Iowa football's week 3 depth chart is here … and Spencer Petras is listed as No. 1 quarterback

Shortly after his Iowa football team was defeated 10-7 by Iowa State, Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz was non-committal about who would be his starting quarterback in Week 3.

Incumbent Spencer Petras completed 12-of-26 passes for 92 yards with an interception and a lost sack-fumble on Saturday. In two games, he's completed 45% of his passes (3.9 yards per attempt), holds a quarterback rating of 3.4 and hasn't thrown a touchdown pass.

When asked if Petras would start this coming Saturday vs. Nevada (6:30 p.m., Big Ten Network), Ferentz said after the Cy-Hawk loss: "I didn't say that. I said he played the whole game. In my judgment, it was the best way to continue through this game, and gave (a change) some thought, but I felt like it was our best opportunity. We'll reassess everything (Sunday)." 

That reassessment happened. And if the latest Iowa depth chart is to be trusted, it looks like the Hawkeyes are sticking with Petras over back-up Alex Padilla.  

Ferentz noted on Saturday that the execution of the entire offense has made it difficult to evaluate Petras. 

"To me, both these games he's still not getting enough help to really do a fair assessment," Ferentz said. "He hasn't been perfect. Nobody has. We have a lot of moving parts right now on offense, and then we're short-handed a little bit at a couple positions. We'll keep working through it and we'll talk about it (Sunday) and see what happens moving forward." 

Through two games, Iowa's offense is the worst in the country by a considerable margin. They're last nationally (out of 131 teams) in yards per game (158) and points scored (14) and four of those points came from two safeties against South Dakota State. The next closest team in yardage, New Mexico State, is averaging 230.7 yards per game.

Padilla completed 49% of his passes with two touchdowns and two interceptions in five games last season (worth noting: he did have a 17.6% drop rate compared to Petras’ 6.9%). He led Iowa to wins against Northwestern, Minnesota and Illinois, all must-win games for the 2021 Big Ten West title. 

Iowa hosts Nevada Saturday night at Kinnick Stadium. The Wolfpack are coming off of a 55-41 loss to FCS team Incarnate Word. 

Of note on Monday too: Iowa's Sept. 24 game at Rutgers will kick off at 6 p.m. CT and be televised by Fox Sports 1.

More:4 things to know about Iowa's matchup against Nevada in its final non-conference game

Iowa's week 3 depth chart versus Nevada 

Two-deep was posted Monday morning by UI.

Offense

WR:  Alec Wick (6-1, 196), RS freshman, Brody Brecht (6-4, 217), sophomore;

TE: Sam LaPorta (6-4, 249), senior; Luke Lachey (6-6, 252), RS sophomore

LT: Mason Richman (6-6, 308), RS sophomore;  Jack Plumb (6-7, 297), RS senior

LG: Nick DeJong (6-6, 300), RS junior, Tyler Elsbury (6-5, 308), RS sophomore; 

C: Logan Jones (6-3, 283), RS sophomore; Mike Myslinski (6-3, 287), RS freshman

RG: Connor Colby (6-6,  308), sophomore; Beau Stephens (6-6, 307), RS freshman

RT: Jack Plumb (6-7, 297), RS senior; Matt Fagan (6-5, 296), RS senior

WR: Arland Bruce IV (5-10, 198), sophomore; Jack Johnson (6-0, 194), RS sophomore

QB: Spencer Petras (6-5, 231), RS senior; Alex Padilla (6-1, 200), RS junior

RB: Gavin Williams (6-0, 214), RS sophomore; Leshon Williams (5-10, 210), RS sophomore

FB: Monte Pottebaum (6-1, 244), RS senior; Turner Pallisard (6-0, 243), RS senior

PK: Aaron Blom (5-11, 190), RS sophomore; Drew Stevens (6-0, 180), freshman 

Defense

LE: John Waggoner (6-5, 267), RS senior; Ethan Hurkett (6-5, 252), RS sophomore

LT: Noah Shannon (6-0, 289), RS senior; Lukas Van Ness (6-5, 269), RS sophomore

RT: Logan Lee (6-5, 275), RS junior; Louie Stec (6-0, 268), RS junior

RE: Joe Evans (6-2, 246), RS senior, Deontae Craig (6-3, 263), RS sophomore

WLB: Seth Benson (6-1, 232), RS senior; Kyler Fisher (5-11, 229), RS junior

MLB: Jack Campbell (6-5, 246), senior; Jay Higgins (6-2, 229), RS sophomore 

OLB/Cash: Logan Klemp (6-2, 235), RS senior; Cooper DeJean (6-1, 209), sophomore

LCB: Terry Roberts (5-10, 182), RS senior; Cooper DeJean (5-11, 209), sophomore

SS: Kaevon Merriweather (6-0, 212), RS senior; Sebastian Castro (6-1, 207), junior 

FS: Quinn Schulte (6-1, 208), RS junior; Reggie Bracy (6-0, 209), junior 

RCB: Riley Moss (6-1, 193), senior; Brenden Deasfernandes (6-0, 192), sophomore

P: Tory Taylor (6-4, 230), junior

Long snapper: Luke Elkin (6-1, 227), sophomore

KOR: Riley Moss (6-1, 193), senior; OR Cooper DeJean (5-11, 209), sophomore

PR: Arland Bruce IV (5-10, 198), sophomore; OR Cooper DeJean (5-11, 209), sophomore

Kennington Lloyd Smith III covers Iowa Hawkeyes football and men's basketball for the Des Moines Register. You can connect with Kennington on Twitter @SkinnyKenny_ or email him at ksmith@gannett.com.