The Florida Atlantic football team has made their decision: they will be rolling with Casey Thompson as their starting quarterback for the week one matchup against the Monmouth Hawks on September 2. Head coach Tom Herman waited until Monday afternoon to confirm the starter, meeting with players, coaches, and staff to inform them about his choice on who will be leading the snap for the Owls to begin the season. Thompson was the second Texas product to transfer to FAU this year after Ben Ballard, and the third quarterback overall with Daniel Richardson joining earlier this spring. He left the Longhorns after four seasons, finishing with 2,422 passing yards and 30 touchdowns at a 64% clip in 19 games. His best statistical season was in 2021 when he got the starting job, which he ended up posting 2,113 passing yards and 24 touchdowns with his best performances coming against Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Kansas, where he combined for 1,049 yards and 16 touchdowns on 68 completions. His accomplishment of having three games where he scored five or more touchdowns is the most in the program’s history. He took his talents to Nebraska, throwing for 2,407 yards for 17 touchdowns at a 63% completion rate while adding five rushing touchdowns on 56 carries in 10 games with the Huskers last year. One of his best games came against Georgia Southern last September when he put up 318 passing yards for a touchdown on 23 completions and 31 rushing yards for three touchdowns. Despite his solid performances, he battled through injuries during the 2022 campaign. He had shoulder surgery as he made his recovery over the spring and summer before participating in fall camp with FAU. Thompson appears to have not missed a step in his movement and throwing ability throughout fall camp. He has shown consistency in providing smooth passes to the wide receivers, making the right reads on when to pass or hand off the ball to a running back, and knowing where to move in the box during live plays. “Knowing him for as long as I have, one of the attractions of coming to FAU was the learning curve. He knew that any other offense would probably be a pretty steep learning curve; is this the same offense from three years ago when we were last together, no,” Herman said. “But conceptually and from a philosophical 30,000-foot view, it’s very similar; and so it’s been a pretty smooth transition for him.”
