Steve Sarkisian announces Texas quarterback plan vs. West Virginia

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian has revealed the Longhorns quarterback plan for Saturday’s game against West Virginia. It was previously announced that Casey Thompson would start the game, but Sarkisian has now elaborated on Hudson Card‘s potential involvement as well.

Thompson has been productive when he has been on his game this season. But when he has struggled, the team as a whole has as well. Card opened the season as the team’s starting quarterback but was quickly replaced by Thompson.

“Well Casey is going to start,” Sarkisian said of the Texas quarterback situation against West Virginia. “Casey will play until if something occurs where we need to make a change. But that is not a plan to have happen this week.”

On the season, Thompson has thrown for 1,914 yards, 23 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also has 148 rushing yards with four touchdowns on the ground. Card has played sparingly since Sarkisian replaced him as the Texas starting quarterback. On the year, Card has thrown for 467 yards, four touchdowns and one interception along with one rushing touchdown.

Thompson, Card both played quarterback for Texas last week

When Texas took on Kansas last week, Thompson started the game. But Card also took over the offense for a couple of drives. Thompson threw for 358 yards, six touchdowns and one interception, also rushing for a score against Kansas. Card threw for 52 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Sarkisian said that it was always the plan to give Card some time at quarterback for Texas against Kansas.

“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.”

Texas lost to Kansas last week 57-56 in overtime. The loss dropped the Longhorns to 4-6 on the season. With just two games remaining in the regular season, Texas will have to be perfect and win both to earn bowl eligibility.