Iowa football sticks with status quo at quarterback, but tinkers with offensive line

IOWA CITY — After Iowa football’s charter flight from Columbus arrived at The Eastern Iowa Airport and while the team was on the bus down to Iowa City, Connor Colby learned he was on the move.

“I just got a text saying I was gonna be working at guard this week,” the Iowa offensive lineman and Cedar Rapids native said.

A week later, Colby played for the first time at the college level at left guard as part of a shake-up on the offensive line.

Colby replaced Nick DeJong and Tyler Elsbury at left guard.

Jack Plumb then started at right tackle. Plumb started nine games before 2022, but played sparingly this season behind Colby and left tackle Mason Richman.

Beau Stephens remained the starter at right guard although DeJong also took snaps at the position.

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said he sees Saturday’s five starters — Richman, Colby, center Logan Jones, Stephens and Plumb — along with DeJong and Elsbury as “still probably the top seven guys right now.”

“If we can stabilize that part of things a little bit, I think it’s going to help us overall,” Ferentz said.

The loss to Ohio State quickly exposed the challenges with Iowa’s previous offensive line configuration of those seven players.

On Iowa’s first third-down play, Ohio State’s Zach Harrison sped past Colby and clobbered quarterback Spencer Petras as he let go of an incompletion to tight end Sam LaPorta.

“Just kind of like hit me in the head that maybe it’s time to consider,” Ferentz said, looking back at that play.

Colby was the starting right guard for most of his freshman season and earned first-team freshman All-America honors from the Football Writers Association of America.

“I kind of feel more at home at guard,” Colby said.

While he has plenty of familiarity with guard, being on the left side was a new phenomenon.

“I played on the right side like my whole life,” Colby said. “The first day (in practice) at left guard was a little bit of an adjustment, but I feel like I’m getting more comfortable.”

The offensive line as a whole gave quarterback Spencer Petras considerably more time to throw and Iowa’s rushing attack much more space to run although it also came against a Northwestern team on a six-game losing streak rather than No. 2 Ohio State or then-No. 4 Michigan.

“Eager to see the film, but it seemed like we were a little bit more cohesive today,” Ferentz said. “And hopefully we can build on that. That will really help us.”

Iowa averaged 4.8 yards per carry against the Wildcats after averaging 2.6 yards per carry in its first seven games.

Petras, meanwhile, looked more comfortable than he did in any other game en route to going 21-for-30 with 220 yards and one touchdown.

“The offensive line kept me clean practically the whole day,” Petras said.

Speaking of quarterback, the status quo continued at a position where many fans would have liked to see a change.

Petras, who entered play Saturday having completed 53.1 percent of his passes while throwing two touchdowns and five interceptions, remained the starter.

The alternative was Alex Padilla, who saw game action for the first time in 2022 against No. 2 Ohio State after Petras had three turnovers in the first half. Padilla was 5-for-10 with an interception in the second half.

The selling point for Petras was “probably his consistency,” Ferentz said.

“The things that we look at at practice every day,” Ferentz said. “Nothing really dramatic.”

Ferentz said Tuesday he would “maybe take it to Friday” before naming a starting quarterback after rotating Petras and Padilla in the first two days of practice.

Petras, however, had a “pretty good idea” he would be QB1 by Wednesday.

“But we didn’t talk about it until Friday, I guess,” Petras said. “We didn’t have like an in-depth discussion.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com