Scrimmage won’t settle battle at QB
AUSTIN — For three years, Texas quarterback Casey Thompson sat in Sam Ehlinger’s Forty Acressized shadow, waiting for a chance that never came.
Uncertain of his place in a congested position group featuring Ehlinger as clear lead dog, Thompson considered leaving for somewhere with a more orderly situation. So the son of former
Oklahoma quarterback Charles Thompson entered his name into the NCAA transfer portal in December 2018.
But when fellow Texas quarterbacks Cameron Rising and Shane Buechele both opted to transfer that offseason, Thompson decided to stay. So the wait began anew and endured right up until Ehlinger walked out for the second half of the 2020 Alamo Bowl with his right arm in a sling.
Thompson’s white-hot night at the Alamodome has already been well-traversed, but glancing at that half-game box score still provokes disbelief: 170 yards on 8-of-10 passing with four touchdowns, an astronomical 354.8 quarterback rating and one impressive 22-yard scramble, just to cover all the bases.
Even after routing Colorado in a 55-23 win, Thompson isn’t guaranteed a starting job under first-year coach Steve Sarkisian. That’s not a damning indictment of Thompson — it’s more a testament to the “golden boy” vibes of his competition, redshirt freshman Hudson Card.
It was Ehlinger who deemed Card “golden” last February, and he’s been good enough throughout spring practice to push this competition all the way through August — especially if Sarkisian wants to keep the loser from entering that overcrowded portal.
“It pushed me to become a better player every day,” Thompson told reporters Thursday during a Zoom availability of his time in waiting. “I’m hungry, and I want to get better. As far as the competition goes and holding off a younger guy, I’m embracing the competition. It’s only going to push me and make me a better player.”
Said Card: “We’re great friends. He’s a great dude, great player. And we make each other better. We’re there for each other, but at the end of the day, we know it’s a competition. We push each other; that’s how it should be.”
Thompson and Card will get their chance in front of a 25 percent capacity crowd Saturday at Royal-Memorial Stadium, though their respective performances won’t do much to shift the advantage one way or the other in Sarkisian’s mind.
The Longhorns’ annual Orange-White scrimmage, which signals the end of spring practice, will feature purposefully bland playcalling as this new regime tries to keep its playbook somewhat confidential. Texas’ intrasquad exhibition is less about bragging rights and more about giving some football-thirsty fans a good time and letting the players cut loose before the next offseason stage begins.
Not that Thompson and Card will play it like a friendly. Neither is keen on another year as sideline spectator, especially the veteran.
“Every day counts,” Thompson said. “As a football player and in life, it’s just trying to be the best person you can be every day. For me, trying to be the best quarterback I can be every day. It all comes down to preparation. I really don’t get nervous. Because if you play tight and tense, you won’t perform to the highest level. I play better when I’m relaxed and I’m loose and I’m confident. So I’ll try to do the same thing tomorrow as I’ve done all spring.”
Both Thompson and Card signed with Texas as vaunted four-star dualthreat prospects.
Thompson landed in Austin, despite his rival bloodline, following a sparkling career at Newcastle (Okla.): 12,840 total yards of offense, 154 total touchdowns, only 26 interceptions. The arrival last year of Card, an AllAmerican out of Austin Lake Travis who threw for 5,831 yards with 74 touchdowns and nine interceptions as a junior and senior, was equally celebrated.
Both players look capable of operating Sarkisian’s runpass option (RPO) offense, which requires shrewd, mobile quarterbacks who can make split-second decisions. And with this duel so even, the final deciding factor will likely come down to who has absorbed and mastered the playbook before the Sept. 4 season opener against Louisiana.
“There’s a lot of new things to learn,” Card said. “Just having a new offense, a new coaching staff, getting to know them, getting to know how they think. It takes time. But I feel like we progressed well in the spring, and we’ve all kind of adapted to the new style and new offense. Just trying to grow each and every day.”
The Orange-White game won’t deliver definitive answers. At most, it might subtly shift the outside narrative.
But this is a long-haul battle for Thompson and Card, and they’ll both have to wait a few more months of waiting to hear who’s the new starting quarterback.