Former Texas starting QB Casey Thompson abruptly enters the portal

It’s a story of highs and lows of late for the Texas football program and head coach Steve Sarkisian in the quarterback room. Texas just added the former Ohio State Buckeyes freshman quarterback Quinn Ewers via the NCAA Transfer Portal last week. But that turned into Texas losing redshirt junior quarterback Casey Thompson to the transfer portal on Dec. 17.

The news that Sark and the Longhorns were losing Thompson to the transfer portal came at a pretty unusual time for something of this nature. But that is the way it goes sometimes, as the news officially came down on the late afternoon of Dec. 17 that Thompson put his name in the transfer portal, courtesy of a report from Pete Thamel.

Thompson put his name in the transfer portal after starting in most games for Sark and the Longhorns this fall. Granted, it looked like he was facing an uphill battle heading into the offseason to win the quarterback competition over Ewers.

Texas football reportedly sees Casey Thompson enter the transfer portal heading into the weekend

At this point, it feels like all the momentum in the looming quarterback competition for Texas in spring ball sits with Ewers. It will be fun to see how the recently signed four-star Junipero Serra quarterback Maalik Murphy settles in for the Longhorns in spring ball

Thompson did put up some solid numbers at the end of the 2021 campaign. But Texas also went bowl ineligible for the first time since the 2016 season with Thompson as the starting quarterback most of the way.

In 2021, Thompson registered 2,113 passing yards, 63.2 completion percentage, 8.4 adjusted yards per passing attempt, 24 passing touchdowns, nine interceptions, and a solid 154.7 passer efficiency rating.

Thompson’s numbers as a whole for the last two seasons look pretty good. He registered more than nine adjusted yards per passing attempt, 30 passing touchdowns, and nine interceptions since late last season.

Texas saw Thompson rank in the top five in the Big 12 in pretty much every major passing category this season. That included leading the Big 12 in passing touchdowns during the regular season.

Seeing Thompson enter the transfer portal is a bit surprising for the Longhorns early on in their offseason. It was expected that the Longhorns could see Thompson duke it out with Ewers for the starting quarterback job in spring ball.