Skip to main content

Smith-Marsette Learns From Passing Sessions With Petras

Iowa wide receiver gets a chance to work with a new QB.

Ihmir Smith-Marsette has spent the spring working with the likely choice for Iowa’s quarterback this season.

It’s not ideal, certainly not what the Hawkeyes would have gotten with the 15 workouts that were scheduled.

But it’s still an education.

Smith-Marsette has been catching passes from Nate Stanley for three seasons, so getting used to the new arm of Spencer Petras has been different.

It’s all a matter of speed.

“Nate’s got more of a power arm, so the ball comes a little bit faster, with a little bit more velocity,” Smith-Marsette said during a video call with the Iowa media on Thursday. “(A pass) hits you a little bit harder. Spencer’s more of a touch person. Got a little less speed, less of a bullet on it. That’s mainly the difference between those two.”

But there are similarities.

“Other than that, both very accurate, can move around in the pocket,” Smith-Marsette said. “Big, strong guys. Bigger than me. But a lot of people are bigger than me.

“They’ve both got good accuracy, great down-the-field ball. The difference is just Spencer’s got more touch. Nate’s just a rocket guy.”

Stanley was Iowa's starter for three seasons, leaving with some of the best passing numbers in program history.

Petras, a third-year sophomore this season, was No. 2 on the depth chart behind Stanley last season, playing in three games. He completed 6-of-10 passes for 25 yards.

Petras and Alex Padilla would have been the two main quarterbacks in spring practice, with true freshman Deuce Hogan joining the team in the summer. But spring practice was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the Hawkeyes who stayed in Iowa City had to find a place to work.

Petras, Smith-Marsette, wide receiver Nico Ragaini, center Tyler Linderbaum, and others would get together for outdoor throwing sessions.

Whatever chemistry could be built over those sessions wasn’t the same as a full spring of workouts, but it was something. Petras would throw until his arm got tired.

“In this situation, you talk to him on a regular basis,” Smith-Marsette said. “And then, when you get out there and throw, you just work on different things. You try to tell him, like, ‘I’m going to run (a route) like this.’ Or he tells me, ‘Run it this way.’ Or he’ll tell me, ‘Run it like Nico ran it.’ We all should just run it like that. Just being able to get out on the field, adjust, make adjustments with each other, tell each other what we like, what we don’t like. That’s how you get comfortable with somebody.”

Smith-Marsette has a wish — that Petras become his locker-room next-door neighbor. Smith-Marsette wears No. 6, Petras wears No. 7.

“Hopefully, this year we become locker buddies, because he wears No. 7, and they move him next to me,” Smith-Marsette said. “Try to build (the chemistry) even more.”

The Hawkeyes are expected to begin summer workouts in June, although no date has been set.

There is momentum, Smith-Marsette said, that will come from the spring.

“Once it’s time to all come together again, it’s going to be like a well-oiled machine,” he said. “We’re going to be rolling. That’s how you build that (chemistry) right now, to lead on to the season.”