It happens every few years and I'm big enough to admit it.. 😉
Not about the Petras vs Padilla debate yet. That story is still being written. I believed that when faced with a logical decision in terms of which QB to play, Kirk would base that decision solely upon who he thought gave Iowa the best opportunity to win that day. Saturday showed me that was not always the case.
Petras wasn't able to go in practice because of an injury to his throwing shoulder. Padilla practiced with the ones instead. Instead of starting the healthy QB who practiced all week he started the injured QB who wasn't able to go.
There is no logical reason for why Petras started Saturday's game other than Kirk's apparent unwillingness to make a change from the starter outside of an injury (which wasn't even enough in this case) or an act of God. My belief is that he sincerely believes that replacing a starting QB for performance reasons inevitably does more harm than good in the long run. Performance alone cannot determine the fate of Kirk's starting QB and I believe that is the understanding that Kirk has with his starting QB's so go out and play loose without fear of losing your job.
Should Petras have told Kirk that he couldn't go before the game? Probably, but if he's of the mindset that the job is 100% his unless another QB gets an opportunity to outshine him by a wide margin, then you can hardly blame him for telling Kirk he was feeling good enough to play. Given how the previous 2 games played out his confidence couldn't have been high in the first place.
As it was, Petras wasn't anywhere close to being able to play up to even his own modest standards. It took not 1, not 2, but 3 series in the game knowing fully well what was going on before Kirk pulled him out. That frankly is inexplicable to me but I don't get paid the big bucks to run things. Kirk has also always held the stated belief that the player can't lose his job to injury.. All of this leads me to believe that if Padilla doesn't absolutely shine on Saturday and Petras comes back healthy, you probably won't see him on the field again unless Petras is out.
Not about the Petras vs Padilla debate yet. That story is still being written. I believed that when faced with a logical decision in terms of which QB to play, Kirk would base that decision solely upon who he thought gave Iowa the best opportunity to win that day. Saturday showed me that was not always the case.
Petras wasn't able to go in practice because of an injury to his throwing shoulder. Padilla practiced with the ones instead. Instead of starting the healthy QB who practiced all week he started the injured QB who wasn't able to go.
There is no logical reason for why Petras started Saturday's game other than Kirk's apparent unwillingness to make a change from the starter outside of an injury (which wasn't even enough in this case) or an act of God. My belief is that he sincerely believes that replacing a starting QB for performance reasons inevitably does more harm than good in the long run. Performance alone cannot determine the fate of Kirk's starting QB and I believe that is the understanding that Kirk has with his starting QB's so go out and play loose without fear of losing your job.
Should Petras have told Kirk that he couldn't go before the game? Probably, but if he's of the mindset that the job is 100% his unless another QB gets an opportunity to outshine him by a wide margin, then you can hardly blame him for telling Kirk he was feeling good enough to play. Given how the previous 2 games played out his confidence couldn't have been high in the first place.
As it was, Petras wasn't anywhere close to being able to play up to even his own modest standards. It took not 1, not 2, but 3 series in the game knowing fully well what was going on before Kirk pulled him out. That frankly is inexplicable to me but I don't get paid the big bucks to run things. Kirk has also always held the stated belief that the player can't lose his job to injury.. All of this leads me to believe that if Padilla doesn't absolutely shine on Saturday and Petras comes back healthy, you probably won't see him on the field again unless Petras is out.