuesday. "Obviously we're not doing football stuff, and both Spencer and Alex are both quality guys. But just the time on the field, I think Spencer has outperformed Alex a little bit at this point. I think he's further ahead and gives us a better chance to be successful."
Petras threw for 1,880 yards with 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions last year as the Hawkeyes won the Big Ten West title before losing to Michigan in the Big Ten Championship. Iowa's offense averaged 23.4 points per game in 2021 on the way to finishing 10-4.
Historically, the Hawkeyes haven't relied on playing multiple quarterbacks, and Ferentz knows the offense must become more explosive.
"We rotated quarterbacks in '81, I'll go back then," he said. "I'm not sure it was a plan and I don't remember how we started it. But, no, I mean, in a perfect world, you'd probably like to have one. If you got two, that's not a bad situation.
"And as I've said before, we have two that we've won with. So that's a good feeling ... I think we have two quarterbacks that are better than they were a year ago and right now we just got to try to support those guys, try to build a good team around them."
