Steve Sarkisian remains confident in Casey Thompson at quarterback

Steve Sarkisian isn’t worried about Casey Thompson as the starting quarterback of the Texas Longhorns. Thompson struggled in Texas’ 34-24 loss to Oklahoma State in Week 7. In the loss, Thompson was 15-of-27 for 179 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions.

Despite his down game, Sarkisian isn’t going to make any changes at quarterback and will roll with Thompson. Sarkisian said that Thompson has earned that opportunity.

“I think Casey has earned a little bit more of that right to work through some of those struggles,” Sarkisian said of Thompson. “The week before he throws five touchdowns against Oklahoma. He had a six touchdown game against Texas Tech. So, he’s played and shown really good football to us. I think he’s earned that opportunity to work his way out of this.”

Sarkisian: Thompson will start for Texas, but we’re ‘still developing’ Hudson Card

Hudson Card began the season at quarterback for Texas. On the year, Card has completed 24 of his 39 passes for 314 yards, two touchdowns, and zero interceptions. But once Card’s struggles began, Sarkisian turned to Thompson at quarterback.

Thompson has completed 65 percent of his passes for 15 touchdowns and five interceptions this season. He also has three rushing touchdowns. Thompson threw five touchdowns two weeks ago and accounted for six scores earlier in the season against Texas Tech. Sarkisian is confident that Thompson will bounce back and keep playing well as the starting quarterback at Texas.

“Now, we’re still developing Hudson,” Sarkisian said. “And if that time comes, we need to make a change, we’ll be prepared to do so. But, we have all the confidence in the world in Casey that he can do that. But bigger picture, I think holistically it’s us as a team. And then you pair it down to us as an offensive unit and same with the defense and obviously the quarterback. It’s like anything. We choose to be a head coach, we choose to play the position of quarterback.

“And with those types of positions, when you win sometimes you get a little bit more credit than maybe you deserve. And when you lose maybe you get a little more of the blame than maybe deserved. But that’s okay. You got to understand the arena you chose to be in. You can’t ride the motional roller coaster of the up and down. You’ve got to try and find that even keel. So, I have the utmost confidence in Casey that he’ll bounce back and play great football for us.”

Texas faces off against Baylor at 12 noon ET on Saturday.