ORLANDO, Fla. — Kirk Ferentz wanted to avoid any of his younger players becoming “internet marvels” and he vowed to avoid discussing their strides during Citrus Bowl preparation.

Then seven sentences into his answer, the dean of college football coaches broke his vow like a flimsy New Year’s resolution and began talking about — of all positions — his youngest quarterback.

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“That’s one of the neat things about bowl preparation; you get a chance to watch guys and coach guys who have usually been holding scout team plays up,” Ferentz said. “(Joey) Labas has been taking snaps with the twos — I better quit talking about quarterbacks in the press.

“It’s just been fun, fun to watch him. He’s one of those guys. Not quite ready to start, that’s for sure.”

Ferentz hasn’t named a Citrus Bowl starter and said bowl prep has given Labas “a jump on spring ball.” In the process, Labas’ elevation has allowed Iowa’s primary offensive players to witness what the team’s first-team defenders faced daily with Labas as a scout-team quarterback.

The 6-foot-4, 194-pound true freshman has wowed his teammates with his play-making ability and his competitive personality. That’s not easy for an 18-year-old player in his first semester on campus battling one of the nation’s best defensive units. It’s even more difficult for a young passer, considering Iowa’s 24 interceptions are the most by a Power 5 program since 2014.

“When he’s on scout, he’s definitely done some surprising things that you’ll be like, ‘Wow,’” Iowa safety Kaevon Merriweather said. “I’ve seen him throw like a sidearm like a Patrick Mahomes’ pass and completed it. I’m just like, ‘What the hey?’ (He) escaped the pocket, side-armed me.

“He’s definitely a really skilled quarterback, but he’s definitely mobile as well. I think that’s the only thing that surprised me was just how athletic he was once he escaped the pocket. He can pretty much make any play downfield. I think he’s made some really big plays against us, against our first-team defense, on scout.”

For a team that has faced quarterback issues this year, Labas has the potential to become either an oasis or mirage. All of those off-script scrambles and completions against the first team have endeared him to those who play against him. But there’s a difference between looking at cards and improvising while wearing a red jersey with no consequences and operating a structured offense.

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With redshirt freshman Deuce Hogan transferring and junior starter Spencer Petras out for several practices following severe bruising in the Big Ten championship game, Labas worked alongside sophomore Alex Padilla for most of bowl preparation. With Iowa bringing back former walk-on quarterback (and only fall semester student) Connor Kapisak for this month, Labas now can concentrate solely on the Hawkeyes’ offense.

“Joe Labas has made a lot of strides these last couple of weeks,” tight end Sam LaPorta said unprompted. “Everybody’s been really excited about him.

“With the scout field, they have to read the card, basically, and he gets to kind of freelance a little bit. You can do things on the scout field that we don’t allow, I guess, on the so-called varsity field. But to be able to transition and to hear the play call and see the entire field and break down the play, and point the buck, it’s a lot of stuff, especially for a young quarterback. It’s a lot of stuff for any young player to transition into a college offense. So, he’s taken a lot of strides with just the fundamentals of the offense, the play calling and stuff like that.”

It’s not a surprise to Martin Poder that Labas has adjusted to college and become a playmaker on the practice field. Labas performed many of those tasks every day as Poder’s quarterback at Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School, which is located about 15 miles south of Cleveland, Ohio.

“What separates him from a lot of people is just the way that he carries and conducts himself,” Poder said. “Some of the things that he does on the football field, like to him, in terms of his athletic ability and stuff like that, it’s just natural for him.

“That ‘It’ factor with him, he doesn’t think it’s anything special. But there’s a lot of times it’s really special.”

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When Labas was in high school, he racked up plenty of postseason honors. In all three of his starting seasons, Labas completed better than 65 percent of his passes. He threw for 7,221 yards and 60 touchdowns in the Cleveland area’s Suburban League. As a junior, he was named the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s offensive player of the year. In both of his junior and senior years, Labas earned his conference’s top offensive player crown.

Labas thrived against bigger and elite competition. Before a playoff game against a team with a handful of Division I players, Poder recalled Labas’ calm yet confident demeanor kept his team in the game.

“It’s just his competitiveness and his coolness,” Poder said. “He didn’t get fazed and then he ended up playing a heck of a game. It’s that moxie that he has. I’m sorry, I can’t use adjectives for him.”

Labas’ next step is his most important at Iowa. He needs to bulk up during the winter and learn enough of the offense to gain the staff’s trust in the spring. If he can show enough progress, Labas could end up in the starting competition come training camp.

Petras and Padilla have completed 56.6 percent and 49.1 percent, respectively, of their passes this year. Collectively, they threw 11 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Both are eligible to return next year — Petras is a junior, Padilla is a sophomore — but whether both come back is a reasonable question. Labas could find himself at least No. 2 by default entering spring football.

“He’s still a super young guy,” Padilla said. “It’s kind of a big learning curve when you come to a place like Iowa. He’s tremendously talented. He’s picking up things fast. He’s learning every day, learning from us. But this offense is kind of not easy. It takes a year, year and a half, to kind of learn the intricacies of it, and he’s doing a great job.”

If nothing else, Labas provides a different type of skill set when compared to Iowa’s recent full-time starters. The last Iowa quarterback to complete 60 percent of his passes was C.J. Beathard in 2015 (61.6). The last one to finish a year with positive rushing yards also was Beathard the same season.

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Perhaps Labas could give Iowa’s offense a similar vibe to the one Beathard brought that year, in which he helped the Hawkeyes to 12 regular-season wins.

“He’s an athlete,” cornerback Riley Moss said. “He’s one of those kids that he kind of makes things happen, at least on the scout team side of things. So that was kind of fun to go against this entire year, and he’s given us good looks for those non-pro-style quarterbacks. So, he’s done a good job with that and then just having fun competing. He’s a competitor so that makes us better on our side.”

In Iowa’s scout-team highlight video, which featured some funny clips, it also showed Labas with some tight red-zone throws and back-shoulder fades to go along with good ball placement. But that’s when he mimicked rival Big Ten quarterbacks. Now, according to Ferentz, the charge for his staff is to “get (Labas) on script.”

That shouldn’t be a problem, Poder said.

“He can do what they want him to do in terms of their offense,” Poder said. “We just keep on saying that skill set that he has, that I think whenever it becomes his time, I think that the people in Iowa are going to be really happy.”

(Top photo: Brian Ray / hawkeyesports.com)