Utah State QB Spencer Petras Hoping To Overcome Past Injury, Coaching Change in 2024

Former Iowa starter Spencer Petras heads into year six of his college football career, now a better leader and quarterback thanks to his past challenges

Spencer Petras spoke with us at Mountain West Media Days in Las Vegas / Kim Montuoro

Football may be a game of inches, but ever since November of 2022, Spencer Petras’ life has been measured in millimeters.

Three thick millimeters of fibrocartilage were ripped from his bicep muscle, plus five centimeters of tendon torn away from the bone - it might as well have been the size of the Grand Canyon.

There are not many throwing athletes who can say a torn labrum and rotator cuff injury were the best thing to happen to them. Then again, if you ask Petras about it, he probably wouldn’t use those words.

However, his former high school football coach and longtime friend Mazi Moayed would.

“The best thing that happened to him was that he got injured,” said Moayed, head coach at Marin Catholic High School. “If you’re a passer, if you’re a thrower thats going to be a year-long recovery. He got a chance to be in the coach's seat, take a step back and catch his breath, regroup and go at it again with more experience and broader perspective. That was huge for him.”

His injury forced Petras to reinvent himself, shedding the weight he had shouldered at Iowa during a tumultuous four years under center, where he went 23-11 as a three-year starter. Petras threw for over 5,000 yards. but took a lot of heat from fans and critics for low-scoring losses. 

Petras credits Kirk Ferentz and his staff, who found a way for him to remain part of the team as a student football assistant while rehabbing his shoulder. In that off-field role, the San Rafael, California native found a new perspective. 

“One of the biggest things that I’ll take away is preparation,” said Petras. “I can pick up on tells that most quarterbacks can’t because I’ve been on the other side, I’ve had to break down film with defenses and I’ve been in staff meetings with some of the best coaches around talking about alignments and positional responsibilities. But more than anything I think I just gained an appreciation for being able to play the game when I didn’t know if I would ever be able to play again.”

Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras stands on the sideline with his arm in a sling in the second quarter against Nebraska during a NCAA football game on Friday, Nov. 25, 2022, at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City. Iowavsneb 20221125 Bh / Bryon Houlgrave/The Register / USA TODAY

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Diligent rehab and doting doctors ensured Petras would be back for the 2024 season, so into the portal he went - a college football foster kid looking for a system to call home. It wasn’t hard for the offensive orphan who crushed Jared Goff’s single-season yardage program record to garner attention, but Moayed warned him against another Big Ten team. What Petras needed was a fresh start in a spread system under a good, veteran offensive coordinator, which is when Blake Anderson entered the chat.

“So Utah State ended up being that fit and I gotta give Anderson credit - some people just look at numbers but he seems like a real evaluator,” said Moyaed. “He basically told Spencer if you can do what I think you can do, you’ll be our guy but you gotta compete for it. He was straight forward, honest, no promises and Spencer respected that.”

Petras officially won the starting job toward the end of the Aggies' spring camp but turmoil took hold again when the school announced that Anderson would be placed on administrative leave with the intention to terminate his contract due to alleged noncompliance with university policy. 

The former Wildcat is once again faced with offensive adversity under a first-time play caller. Not exactly college football free-fall, but not the stability he and all his teammates signed up for. But Petras will face this adversity with his signature smile and sutured shoulder - confident in his ability to lead in the locker room and on the field. He even shared some improvements the surgery made to his game.

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“I lost some range of motion but I think it has actually really helped because I have a much more compact delivery, in my opinion,” shared Petras. “I’ve found a really happy medium of still throwing with plenty of pace and all that but my release has sped up and I feel like I have a more repeatable throwing motion that allows for more success.”

Let’s be honest, Petras had yards to give. Sure 82-yard bombs are cool, but a quarterback consistently dropping 20-yard consistent dimes is arguably more important. Besides, the top-10 passing offenses in the nation only average about 13 yards per completion.

“All of this is going to add to his story,” Moayed commented. “One of the top questions NFL guys ask - I remember when Jared (Goff) was going and guys would come through and interview me about him was, has he faced any adversity? Spencer is facing adversity everywhere he goes.”

When the NFL inevitably comes knocking in seven months when those opportunities start becoming more concrete, the story Petras and his coaches will tell them is one straight out of a storybook, complete with ivory towers and slain dragons - a Marin County monomyth.

“The one thing in history that always happens, it’s very consistent, it’s very fulfilling, is time always tells the tale,” emphasized Moayed.

Whether it's in moments or millimeters, time always tells the tale.