One of the best receiving options Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras was planning to have this season will be on the other side of the field Saturday.
Instead of throwing passes to Charlie Jones, Petras will be watching him line up for Purdue in the 11 a.m. game at Ross-Ade Stadium.
Jones has 72 catches for 840 yards and nine touchdowns and Petras and the Iowa offense would no doubt be better off with him this season.
Instead, he’s the opponent.
“I don’t have to line up across from him,” Petras said on Tuesday. “But it will definitely be cool to see him.”
Petras said he wasn’t surprised at the season Jones is having. Neither is coach Kirk Ferentz, who said he saw Jones grow as a receiver in spring practice before he decided to leave to join the Boilermakers.
“We'll never know what would have happened if he was here,” Ferent said. “We saw him make great improvement, I thought, this spring. We were really excited about that. Then he's not here. There's not much you can say about that.”
Jones had just 21 catches for 323 yards for the Hawkeyes last season — his key role was as a kick and punt returner.
Asked if he wished he would have used Jones differently, or more, Ferentz said, “ I would argue he's a much better player than he was. I thought he was much better at the end of spring practice as a receiver. Upper echelon return guy. He's been really good. Obviously that was very evident going back to early 2020 (when Jones played his first season with the Hawkeyes). But he's really progressed as a receiver. Not saying he was a bad receiver then, but he's a much better one, much better in April.”
Ferentz knows Jones can make an impact.
“He's always been fast,” Ferentz said. “You saw that as a return guy. Plays with reckless abandon. He's very courageous. Good running skills. Very evident. Good judgment as a return guy.
:To me at least, this is one person's opinion, I think he's refined his game as a receiver with each phase. It wasn't all in the spring, but it's been a process for him.”
Petras said he keeps in touch with Jones “about every week.” They’ve been texting each other this week heading up to game day.
“It’s been cordial thus far,” Petras said, smiling.
IS IT A RIVALRY? Purdue has won four of the last five games against Iowa.
But are the Boilermakers an Iowa rival on par with Big Ten teams Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nebraska, which are trophy games?
“Yeah, every game is a rivalry game,” Ferentz said. “Every game in college football — single elimination as far as I'm concerned. If you belong to a conference, they have that extra significance, too. We're not looking at the conference race by any stretch right now. We're just looking at this week.
“For our team right now, I mean, we're fighting for our lives so we're just trying to make incremental gains. That's what it's been each and every week. We took some strides last week. We're right back trying to do the same thing this week.”
SOFT? Ferentz was asked about an ESPN report last weekend that said opposing coaches have described Iowa’s offensive line as “soft and underwhelming with talent.”
“I say we've been inexperienced and inconsistent,” he said “That's what I am saying.”
Ferentz knows his offensive line has struggled this season with different combinations, but thought it made strides in last Saturday’s 33-13 win over Northwestern, when the Hawkeyes had season highs in points and yardage.
“Last year at this time we really started to gain some ground,” Ferentz said. “I'm hoping that's going to happen this year, too. You're not going to get better if you're not on the field. It's really hard.
“Hopefully we'll be less ‘soft’ in the future, maybe more experienced, a little bit more able to control tempo because when you can do that, you're really in business. That's what every coach hopes for.”
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