Casey Thompson, Hudson Card struggle in Texas' Saturday scrimmage

Casey Thompson and Hudson Card are engaged in a tight quarterback battle for the Texas Longhorns. Neither quarterback has pulled away from the other, making it tough on head coach Steve Sarkisian. After Texas’ Saturday scrimmage, both quarterbacks showed that they have work to do to earn the starting job.

Sarkisian wasn’t impressed by Thompson or Card in the scrimmage

Action against live defenses is the best way to test whether or not a quarterback is ready. For Texas, Thompson and Card were not at the level that was expected of them. Sarkisian isn’t overly concerned about this and believes it is part of the process of a quarterback competition.

“We didn’t want to play it conservate today,” Sarkisian said. “I wanted to push the limit with them and look at the decision-making, which I thought we did. And quite frankly, neither guy played up to the standard that I view as acceptable, and I think what they view as acceptable. But I think that’s part of the process.

“Both those guys had a really good first week. And then all of a sudden, they go to a scrimmage format and we didn’t apply the things that we had done all week long. That’s the key to the drill. The key to the drill is applying the preparation to the performance. We were too inconsistent at doing that today. So both guys going into next week have gotta take the practice reps and then ultimately apply it to the scrimmage next Saturday.”

Thompson, Card bring different dynamics to the Texas quarterback room

Neither quarterback has a lot of game experience at Texas. Thompson did replace injured starter Sam Ehlinger in last year’s Alamo Bowl. Texas won 55-23 over Colorado behind a strong performance by Thompson, who completed eight of ten passes for 170 yards and four touchdowns.

Card is a former four-star recruit. He threw for 6,435 yards and 80 touchdowns at Lake Travis high School, adding 1,359 yards and 20 touchdowns on the ground in three seasons. He also had over 1,000 yards and 13 touchdowns receiving as a sophomore, making him a versatile athlete. His versatility has made this a tough decision on Sarkisian.

Neither quarterback was at the level that Sarkisian expects on Saturday. That could partly be due to Sarkisian being extra hard on that position.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a concern,” Sarkisian said. “I think that the reality of it is, I’m probably harder on that position than any other position on the field from a coaching perspective. We demand a lot of them and we’re not going to settle. I have to find that right threshold with them to know kind of where their ceiling is right now. And the only way you can find that out is by putting them in those scenarios to get a level of understanding of where they’re at.”