IOWA CITY — Former Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras will have the chance to be a QB1 again this fall — this time, more than 1,000 miles to the west of Kinnick Stadium.

Petras was named the starting quarterback at Utah State during the Aggies’ spring practices last month.

"Over the course of three-and-a-half, four weeks, the numbers and the eye test all showed Spence’s consistency,“ Utah State Coach Blake Anderson told reporters . ”Turned the ball over one time through 13 practices. Completed somewhere around 78, 80 percent of his passes. Made good checks, good decisions.“

Petras “had to clearly win the job” as he competed with Cooper Legas, who started 17 games for the Aggies since 2022 and has the third-highest completion percentage in school history (62.6 percent). Legas has since entered the transfer portal.

“If you ask any of our players, as much as they love Coop, they feel like Spence obviously earned the job and earned their respect,” Anderson said. “And he did it in a very classy way.”

Petras was in a staff role for the Hawkeyes in 2023 while recovering from shoulder surgery. He entered the portal in November with one season of eligibility remaining.

The San Rafael, Calif., native is one of six quarterbacks to transfer from Iowa since 2021. In his last season as Iowa’s starting quarterback, he completed 55.9 percent of his passes while throwing five touchdowns and five interceptions.

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