Steve Sarkisian updates Texas' quarterback competition, names starter

The Texas Longhorns’ quarterback competition has been, at best, clear as mud in 2021, while rotating Casey Thompson and Hudson Card in and out of the lineup routinely.

In Saturday’s crushing loss (57-56) to Kansas, Sarkisian gave Thompson the start, then later let Card lead the Longhorns for a few drives — which, as Sarkisian said Monday, was always the plan for Texas. Ultimately, Thompson got the lion’s share of playing time against Kansas, and after his performance, he’ll start once again this coming week against West Virginia.

“I didn’t bench Casey in the [Kansas] game. That was the plan going in. And they were very aware of what that plan was,” Sarkisian said. “The idea going into the game was Casey was going to play the first two series of the game, and then Hudson was going to come in for the third series, and then we were going to monitor it from there. Obviously, Casey gets the touchdown, but I thought Hudson actually had a nice drive for his. Unfortunately, for Hudson, two turnovers in those drives. So, at that point, I said we’re going to go back to Casey. Casey competed his tail off, played extremely well. Obviously, going into this week’s game, Casey is going to be our starting quarterback.”

Thompson finished the game completing 30 of his 43 passing attempts for 358 yards, six touchdowns and one interception, while Card struggled in his small share of playing time. Card went 3-of-5 for 52 yards, one touchdown, one interception and one fumble.

“I think ultimately, we can identify Casey, but [his performance] is kind of a microcosm of the entire roster,” Sarkisian said. “It’s about consistency, and it’s about playing with consistency at whatever our role is on our football team for any player. I think ultimately, for us as a team, the one thing I want to get done here in the final two ballgames is I want to see us play a complete football game in all three phases.”

Card was Texas’ opening-day starter, but the Austin native was far from perfect. Eventually, Sarkisian made the decision to replace Card with Thompson after a 40-21 loss to Arkansas in Week 2. The decision looked great at first, as Thompson strung together a couple great performances. However, he’s been inconsistent, leading to a never-ending quarterback cycle — one that, at times, has been hard to understand.

Through ten games, Thompson has thrown for 1,914 yards on a 64 percent completion rate, including 23 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He’s also added 158 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns to his total. Card, by comparison, has completed 61 percent of his passes for 467 yards, four touchdowns and one interception in far less playing time, plus one rushing touchdown.

Thompson is on pace to start for the Longhorns against West Virginia, but Sarkisian needs to lead Texas to two-straight wins in order to be bowl eligible. As such, the quarterbacks are likely to have as short of a leash as they’ve had all season.