Junior quarterback Alex Padilla has done some nice things in his time with the Iowa Hawkeyes. With senior quarterback Spencer Petras ailing with a shoulder injury late last season, Padilla made three consecutive starts beginning with Iowa’s home game against Minnesota on Nov. 13 of last year.
Padilla actually relieved Petras the previous week at Northwestern and completed 18-of-28 passes for 172 yards. In that game against the Wildcats, Padilla led a pair of first-half touchdown drives and a field goal drive in the second half to lead the Hawkeyes to a 17-12 road win.
Padilla completed 11-of-24 passes for 206 yards and a pair of passing touchdowns in Iowa’s 27-22 home win over Minnesota. He also had a 1-yard plunge himself to get the scoring started that day. Padilla’s touchdown passes against the Golden Gophers both came in the second half went for 72 yards to wide receiver Charlie Jones and then 27 yards to wide receiver Keagan Johnson.
Against Illinois, Padilla completed just 6-of-17 passes for 83 yards and was intercepted once by the Illini’s Kerby Joseph. The Hawkeyes did go on to win that game 33-23 thanks in part to a 100-yard kickoff return by Jones and a 32-yard interception return for a touchdown by Hawkeye linebacker Jack Campbell.
In his final start of last season at Nebraska, Padilla was replaced at halftime by Petras. Padilla completed 6-of-14 passes for 76 yards before Petras came in to lead a 28-21 comeback victory over the Huskers. Padilla saw action late against Michigan, too. He passed for just 38 yards and was intercepted against the Wolverines.
For the season, Padilla completed 55-of-112 passes for a 49.1% completion rate with 636 yards passing yards and two passing touchdowns against two interceptions. Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz admitted this spring that both Padilla and Petras were in the mix to potentially be Iowa’s starting signal-caller entering 2022.
“I think the good news is that we feel they’re both capable…
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