In what Steve Sarkisian has called the toughest decision on a starting quarterback he’s had to make as a head coach, redshirt freshman Hudson Card has edged out redshirt junior Casey Thompson to become Texas’ starting quarterback for the Longhorns’ season opener against Louisiana on Sept. 4, sources told Horns247.
Sarkisian informed the quarterbacks after a walkthrough practice on Friday night and indicated both quarterbacks would play in the opener, sources said.
The fall camp battle between the two quarterbacks was a tale of two halves. Thompson began fall camp as the quarterback getting the first reps with the No. 1 offense, and Card finished camp as the quarterback getting those reps.
According to sources close to the situation, Thompson struggled with interceptions early in camp, and Card protected the ball better throughout camp.
The depth chart had been settled at every position on offense except quarterback following a depth-chart meeting among the coaches last weekend, sources told Horns247.
A turning point seemed to be the first scrimmage of fall camp on Aug. 14, when Sarkisian expressed disappointment in the play of both of his quarterbacks. Thompson suffered two early interceptions in that scrimmage. Card took some sacks in that scrimmage, but he didn’t turn the ball over.
From that point forward, Card was the first quarterback to take reps with the No. 1 offense, followed by Thompson. In the second scrimmage of fall camp, Sarkisian said the offense rebounded and had a much better performance. Card threw for one touchdown and ran for two others, while Thompson threw for two touchdowns and ran for one. Neither turned the ball over.
This week, as game-planning for Louisiana began, Card continued to get the most meaningful reps with the first-team offense in 11-on-11 periods, while Thompson’s time with the first-team offense usually came in situational drills, such as when the quarterbacks hand off to running backs coming off the goal line.
On Monday and Tuesday of this week, Thompson even split second-team reps in 11-on-11 with true freshman quarterback Charles Wright.
Sources said Sarkisian’s announcement to the quarterbacks was prolonged because both Card and Thompson had two strong weeks of practice following the first scrimmage.
Card, who was recruited and offered a scholarship at Alabama while Sarkisian was offensive coordinator of the Tide, served as the third-string quarterback behind Sam Ehlinger and Thompson in 2020.
Card threw an incomplete pass and ran twice for 8 yards in a blowout against UTEP in last year’s season opener and was 1-of-2 passing for 5 yards and ran for 3 yards in UT’s Alamo Bowl victory over Colorado last season.
It was in that Alamo Bowl victory that Thompson had his finest performance at Texas and seemed to become the frontrunner to replace Ehlinger at quarterback.
Thompson helped turn a 24-17 lead into a 55-23 rout over Colorado after replacing an injured Ehlinger in the second half and completing 8-of-10 passes, four of them for touchdowns, while leading Texas on five straight scoring drives.
But Thompson’s advantage of having more experience in the Longhorns’ offense under coach Tom Herman disappeared when Sarkisian was hired to replace Herman after the 2020 season.
Both Thompson and Card had to prove themselves while learning Sarkisian’s offense.
Thompson was consistently the first quarterback to work with the first-team offense in the spring and even played with the first-team offense against the first-team defense in UT’s Orange-White spring game. Card was assigned to lead the second-team offense against the second-team defense.
Thompson, who completed 71 percent of his passes last season with six touchdowns and zero interceptions while leading the offense to points on eight of 10 drives (against UTEP, Kansas State and Colorado), threw a pick-six near the end of the first half of UT’s spring game.
While Thompson finished the spring game with two interceptions, Card finished the spring game 15 of 25 for 168 yards and a touchdown that came on a picture-perfect slant pass to Marcus Washington.
Card threw Washington open on the play, releasing the ball while Washington was completely covered up by a face-guarding defender.
According to UT’s stats for the spring game, Thompson took three sacks, while Card took five sacks (even though sacks were called whenever a defender touched the quarterbacks in the backfield, since they are not allowed to be hit in practices).
Sarkisian said the decision would probably come down to a “gut feel.”
Sarkisian’s gut feel on who to start at quarterback in the past has been pretty good.
He went with the unheralded three-star senior Mac Jones last season at Alabama instead of five-star freshman Bryce Young (the kid Nick Saban told Texas high school coaches has nearly $1 million in NIL earnings without having started a college game). Jones led the Tide to a national title while becoming a Heisman Trophy finalist.
As the offensive coordinator at USC under Pete Carroll, Sarkisian went with the young, up-and-comer Matt Leinart over the veteran Matt Cassel following Carson Palmer’s Heisman Trophy-winning season with the Trojans in 2002.
Leinart went on to win two national titles and a Heisman Trophy (before being out-dueled by Vince Young and Texas for the 2005 national championship).
It’s undoubtedly the story of Cassel that Sarkisian will try to sell to Thompson. There was a sense going into fall camp that if Thompson, who is beginning his fourth year at Texas, didn’t win the starting job, he could leave school and train on his own this fall while evaluating where to transfer in January.
Despite never having started a college game at quarterback during his four years at USC (2001-04), Cassel was drafted in the seventh round by the New England Patriots in 2005 and went on to a 14-year NFL career.
“I’m pretty proud of Cassel’s development,” Sarkisian said when I asked him about how tough the Card-Thompson decision would be and if any others compared to it?
Sarkisian said he couldn’t let his decision be affected by the reaction of the quarterback who was not named the starter.
“I can’t worry about that,” Sarkisian said. “I have to make decisions that are in the best interests of the entire football organization and our entire team.
“The moment you start worrying about the what-ifs about one player, I think that’s when you get hesitant in your decision making and you end up starting to make decisions that aren’t in the best interest of your team.
“We’ve got over 100 players on this team, and not one player can have that much of an impact where you sacrifice the team over one player. So, no, we focus on the team first in everything we do, and that won’t be any different when it comes to the quarterback play.”
