Texas Football: Casey Thompson gets first team reps in full pads practice

Spring drills are ramping into high gear for newly hired head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program this week. Texas got into their first team full pads practice in spring camp this week. And there looked to be a lot of key nuggets from spring practice that can give some insight into how the depth chart is shaping up in the last few days. Texas has a lot to figure out before the fall arrives and sorting out who gets first-team reps is big.

Sark and the Longhorns also had the setback in the first week of spring camp of COVID-19-related issues pushing back contact drills roughly one week. So things had to get moving fast on the Forty Acres within the last week.

One of the most notable, if not the biggest, looming storylines for spring drills is the quarterback battle between redshirt junior Casey Thompson and sophomore Hudson Card. The former four-star recruit and Oklahoma native Thompson looked to have the edge over Card slightly heading into the offseason in the starting quarterback battle.

However, a lot could still change with Sark instilling a new offensive scheme different to that of former fourth-year Texas head coach Tom Herman.

Casey Thompson getting the edge in Texas football spring drills?

According to a report from Horns247 on April 7 (paid content), Thompson got the first-team reps in the first full pads practice of spring camp this week. One might think that meant Card was getting the sole second-team reps, but he still got some looks with the first-team.

Although, Thompson was the first Texas signal-caller to get first-team reps in full pads practice this week. Sark seems to be keeping this competition pretty wide open between Thompson and Card, which does make sense given all of the change occurring within the program this offseason.

It is still worth watching how the distribution of reps plays out throughout the remainder of spring camp and on into the spring football game. The Orange-White Game is set to kickoff on April 24 at 1 p.m. CT at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

Texas is now roughly two weeks ago from their spring game, which doesn’t give that much time left for reps in contact drills. Sark must use them wisely, and knowing which quarterback should be slotted in which position is key.

Under the direction of Herman, Texas finished the 2020 season with a record of 7-3 (5-3 Big 12) with an Alamo Bowl win over the Colorado Buffaloes back on Dec. 29. Texas wound up replacing Herman with the ex-Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator Sark back on Jan. 2.