Iowa wrapped up spring football on Friday night as the Hawkeyes held their annual spring game under the lights at Kinnick Stadium.
One of the biggest storylines surrounding the team heading into the 2017 season is what kind of improvements will be made on offense and, in particular, who will start at quarterback. Despite having 15 practices over the past month or so, it appears the Hawkeyes are not close to naming a starter however.
“We’d probably do a coin toss, literally do a coin toss,” head coach Kirk Ferentz told the media on Friday regarding which quarterback would start if there was a game tomorrow. “But luckily we’re going to have at least 15, 18 practices before we make that decision. We’ll have to make it somewhere in camp. That’s stating the obvious. But one of two things is going to happen, one guy is going to pull away pretty quickly when we get it going back in August or it’s going to be back and forth and then we’ll just have to figure something out from there. But those things have a tendency to work themselves out.”
That said, sophomore Nathan Stanley is still the likely favorite to start this fall after being the primary backup to C.J. Beathard last season. Junior Tyler Wiegers didn’t seem to rule himself out this spring though and still appears to be in the mix after handling backup duties two seasons ago before being redshirted in 2016.
Neither looked particularly sharp on Friday in the spring game, with the pair throwing a combined three interceptions and having a general lack of success down the field in the passing game. That’s not exactly the kind of showing that Hawkeyes fans were hoping for after such a mediocre aerial attack last year but keep in mind that the offense is a work in progress with Brian Ferentz taking over for retired offensive coordinator Greg Davis.
Either way, it’s pretty clear that Iowa has a long ways to go between now and the opener and the coaching staff is keenly aware of just that.