Report: Casey Thompson receives medical hardship waiver, gets additional year of eligibility

Florida Atlantic quarterback Casey Thompson has been granted a medical hardship waiver, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported. As a result, he will have another year of eligibility — his seventh season.

Thompson was in his first year with FAU and played three games with the Owls before suffering a torn ACL that kept him out for the rest of the year. He started his college career at Texas before spending a year at Nebraska. He then entered the transfer portal again and made his way to Florida Atlantic, reuniting with former Longhorns coach Tom Herman.

Thompson was part of the 2018 recruiting cycle and committed to Herman while he was Texas’ head coach. He was a four-star recruit and the No. 308 overall player that year, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Thompson spent four years in Austin — taking a redshirt year as a true freshman — and totaled 2,422 passing yards and 30 touchdowns in that time. He then decided to transfer to Nebraska in 2022 and became the Cornhuskers’ starting quarterback, playing 10 games and throwing for 2,407 yards.

However, Thompson again hit the portal after Matt Rhule replaced Scott Frost as head coach, and became the No. 23-ranked quarterback transfer during the 2023 cycle, according to the On3 Transfer Portal Rankings. That’s when he headed to FAU to once again join forces with Herman.

It’s safe to say Herman was happy to have Thompson as his quarterback once again.

“A healthy Casey Thompson is better than anything that FAU has had here for quite some time,” Herman said on the ESPN College GameDay podcast prior to the season. “I don’t think there’s any debate there for a guy that started pretty much an entire season at the University of Texas, an entire season at the University of Nebraska.

“It says a lot for the kind of relationships that we build and we pride ourselves on that a young man that we started recruiting eight years ago would feel comfortable enough to come join our program for the last year of college football.”

In three games prior to his injury, Thompson completed 50 of 79 passes for 509 yards, five touchdowns and five interceptions for Florida Atlantic — which was in its first season as a member of the American Athletic Conference. Now, it looks like he’ll be gearing up for his seventh season of college football.