From The Athletic article by Scott Dochterman on the State of Program covering Iowa. The Athletic is doing a piece on all the P5 programs and the best Group of 5 programs.
“Was (Petras) at the level of Nate Stanley? No, but that was kind of Nate Stanley at the end of the thing,” said a Big Ten defensive assistant. “The kid (Petras) is big. I think he’s got arm strength. I watched the Penn State game, and I thought he looked night-and-day better in that game, in terms of making throws, than what he did in our game. So what am I saying? I’m saying I expect to see that kid make a huge jump this year. I think he’s got good arm strength. He’s got size. I think he’s in a quarterback-friendly offense, and I think he’s got a really good position coach. I think you’ll see a big jump out of him this year.”
We shall see how it plays out. He got off to a 0-2 start. Iowa won the final 6 games, and the only one possession win was against Nebraska.
Petras didn't get a spring practice. He was a first year starter and during the separation of contact, due to the pandemic, QB coach Ken O'Keefe compared his bad habits to common bad habits Division 3 QBs often bring to fall drills, since they don't have a formal spring.
Ironically, O'Keefe was Fordham's head coach for one season before joining Kirk Ferentz's first staff at Iowa in 1999.
He was a champion head coach in Division III prior to taking Fordham job.