Card flexes strong arm in quarterback competition
AUSTIN — It was just one throw, uncorked on a balmy April afternoon in the middle of an intersquad scrimmage at Royal-Memorial Stadium. The stakes that day were low as can be, the final score irrelevant. And still, all anyone could talk about after Texas’ spring exhibition was the prophetic dart quarterback Hudson Card threw to wideout Marcus Washington.
Freshman cornerback Jamier Johnson still had Washington smothered when Card unleashed the pass. The ball soared through open space, toward a lonely patch in the end zone about six or seven yards from the harassed receiver. But the delayed slant drew Washington to that exact spot, and he and the ball finally converged with spectacular precision for a 6-yard touchdown reception.
It takes more than one throw to win a quarterback competition. But Card, a redshirt freshman AllAmerican from Lake Travis, seems capable of making all the throws. And he might get a chance to do just that this season — if he can beat out junior Casey Thompson and win the heart of first-year coach Steve Sarkisian.
“Each day there’s always something new you can learn from and grow from,” Card said last week. “I think that’s what I’m focused on right now. In the film room, just learning from my mistakes and trying to grow each and every day. Just get the system down, get the right terminology down with me and the coaches, just try to improve every day.
“I’m just trying to play my game. At the end of the day, it’s not my decision, so just control what I can control and have fun with it.”
Sarkisian hasn’t rushed this critical decision, instead preferring to let Card and Thompson state their case over the course of months. Another way of looking at it: Neither one has forced the new head coach’s hand with overwhelming play.
Card had the pass of the day in the Orange-White spring game but didn’t do enough to overshadow Thompson. The story remained the same during last week’s scrimmage, which the Longhorns’ defense owned, prompting Sarkisian to assert that neither quarterback had played up to his standards.
So with two Saturdays left before No. 21 Texas’ season opener against No. 23 Louisiana, Sarkisian still doesn’t have an answer to the team’s most pressing question. But those who have witnessed Card go to work expect that one day, maybe even a few weeks from now, he’ll be running the show.
“Hudson is just a special player. There’s really no other way to put it,” former Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger said in February. “He came out of the womb spinning the football. And I know that’s not the only thing he can do, obviously. He played receiver as a sophomore and got scholarship offers as an athlete at receiver. So that’s a testament to his athletic ability as well.
“But you watch Hudson throw the ball, and you’re like, ‘Hmm.’ Like there were often times in practice I was watching him throw, and I’m like, ‘Gosh darn it. Like, why can’t I do that? Why can’t I spin it the way that he can?’ ”
Card throws a pretty ball. It’s one of the first things coaches and teammates mention when considering the 6-foot-2, 200-pound quarterback who threw for 5,831 yards and 74 touchdowns with just nine interceptions in his final two seasons at Lake Travis.
Card’s mechanics appear perfect enough to feature in a Pop Warner tutorial video. When they need to be. But he’s also adept at adjusting on the fly, firing from different release points and angles in order to give his receiver a chance.
That handy improvisation ability has even caught Thompson’s eye.
“Hud does a good job of kind of finding his arm angles and arm slots,” Thompson said last week. “And you know, obviously, there’s some things that he has to clean up as well, but he does a good job of just finding good arm slots and spinning the football. Whether he has laces, no laces, he does a good job at that. So that’s what I really think he’s doing well right now, just finding good arm angles to throw the football and getting it out.”
Texas will host its final preseason scrimmage Saturday at RoyalMemorial Stadium. That seems like as good a day as any for either Card or Thompson to make a definitive statement and pressure Sarkisian to settle on a starter, even if he doesn’t immediately announce it afterward.
And whether he’s the Week 1 starter or not, Card doesn’t seem likely to waver in his pursuit. Sooner or later, he’ll have an offense to command.
“Just never get too high, never get too low. Stay balanced,” Card said. “Because there will be positives and negatives. So just having faith and knowing everything happens for a reason.”