Texas' quarterback situation remains clear as mud
If Hudson Card’s entrance in place of Casey Thompson against Iowa State wasn’t enough, or if Steve Sarkisian’s own words during his Monday press conference weren’t enough…
Then let the official depth chart for the Kansas game make it apparent…
the Texas quarterback situation has little to no clarity nine games into the 2021 season.
“We’re going to evaluate it this week,” Sarkisian said Monday. “Obviously, Casey has been starting here for the past six or seven games. Obviously, we made the move in game. We need to evaluate that this week. There’s plenty of things to evaluate.”
Sarkisian ventured into new territory during training camp with the full-fledged competition between Thompson and Card. It was the first major quarterback battle he oversaw as a head coach.
Card won the battle during training camp, but Sarkisian noted early on both quarterbacks would play. And both did play in the season-opener versus Louisiana, with each tossing touchdown passes.
At the time, that was seen as a way for Sarkisian to both play who he thought was the deserved starter and keep Thompson around so backup duties would not fall to true freshman Charles Wright.
That all turned on its head one week later in Fayetteville, Ark.
Card, in his first road start in an extremely hostile environment, looked lost. When Thompson replaced him in the third quarter with the Longhorns down 33-7, the junior from Oklahoma led Texas on back-to-back scoring drives.
Then, against Rice and Texas Tech, Thompson recorded eight total touchdowns in efficient, dominating offensive performances. The battle, at least the 2021 version of it, appeared to reach a conclusion at that point.
A week after a road win at TCU, Thompson walked into the Cotton Bowl to take on Oklahoma as the starter. The storylines about him playing against his father’s alma mater in the Red River Shootout were all over, and Thompson seemed to live up to the moment. He tossed five touchdowns and tallied 388 passing yards, almost leading Texas to a successful comeback.
But he struggled in the second half up until the last-ditch comeback, and injured the thumb on his throwing hand in the process.
He played through it with a wrap the following week against Oklahoma State, but his effectiveness at throwing downfield — a key component to Sarkisian’s offense — diminished significantly. He threw two interceptions, including a pick-six that altered the entire complexion of the game.
Thompson offered a better performance against Baylor, but still missed some of the downfield passes required to make the offense go. Then against Iowa State, he was pulled for Card very quickly after a 2-of-6 day with two yards to his name.
“We’ve got to assess Casey’s thumb to see where that’s at,” Sarkisian said. “I think that did have a bit of an impact on him in the ballgame. We’ve got to assess how it flows this week throughout the week.”
Card entered the game and could not offer the “spark” Sarkisian desired. He was 14-of-23 for 101 yards and a touchdown via a flip pass to Xavier Worthy.
Sarkisian did note Oklahoma State, Baylor, and Iowa State are three of the top defenses in the conference when speaking about the lack of consistency at quarterback. He also didn’t want to pin all of the issues on the quarterback position. There were on-target throws in those last three games that receivers could not haul in.
“I think we haven’t been efficient enough at getting the completions that we don’t have to work as hard for,” Sarkisian said.
He continued: “Part of that is on the quarterback. Part of that is on the receivers and the consistency. And part of that is on me and making sure that I’m calling enough of those things to get some rhythm to what we’re doing in the passing game.
“It’s easy to point to the guy that throws it, and we have plenty of work to do there, but I think I have a responsibility to get to that point not only fundamentally and understanding the gameplan, but also what we call. Then, there’s a responsibility from the receiver standpoint of being where you’re supposed to be on time, and then ultimately making plays on the ball.”
But the constant switching and questions continuing to arise about the position at his Monday press conference makes it clear the situation is unclear.
Who will the starter be come Saturday when the Longhorns take on the Kansas Jayhawks?
“We’ll address that later in the week,” Sarkisian said. “I’ll have an answer for you guys, I guess Thursday, of what we’re going to do there.”
