Texas Football: Signs now pointing to Hudson Card as the starting QB

The writing was on the wall for new head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program in the past couple of weeks in the quarterback competition. Sophomore Hudson Card seemed to be getting more and more first-team reps in fall practice and the two fall scrimmages thus far compared to redshirt junior Casey Thompson.

There were also leading indicators that Card was looking better with the way he was spinning the ball in the drills and scrimmages compared to Thompson. And with that, there looked to be enough momentum building to have Card get the edge in the race to be the starting quarterback in Week 1.

According to a report from Horns247 (paid content) on Aug. 25, the “key indicators” are there for Card to be the starting quarterback in the regular season opener for Sark and the Longhorns. Although no official announcement was made as of yet, this report from Chip Brown of Horns247 gives good insight into the Longhorns preparing for Week 1 with Card getting the first-team reps.

That is usually a good indication of who the starting quarterback will be in the first week of game action.

Hudson Card reportedly has the edge to be the Texas football starting QB Week 1

And as recently as practice on Aug. 24, Thompson was having to apparently split the second-team reps with the presumed third-string quarterback and true freshman Charles Wright. That looked to be a major step back for Thompson in the race to be named the starting quarterback.

Another encouraging sign for Card is the fact that he continued to look better in fall camp as the past two weeks have moved along. Most indicators point to him responding really well to the disappointing showing that both he and Thompson had in the first fall scrimmage roughly a week and a half ago.

A lot of the weaknesses that Card has showed in camp are ones that you will usually get with a young and inexperienced quarterback. But the belief is that a lot of those kinks Card showed are ones that could be ironed out early in his time as the potential starter.

Now, while the indicators are there that Texas can name Card as the starting quarterback, this is nothing set in stone for the entire season obviously. There is always the chance that Sark will keep the Week 1 starter on a short leash, especially if Texas were to lose in either of the first two games of the regular season.

If Thompson is the backup for Week 1, he should still be ready to assume the reigns of the offense at any point. Texas definitely does not have an easy early season schedule, and changes could come abruptly from Sark if Card starts to struggle.

Nonetheless, it is good to have some level of clarity as to where the quarterback competition is leaning roughly 10 days ahead of the start of the regular season. Card looks to have a solid edge now, and that can help in the schematics and offensive game-planning heading into the final week of practice before Week 1.

Texas is set to open up the regular season slate on Sep. 4 at home at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium against the No. 23 ranked Louisiana Ragin-Cajuns. Then, the schedule doesn’t lighten up much for Week 2 as the Longhorns travel to Fayetteville to face the Arkansas Razorbacks the following weekend.