SPENCER PETRAS

Iowa’s defense came up with two second-half safeties, and the Hawkeyes opened the season with a 7-3 win over South Dakota State on Saturday.

When a team is coming off a season in which it had one of the worst offenses in the nation, all options are open to fix it. The battle this spring is between veteran starter Spencer Petras and Alex Padilla. Petras, who missed three games because of injury last season, has started 19 of the last 20 in which he's appeared.

Chris Rodriguez ran for a 6-yard touchdown with 1:48 to play, and No. 25 Kentucky rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat No. 17 Iowa 20-17 in the Citrus Bowl.

Hassan Haskins ran for two second-half touchdowns and broke a school record as No. 2 Michigan captured its first Big Ten title in 17 years and a probable playoff berth with a 42-3 rout over No. 15 Iowa.

Spencer Petras will be the starting quarterback when No. 15 Iowa plays second-ranked Michigan in the Big Ten championship game on Saturday night.

Spencer Petras plunged 2 yards for a touchdown with 2:58 left to give 17th-ranked Iowa its first lead, and the Hawkeyes came back from a 15-point deficit in the third quarter to beat Nebraska 28-21.

Iowa quarterback Alex Padilla is described by coach Kirk Ferentz as “even-keeled.” Padilla threw for two touchdowns and ran for another, and No. 19 Iowa withstood three fourth-quarter comeback attempts to beat Minnesota 27-22 and keep the bronze pig trophy for the seventh year in a row.

Alex Padilla got his first opportunity to play meaningful snaps for Iowa and did enough to impress coach Kirk Ferentz.

Alex Padilla could feel the jitters when he got the call to go into the game. Padilla took over for the banged-up Spencer Petras and led three scoring drives, Tyler Goodson ran for 141 yards and a touchdown and No. 19 Iowa beat Northwestern 17-12 on Saturday night to stop a two-game losing streak. “Definitely some nerves,” Padilla said.

Graham Mertz scored on two quarterback sneaks and threw a touchdown pass to help Wisconsin trounce No. 9 Iowa 27-7 on Saturday for its fourth consecutive victory.

Aidan O’Connell threw for 374 yards and accounted for three touchdowns, David Bell had 240 receiving yards, and Purdue continued its recent mastery over No. 2 Iowa with a 24-7 win.

Spencer Petras threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Nico Ragaini to complete No. 3 Iowa’s comeback from a two-touchdown deficit, No. 4 Penn State’s offense did next to nothing after quarterback Sean Clifford was knocked out of the game and the Hawkeyes held on for a bruising 23-20 victory Saturday.

Spencer Petras threw for three touchdowns and ran for two and No. 5 Iowa took advantage of seven Maryland turnovers in a 51-14 victory.

Spencer Petras threw for 224 yards and two touchdowns and No. 5 Iowa needed a second-half comeback to defeat Colorado State 24-14.

A quick glance at the statistics would indicate Iowa's Spencer Petras is an average Big Ten quarterback. One number pops out, though, and illustrates a major reason the fifth-ranked Hawkeyes (3-0) have won nine straight games. The second-year starter hasn’t thrown an interception since early in the second quarter of the Nov. 27 game against Nebraska, a streak of 22 quarters entering Saturday's final nonconference game against Colorado State (1-2).

Iowa running back Tyler Goodson slowly worked his way into the starting lineup as a true freshman in 2019.

Defense has led No. 5 Iowa to its highest ranking since 2015.

Oregon and Iowa are the big movers in The Associated Press college football poll after road wins over top-10 opponents.

Nine of the 14 Big Ten football teams appear set at quarterback heading into the fall.

What happens if an outbreak hits a team’s quarterback room? “Obviously this year there’s some things that will be unique,” Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst said Monday without specifically discussing his players’ test results. “I think there certainly were those questions after the decision was made,” Ohio State team physician Jim Borchers said last week. And that’s all we really paid attention to.”Big Ten protocols say that athletes who test positive through point-of-contact daily testing must take a polymerase chain reaction test to confirm the first result. While Wisconsin awaits answers, Big Ten teams continue reminding quarterbacks about the potential risks inherent in this unusual season.