Iowa’s Joe Labas competes for another opportunity to make early impression

IOWA CITY — It did not take long for a young Joe Labas to leave quite the impression on an opposing football coach in suburban Cleveland.

Labas was a freshman at Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School. Martin Poder was the offensive coordinator for a different team in the conference.

Poder already saw Labas perform at an “unreal” level in middle school. Then when Labas started as a freshman, Poder noticed him “doing certain things” that were impressive at the high school.

About four months after Poder’s team beat Labas’ team to conclude the 2017 season, Poder filled the head coaching vacancy at Labas’ high school and began working with the promising prospect.

“When the job came open, I was like, ‘I got to go coach this kid,’” said Poder, who returned to his previous school a year after Labas went to Iowa.

Labas now is working for another opportunity to make an impression, this time early in his college career instead of early in his high school career.

A redshirt freshman, Labas is competing with true freshman Carson May to be Iowa’s starting quarterback in the Music City Bowl after Spencer Petras needed shoulder surgery and Alex Padilla entered the transfer portal.

Neither Labas nor May have attempted a pass in a college game.

The closest thing to a public evaluation of Labas was his work in 11-on-11 drills during Iowa’s open Kids’ Day practice in August.

Poder is the last coach to oversee Labas in a game situation.

Along with a charisma that led teammates to “gravitate” toward him, Labas’ athletic ability stood out to Poder.

“He’s a freak athlete,” Poder said.

Poder was watching film of Labas with one of his young quarterbacks and showed a zone read with an option to throw to the receiver.

“Joe should have thrown it there,” the quarterback noted to Poder.

“Yeah, Joe was pretty dead-set on showing everybody his athletic ability,” Poder said. “It should have been a throw, but he takes off and he’s running, and he goes in ... 75 yards for a touchdown.”

Labas broke his throwing hand early in his sophomore season, but still found ways to athletically contribute.

Along with punting, he taught himself to throw with his left hand, which allowed him to work with receivers on pass concepts in practice.

“He got pretty dang good,” Poder said of the temporarily left-handed Labas. “By Week 7, he could probably throw the ball better than any other quarterback we had.”

Labas lobbied to play quarterback as a southpaw, as did Poder. The doctors were not so keen on the idea.

The doctors, unsurprisingly, won that argument, so Labas remained limited to punting duties. He did successfully lobby Poder, though, to try a fake punt.

“’No one is going to expect it’,” Poder remembers Labas telling him. “’I got a cast on my hand.’”

The against-his-body, left-handed throw did not go so well, however. He “airmailed” it.

“He was like, ‘Should have thought that through better,’” Poder said with a laugh.

Iowa’s bowl starter — whether it is Labas or May — surely will not have to do any left-handed fake punts. But they still will not have an easy set of circumstances, especially against a Kentucky defense ranked 12th nationally in points allowed per game this season.

Along with not having any in-game passing attempts at the college level, neither quarterback received many first- or second-team opportunities in practice during the regular season.

Padilla previously estimated it takes 12 to 18 months to “learn the intricacies” of Iowa’s prostyle offense, which puts a lot of responsibility on the quarterback.

May has been on campus since the summer, and Labas has been on campus for a year longer than that.

The receiving corps will be without wide receivers Arland Bruce IV and Keagan Johnson, who entered the transfer portal. Any portal additions will not be able to play yet.

“It’s not the most ideal situation, but it’s an opportunity,” Poder said. “An opportunity for him to show who he is. … I hope that the people in Iowa get to see it.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com