It was the first college start for Spencer Petras and as expected there were some positives and room for growth opportunities that emerged. The sophomore signal caller discusses his first start and where he thought he might have missed some chances to make plays. He also discusses the missed screen pass to Tyler Goodson and how he was able to settle down in the first quarter.
Q: Go through the final series. You had the screen pass to Goodson, What didn’t work on that play?
PETRAS: That’s a good question. I’ll have to look at the film. The timing seemed off because we were trying to beat the rush to get the ball there and I didn’t see what happened because I got hit on the play. Bottom line, if I give him a better ball then I am sure he makes an easy catch, but I really didn’t see what happened.
Q: Just being the on the field, you guys have a lot of false starts. What do you chalk that up to?
PETRAS: It’s hard to say. It’s discipline and attention to detail. We kind of pride ourselves on being brilliant with the basics and I don’t think we were that today. Self-inflicted wounds are never easy. It’s tough. It’s something we can correct so we will watch it on tape and figure out what we did wrong and come back this week and try and improve.
Q: After the first couple of drives you really seemed to settle down in the first half. What do you attribute it to? Did something click? Was it the pass to Goodson that relaxed you a bit?
PETRAS: I don’t know. I was definitely nervous to start the game. I think we just got into a rhythm and we were able to run the ball really effectively. That makes things easy and we are able to get the ball to our playmakers. It makes my job easy when we are getting good protection and it helped settle me down for sure.
Q: Overall how would you grade your performance?
PETRAS: I will have to reserve judgment until I watch the tape. Off the top of my head, I know there were some plays that I would like to have back. I need to make the makeable plays. I just have to reserve judgement until I watch the tape.
Q: Everyone calls you a natural born leader. What do you do to pick the guys up after this loss?
PETRAS: The biggest thing to remember is that the only goal that is off the table now for us is being undefeated. There are still plenty of things that we can fight for, starting with beating Northwestern next week. All our goals still apply of getting better each day and being the best team that we can be and fulfilling our potential, so there’s still plenty out there. It’s going to hurt and it’s going to be hard, but we always talk about the 24 hour rule. So we will watch the tape tomorrow, let it hurt, and then come Monday it’s on to Northwestern.
Q: Where does the offense go from here to get better?
PETRAS: I think it starts with me and making the makeables. It’s attention to details. Those things got us. Ball security. You can’t turn the ball over. Penalties. Bad decisions on my part. Bad throws. All that comes down to attention to detail and better practices.
Q: How do you evaluate the running game? It seemed like in the 2nd and 3rd quarter it kind of took over the game. What did you think of it overall?
PETRAS: I thought we ran the ball really well. When we had good tempo out of the huddle and lined up, we seemed to run the ball really well. It’s tough because these guys brought a lot of different looks and I thought we handled it well up front. It starts with the OL and the running backs being able to find a hole, hit it, and go. I thought it was good.
Q: Ihmir Smith-Marsette had no catches today. Did they take him away?
PETRAS: They are a good team and they were aware of where he was on the field. There were a couple of opportunities to get him the ball that I missed, but they are a good team that played well on defense.
