QB competition pleases Sarkisian
Extended battle between Card and Thompson to succeed Ehlinger is a win-win for new coach’s program
AUSTIN — Steve Sarkisian needs this quarterback competition to stretch indefinitely.
One, because every coach’s favorite overused proverb, that “iron sharpens iron,” tends to be true, so the harder junior Casey Thompson and redshirt freshman Hudson Card push each other, the better they’ll be come Texas’ Sept. 4 season opener against Louisiana. And two, because the longer this battles endures, the less likely it becomes that the loser beelines it for the transfer portal.
There’s no indication Thompson or Card would’ve fled Austin had Sarkisian named a starter during spring practice. But even if one vastly outclassed the other — by all indications, they remain neck and neck — the first-year coach had little incentive to make an announcement months ahead of the campaign.
Sarkisian hasn’t provided much in the way of tea leaves, either. The race to replace Sam Ehlinger is that tight. And frankly, Sarkisian and his staff couldn’t gather enough intel on Thompson and Card across just 14 spring practices and one public scrimmage.
“And I just didn’t feel like 15 practices was enough to name a guy a starter in a brand new system, a brand new scheme with brand new coaches,” Sarkisian said Thursday during Big 12 media days at AT&T Stadium. “I will say it’s a little bit of a luxury for me to have two quality quarterbacks like this.
“Casey Thompson is a guy who has been in the program a little bit longer. Everybody remembers what he did in the Alamo Bowl with four touchdown passes in the
second half. Very athletic guy. Very driven, very focused. High football IQ. Great leader. Hudson Card, tremendous passing ability, great instincts of passing the football. So we’re in a good position.”
Ideally, Sarkisian would like to name a starter with a couple weeks remaining in preseason practice. But he hasn’t instituted a drop-dead date, acknowledging that Thompson and Card could “make it so hard” that a decision can’t be made until a couple days before Game 1, or even the day of.
“I never say never,” Sarkisian
said. “I don’t think there’s any science behind it. I think there’s a gut feeling that you’re gonna have to go with.”
There will be a steep learning curve regardless of who Sarkisian settles on.
Thompson has appeared in seven games since enrolling in 2018. He’s thrown just 29 career passes, more than a third of which came in his scintillating near-perfect Alamo Bowl breakout performance.
It’s a paper-thin sample size, but Thompson has at least displayed the ability to win big games, and
win them big, at the college level.
Meanwhile, Card has produced even less in-game tape at this level, having thrown only two passes last season in Alamo Bowl mop-up duty. But the talent that made Card the 2020 recruiting cycle’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback is apparent to anyone who’s watched him laser precision strikes in practice and scrimmages — even Ehlinger couldn’t resist feeding into the Lake Travis star’s “golden boy” persona, saying last season that Card “came out of the womb spinning the football.”
Card provided a glimpse of what he can do back in April during the Orange-White spring game at Royal-Memorial Stadium, completing 15 of 25 passes for 168 yards and one score while working with the second-team offense. The 6foot-2 second-year quarterback also had the dime of the day from six yards outside the end zone, squeezing a lead pass through a narrow window to receiver Marcus Washington for the only receiving touchdown of the afternoon.
But even that public battle, which didn’t include much in the way of exotic play calling, didn’t move the needle in one direction or the other. Thompson completed 24 of 42 passes for 242 yards that day, connecting up with 10 wideouts in a 20-12 loss.
So Texas’ first quarterback competition since 2018 will roll on until at least mid-August. And maybe even beyond.
“At some point in training camp, I’m going to have to trust my gut and I’ve got to name a starter,” Sarkisian said. “And when we do, it’s not going to be because the other guy gave the job up. They’re going to make it tough on me.
“That’s what I told them. ‘You guys need to make this decision as hard as you can on me.’ Because I name one guy the starter doesn’t mean we don’t need the other one because the other guy’s a play away. In this day and age of college football to think you’ll go 13, 14 games throughout a season with one quarterback probably isn’t realistic. We have to develop both of them. But they both have huge upside. And I think we’re in good hands at that position.”