Column: It's Time for Oklahoma to Give Casey Thompson a Shot at QB

The Sooners' seventh-year senior has OU DNA and appears fit enough to play, and he certainly couldn't do worse than the current swarm of turnovers and mounting losses.

Oklahoma quarterback Casey Thompson / John E. Hoover / Sooners On SI

It’s time.

Oklahoma has no more room for error. The Sooners can’t worry about egos or the transfer portal or the future beyond Nov. 23.

It’s time for Brent Venables to turn the Oklahoma offense over to Casey Thompson.

Is Thompson physically able? We assume so. He’s been traveling with the team, he’s been going through warmups, he’s been making all the throws in pregame. He’s the Sooners’ emergency quarterback, but if he wasn’t completely over the knee injury that knocked him out of most of the 2023 season at Florida Atlantic, then Thompson wouldn’t be No. 3 on the two-deep.

If he’s not physically ready to play, then he wouldn’t have been along for the ride Saturday night when the Sooners dropped an almost inexplicable 30-23 loss at Missouri.

Starting quarterback Jackson Arnold lost two more turnovers against the Tigers, a couple of fumbles this time. He also just simply dropped another fumble without anyone near him before recovering  it himself.

Arnold lost his starting job when he committed two fumbles and an interception in the Sooners’ inaugural game as a member of the Southeastern Conference, a 25-15 loss to Tennessee on Sept. 21. 

He got his job back after backup Michael Hawkins committed crushing three turnovers — two that were returned for touchdowns — in the first five minutes against South Carolina on Oct. 19.

Arnold showed progress in the loss at Ole Miss, just losing one fumble on another sack. He looked fine last week against Maine, suffering zero turnovers.

There was hope among the fan base that Arnold had turned a corner with his turnovers. But the loss to Mizzou showed that he has not.

He dropped the football on the opening drive with no pressure on him. He fumbled again in the next possession. Then in the fourth quarter, while trying to drive for a go-ahead score in the final seconds, he lost it again — this time it was returned for a Missouri touchdown and the game-winning points.

“I probably should’ve thrown it away a little earlier and just got a new play in,” Arnold said. “It blows. It sucks. That can happen at any time, and it happened at the worst possible time. But I just gotta be better.” 

In his eight starts, Arnold has lost 13 turnovers (six interceptions, seven fumbles), and those have directly produced 44 points for the opposition.

I asked Venables what the solution is when both the starting QB and the backup have been guilty of so many turnovers.

“He’s got to get better,” Venables said in an almost morose postgame press conference. “It’s unfortunate. You never like it. It affects everything you do. You have to get better at it, taking care of the ball. It’s the basics. It’s not anything earth shattering. We have to get better at it.”

So I asked Venables the only follow-up question left: 

Has there been any consideration to turning things over to their seventh-year senior, Casey Thompson?

“I don’t know,” he said. “We’re not there right now at this moment.”

If the OU coaches are not even considering Thompson as an option to play against Alabama in two weeks, then that shows either obtuse leadership or willful ignorance.

Again, assuming his knee is strong enough and he’s good to go physically, there’s no reason not to play him. 

Behind the scenes, of course, there’s a fear in the Switzer Center that benching Arnold again means losing him to the transfer portal at season’s end — and, well, you just don’t risk losing a 5-star quarterback to play the third-stringer when the season’s already lost.

But is Arnold really the 5-star quarterback everyone thought he was? All evidence so far is pointing to the contrary. In addition to all the turnovers, Arnold is 106th nationally and 13th in the SEC in passing yards per game (155.4), 92nd nationally and 13th in the SEC in passer efficiency rating (125.7), and 117th nationally (of 119 players ranked) and last in the SEC in passing yards per attempt (5.81).

Oklahoma still needs one more win to get to six for the season and continue the program’s 25-year bowl streak. That would mean another 2-3 weeks of practice, which this team desperately needs. 

Who’s more likely to beat Alabama at this point — the Jackson Arnold who took the field last night against Missouri? Or the Casey Thompson who turned 26 last month and has played in 35 career games with 23 career starts?

Thompson is finishing up his seventh year in college football. He redshirted at Texas in 2018, was Sam Ehlinger’s backup in 2019, then went back and forth with Hudson Card in 2020 and finished with a record-setting Alamo Bowl performance. In 2021 he won the Longhorns job, made 10 starts and passed for 2,113 yards and had 28 total touchdowns. In 2022, Thompson started 10 games for Nebraska (including a loss to Oklahoma), passing for 2,407 yards with 22 total TDs. In 2023, he transferred to FAU, where he thought he’d wrap up his college career, but then suffered a knee injury in week three.

Thompson transferred to Oklahoma because he grew up on Sooner lore. His dad, wishbone wizard Charles Thompson, steeped his sons in it — the good and the bad. The kids grew up in Norman and Moore and two of them — Casey and Kendal — have suited up at QB for the Sooners.

Casey Thompson chose to transfer to OU because he wanted to be a Sooner. He has a deep-rooted love for the Crimson and Cream. It’s home to him. It’s his passion. He wants it.

More than that, he deserves it.

Yet, Thompson hasn’t played a single snap this season. Not in the 51-3 win over Temple in the opener, nor in the 59-14 win over Maine.

It’s time.

When Arnold crumbled against Tennessee, Venables concisely explained why he turned things over to Hawkins.

“Not taking care of the football,” Venables said that night. “And really, a poor half of football. So obviously, made a change there. Felt like we needed to.” 

After Hawkins’ dreadful performance against South Carolina, Venables again painted a simple picture to describe why he yanked Hawkins in favor of Arnold.

“Again, three straight drives, turnovers,” Venables said then, “that’s a pretty easy decision.”

Venables said several times both Arnold and Hawkins deserved an extended look based on their “body of work.” Now that everyone has gotten a look at those bodies — which include literally game-losing giveaways — it’s time to go to Thompson.

He’d certainly do no worse in the Sooners’ final two games than either of his teammates.

“Man, anytime you turn the ball over, it’s a major issue,” offensive coordinator Joe Jon Finley said after OU’s four miscues on Saturday.

Finley clarified that Arnold’s two most recent turnovers were only half of the Sooners’ total gift package to the Tigers. But he also said he thought Arnold may have suffered more indecision — a sure sign of regression within the new offense.

“Obviously, wasn’t as confident as he was the last two weeks,” Finley said. “That starts with me. I gotta put him in position to be confident, play confident. Obviously, he wasn’t the same person he was the past two weeks. So we gotta continue to find ways to make sure he’s comfortable, and we’ll keep doing that.”

A better decision would be to turn the offense over to Thompson.

It’s time.

One thing working against a move to Thompson: he’s just not as mobile as either Arnold or Hawkins. Both the sophomore and the freshmen have youth and speed on their side, and they’ve both been utilized well as weapons in the run game.

Thompson behind center all but takes that element out of the OU offense.

There’s also the little matter of pass protection. Arnold was sacked three more times at Faurot Field, which was below the Sooners’ average of 4.2 quarterback sacks allowed per game — a ghastly number that leads all of major college football.

In many ways, it wouldn’t be fair to Thompson, with his limited mobility, to stand behind what’s been called the worst offensive line in program history and take that abuse.

But Thompson — who has not been made available for interviews since before spring practice — probably doesn’t want to finish his career never playing in a game on Owen Field.

And would you look at the calendar, it’s actually the perfect time to make the switch. The Sooners are healing up this week with their second bye week of the season. Finley and the OU offense have an extra week to integrate Thompson into the scheme and get him ready to play against Alabama.

Sure, Alabama is coming to town next. And that could get ugly if Thompson isn’t confident and can’t move.

But OU quarterbacks have now given the football away 13 times this season — nine by Arnold and four by Hawkins, and the Sooners are teetering on a losing record, no bowl game and one conference win for the first time in almost 90 years.

How bad could it be?

The reality is that Venables isn’t going to hand things over to Thompson because he needs Arnold to be as good as he can be — in 2025. That’s when Venables will be coaching for his job, and he’d like to have a quarterback next year who’s tough and gritty and maybe been through some adversity.

Someone with whom the new offensive coordinator can win ballgames.

“Just keep on working,” Arnold said Saturday night. “I wouldn’t say this is a low point. It’s just something to build off of.” 

That’s fine. Let Arnold build toward 2025. Let Casey Thompson finish 2024.