Pocket presence questions for Texas quarterbacks won't be answered in spring
After a quality first showing versus Louisiana in week one of the 2021 season, Texas quarterback Hudson Card struggled mightily at Arkansas. Card showed a decent amount of poise and pocket presence versus the Ragin’ Cajuns.
In Fayetteville, Ark., he showed little if any at all.
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“It’s just something I learned from, honestly,” Card said Thursday. “Obviously, it didn’t go the way we wanted it to go. For me, just a learning experience for me.”
Card was sacked twice in a banner day for the Razorback defense. He had eight rushes for 14 yards with a long of eight yards. He was only 8-of-15 passing for 61 yards before Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian made an in-game switch to Casey Thompson that would last for most of the remainder of the season.
Pocket presence was something Card knew he needed to work on to receive more playing time last year, and, in the case of this year’s quarterback competition with Quinn Ewers, eventually earn the starting job in the summer. It’s been one of his main focuses.
“One is being more comfortable in the pocket, staying in there, knowing when to leave and when to stay,” Card said. “That’s one thing that I’ve been working on. Being able to connect more on the deep balls, which is something we’ve been emphasizing, as well as just being more comfortable in the system. That takes time and reps, but it’s coming along good this year.”
Card earned the starting job last year during a pre-season camp where he was always in a “no-touch” jersey afforded to quarterbacks. When he could finally be hit, which happened often versus Arkansas, things didn’t go as well.
Even in practice, the former Lake Travis quarterback understands there’s only so much in the area he can improve on working against his teammates.
“It’s honestly hard to really make it the same,” Card said. “Obviously, you can have people throwing stuff at you, bags, and helping you move and stay in the pocket. It honestly comes most from actual live reps.”
Speaking of live reps, Ewers arrives after his transfer from Ohio State with one of the best prep reputations as a passer this century. But the last time he took a hit?
“Probably in high school,” Ewers said Thursday. “The state championship game.”
To Ewers’ credit, he played through a host of midsection injuries toward the end of his state finals run in 2020. But maybe to his detriment as a prospect, he took only a handful of snaps in a Buckeye uniform after that game in AT&T Stadium.
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That presents questions for the quarterback room about pocket presence and a trait Sarkisian calls “contact courage.” It’s something he views as vital for his quarterbacks, considering how often he asks them to throw deep passes while at risk of a big hit from a defender.
And at this juncture, it’s difficult to know what Ewers and Card are able to do in a pocket, especially with very, very limited depth along the entire offensive line during the current spring.
Those live reps won’t come for a while, as even Saturday’s spring game will have Card, Ewers, Maalik Murphy (if available), Charles Wright, and Ben Ballard in those “no-touch” jerseys.
For everyone, just gaining better grasps of the offense during Sarkisian’s second year is paramount. The progress seems to be coming along nicely.
“As of right now, I feel pretty comfortable with what’s been installed,” Ewers said. “I’m excited to keep learning, because obviously I’ve got a lot of learning to do within the offense.”
Some of that learning, for any of Sarkisian’s signal-callers, has to do with contact courage. That lesson may not fully be available until Louisiana-Monroe comes to town.
