On-field experience, learning offenses gives Husker QB Thompson advantage

“Nobody really knows this until now, everyone will know,” Nebraska quarterback Casey Thompson said of his decision to enter the transfer portal.

Thompson told a group of media personnel that he researched schools that could be a possibility for him to transfer to for two weeks before entering his name in the portal to leave Texas. He said once he saw the Huskers’ former starting quarterback Adrian Martinez hit the portal, he added NU to the list.

“First and foremost, I was just looking for an opportunity at the quarterback spot,” Thompson said. “I was looking for a great offense and a good offensive line and the research that I did, honestly, it was just film study, just trying to watch and see what teams around the country have potential and where the good receivers are at. Honestly, I think that we have enough talent and we have plenty of pieces in place here to win ball games and compete at a high level.”

Nebraska checked all those boxes for him so Thompson committed to the Huskers on Jan. 7 over Auburn and Oklahoma, where his dad and brother played football.

Thompson, who started for the Longhorns in 2021, said the combinations of Head Coach Scott Frost’s offense and offensive coordinator Mark Whipple’s drew him to Nebraska.

“Frost recruited me at UCF. I studied his whole offense in middle school when he was at Oregon,” the 6-foot-1, 200-pound quarterback said. “I kind of knew what he was about and then I started to study Whipple’s offense and watched Kenny Pickett. And then I started on Nebraska in 2020 and ’21 and I saw we had plenty of receivers here to be successful.”

Fast forward and Thompson is two weeks into spring practice at Nebraska and dipping his toe into what it’s like to be a football player and a quarterback for the Huskers.

He said he gets stopped nearly every time he goes in public by fans who want autographs, pictures or just to chat. After being at Texas for three seasons and growing up around Oklahoma, Thompson said he is used to big football programs but also said Lincoln’s community is different than the one in Austin.

“The community here is more close-knit and everyone's kind of in the knowing, whereas Texas, Austin, Texas is more spread out, it's a big city,” the Newcastle, Okla. native said.

Another thing about Nebraska that’s different is the name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities Thompson has received after being in the state for roughly two months. He said he has started to “tone down” some of the opportunities to focus on playing ball.

“Nebraska is probably hands down one of the best programs in the country for NIL,” he said. “The support and the fan base here, I would say there's nothing that really compares to this. I've been surprised and a little bit blown away about how much football is a big deal around here but it's been great and it's been fun.”

As for on the field, Thompson’s coaches have been surprised also.

“Casey right away in our workouts this winter, I could tell he moved better than I thought he did for just watching tape,” Frost said. “There are going to be times where we’re going to ask him to run it to do some of the things, we do probably want to limit it a little bit, make sure we keep people healthy too. We’ll find that balance but I think he has the capability once he does take off to make something happen with his feet.”

The quarterback said his experience with playing at Texas and learning three different offenses is beneficial to him now at Nebraska learning his fourth college playbook. He played under head coach Tom Herman with offensive coordinators Tim Beck (2018 and 2019) and Mike Yurcich (2020) and then head coach Steve Sarkisian in the 2021 season.

Whipple, who has learned many more offenses in 40-years of coaching, said he can tell that Thompson is very experienced.

“He’s been well-coached, those guys that he had at Texas did a good job with him,” Whipple said. “He’s inquisitive which is nice. They may have done a certain way before that he may fall back into. He’s going through his progressions, he likes it. I like what I see. He’s taking a lot of leadership and did a nice job (on Wednesday) in the two-minute drill.”

Heinrich Haarberg, a redshirt freshman quarterback, said Thompson “brought the experience that we needed” to the quarterback room.

Thompson will be battling Haarberg, Florida State transfer Chubba Purdy and sophomore Logan Smothers for the starting quarterback job but has a leg up in experience and leading a Power Five team.

While spring practice has gone better than he thought, Thompson and all the quarterbacks have a lot to learn with a new offense being installed and learning new footwork.

“All the quarterbacks, in general, are really comfortable with some of the things we used to do and are still figuring out some of the new things,” Frost said. “I think Casey is doing the best at some of the new stuff because everything is new to him.”

After getting to see Thompson in person, Frost has noticed his speed and has gotten a front-row seat to what he identified as some of his strengths.

“He sees the field really well,” Frost said. “There’re some things when you get a new quarterback sometimes, everything’s moving fast and they get tunnel vision and that’s been apparent from the beginning that he sees the field when he knows where to go the ball comes out quick. He’s kind of a step ahead of the game and that only comes from experience that he already had.”