“The second team quarterback is always the most popular guy on the team”: a phrase popularly attributed to Archie Manning, but which is so widely accepted as football gospel that it may as well have been chiseled into stone by Walter Camp himself. Many Hawkeye fans have lived this axiom over the past few years. Spencer Petras’ inconsistent play regularly left fans wanting more from the quarterback position, and a contingent of Iowa fans took to calling for backup Alex Padilla to supplant him as the starter. When Padilla was underwhelming in relief of Petras, some fans championed the third-string QB getting a shot at the starting job.
In the Music City Bowl, Iowa Is Finally Putting in the Backup
