Where the Texas backup QB battle sits with addition of Matthew Caldwell

Caldwell will battle Trey Owens and KJ Lacey for the right to back up Arch Manning.

When the spring NCAA transfer portal window closed in late April, the Texas Longhorns had already addressed the program’s major needs and avoided any impact departures, leaving head coach Steve Sarkisian with two scholarships remaining for the 2025 roster.

But the staff was already considering making an under-the-radar addition at quarterback to bolster a position with limited numbers and experience behind first-year starter Arch Manning, adding experienced depth on Sunday with the signing of Troy redshirt senior transfer Matthew Caldwell, who chose Texas over reported interest from hometown Auburn, an unnamed College Football Playoff team, and other late entrants into his portal recruitment.

With 485 career pass attempts, 21 passing touchdowns, and nine rushing touchdowns, Caldwell brings significant experience to the Texas quarterback room after stops at Jacksonville State and Gardner-Webb in addition to Troy.

Caldwell will compete with redshirt freshman Trey Owens and freshman KJ Lacey for the backup role.

“Trey can make every throw on the field and KJ can make some serious plays with his feet and his arm. So we’ve got a good room going,” Manning said this spring.

Recent history indicates that Manning’s backup will be needed in 2025 as three-year starter Quinn Ewers missed at least two games in each season, and backup Hudson Card had to play through sprained ankles in replacing Ewers in 2022 and Casey Thompson in 2021. Thompson had been playing through a thumb injury that eventually required him to sit out.

During the Tom Herman era, starter Sam Ehlinger missed time with over three seasons with two shoulder injuries and a concussion.

Coming out of spring practice, Sarkisian and quarterbacks coach AJ Milwee clearly had some cause for concern with the readiness of Owens or Lacey to contribute.

Sarkisian addressed their development during his final spring media availability in April, discussing the typical trajectory for quarterbacks who look their best warming up and throwing routes on air and gradually see deteriorating returns with accuracy in seven on seven and their footwork in team periods, then start dropping their eyes against the pass rush in game settings.

“These three guys we have right here are totally opposite. When we’re in walk through, they’re good players, I mean, they’re okay. They’re fine when we’re in routes on air, I’m all over their ass because I want more accuracy. We get into 7-on-7, that gets competitive and they start throwing a little better ball. We get into team, you can start to see the fire. But all three of these guys this spring have played their best when we scrimmaged. That’s a really good sign for us, Trey and KJ in particular — because I don’t have as much information on them — that their level of play rises.” Sarkisian said.

The Texas head coach framed the ability of Owens and Lacey to elevate their performance in competitive situations as a positive, but the issues with accuracy speak to continued mechanical deficiencies for both players that is cause for some concern.

“We can keep working on the nuances, the footwork, those things, but the competitive spirit is something that is hard to inject into somebody, and those two guys definitely have that,” Sarkisian said.

Here’s a breakdown of all three players.

Matthew Caldwell

An unranked recruit out of Auburn (Ala.) in the 2021 recruiting class, Caldwell signed with Jacksonville State and played in three games as a true freshman, completing 14-of-30 passes for 136 yards and rushing five times for 27 yards and a touchdown.

After the 2021 season, Caldwell transferred to Gardner-Webb and served as the backup quarterback, appearing in six games while completing 33-of-55 passes for 374 yards and a touchdown and rushing for two touchdowns. In 2023, Caldwell played in four games, completing 81-of-128 passes for 709 yards and five touchdowns while rushing 20 times for 83 yards and a touchdown. In a game against Elon, Caldwell was earned honorable mention FCS National Offensive Player of the Week honors with a 32-of-46 passing performance for 296 yards and two touchdowns, adding 21 rushing yards and a touchdown.

In 2024, Caldwell reunited with his high school head coach Adam Winegarden, the Director of Leadership/High School Relations at Troy. In six starts, including against Iowa, Caldwell completed 141-of-223 passes for 1,608 yards and 13 touchdowns with eight interceptions and five rushing touchdowns, the most by a Trojans quarterback since 2017.

Caldwell threw multiple passing touchdowns in four straight games, including four against Louisiana, and earned Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week honors for his performance against Georgia Southern when he completed 26-of-32 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for two touchdowns.

In Troy’s 38-21 loss to Iowa, Caldwell went 14-of-21 passing for 156 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. The touchdown pass was a 63-yarder.

At 6’4, 210 pounds, Caldwell has prototypical size for the position and adequate arm strength.

In his strong performance against Georgia Southern, a back-shoulder throw stood out.

Caldwell’s athleticism shows up with his ability to make some plays with his feet, converting a 3rd and 10 against Georgia Southern on a draw in addition to his five rushing touchdowns on the season.

The athleticism of Caldwell also allowed Troy to move the pocket and launch point for him on designed rollouts that produced a six-yard touchdown pass and a big 3rd and 4 conversion down the sideline that helped set up the go-ahead score against Georgia Southern.

On a deep crossing route after the rollout, however, Caldwell showed his tendency to let his footwork break down and throw off his back foot, forcing him to rely entirely on his arm strength.

The decision making of Caldwell was not always a strong point in 2024 with eight interceptions at a rate of 3.6 percent, a poor number that was a percentage point higher than Quinn Ewers. Pro Football Focus graded Caldwell as having 13 turnover-worthy throws.

Against Iowa, the interception thrown by Caldwell came at a critical moment in the game with Troy trailing 17-14 late in the third quarter. With the Trojans running a smash concept, Caldwell tried to manipulate the cornerback with his eyes to bite on the underneath route, but it wasn’t effective — a Caldwell probably need a shoulder fake and reset — allowing the cornerback to drop underneath the corner route, intercept it, and return it for a game-changing touchdown.

Caldwell was benched for the remainder of the game.

Ball security was also an issue for Caldwell with seven fumbles, including two against Arkansas State and two against Southern Miss.

A tie between the Trojans staff and the Longhorns staff aided in the evaluation of Caldwell — Troy head coach Gerad Parker was the offensive coordinator under Neal Brown at West Virginia in 2020 and 2021, allowing Brown, the new offensive special assistant to the head coach, to tap into that connection during Caldwell’s recruiting process.

So while there are some clear deficiencies that limit Caldwell’s ceiling and contributed to him losing the quarterback competition at Troy last year prior to the starter suffering multiple injuries, he’ll enter the Texas quarterback room in June with the highest short-term floor given the inexperience of Owens and Lacey.

Trey Owens

A 6’5, 225-pound pocket passer with considerable arm strength, Owens flashed his competitive spirit with his willingness to commit to Texas in the cycle after Manning, finishing with a strong senior season at Cypress Cy-Fair, leading to his team to an 11-2 season behind his 3,303 passing yards and 43 touchdowns — including a shocking overtime upset over Katy in the 6A Playoffs. Named district MVP in both years as a starter for the Bobcats, Owens passed for 6,360 yards and 77 touchdowns as the full-time starter.

So Owens arrived in Austin with an argument that he was underrated as the No. 299 prospect nationally and the No. 21 quarterback in the 247Sports Composite rankings.

The first task for Owens was to get into better shape, losing about 20 pounds between the spring and preseason camp.

“Just reshaping his body, getting his body in a way to where he can be quicker in the pocket, he can move in the pocket and have quicker feet. That way he can sustain throughout practice and be able to focus and execute at a high level, not because I’m physically tired, but I can withstand the demands of college practice and what we ask our guys to do,” quarterbacks coach AJ Milwee told Burnt Orange Nation at Peach Bowl media Day in December.

Owens served as the third-string quarterback in 2024, playing 27 snaps in blowouts against ULM and UTSA, completing 2-of-4 passes for 19 yards.

During the second spring that Owens spent on the Forty Acres, he impressed Sarkisian during the team’s final scrimmage.

“I saw Trey Owens make a couple really good throws at critical moments that when we had to have it, he probably threw it better in that setting than he did in the individual routes period,” Sarkisian said.

Heading into the summer, it does not appear that Owens has created meaningful separation from the younger Lacey.

KJ Lacey

On the opposite end of the physical spectrum as a quarterback is Lacey, a 6’0, 182-pounder who was ranked as the No. 155 player and No. 14 quarterback in the 247Sports Composite rankings. He’s drawn comparisons to another undersized quarterback with a similar skill set — Bryce Young, recruited by Sarkisian to Alabama.

“There’s definitely some some Bryce Young-type of throws throughout his tape and the way he kind of moves in the pocket. He was a basketball player too early on — that was a little bit of Bryce’s game, just the way he distributed the ball, it was almost like he was playing point guard on the football field. There’s definitely some of that in KJ’s game,” Milwee said.

Milwee’s connections to the Yellowhammer State, from playing at South Alabama to coaching at Alabama to his father’s 30 years as a high school head coach in the state, helped play a role in landing Lacey over 30 other offers, including Alabama and Auburn.

Like Young, Lacey has impressive arm strength for his size, scrambles to connect with receivers down the field, and regularly utilizes his improvisational ability to make off-schedule and off-platform plays.

“KJ is a really talented passer. He can throw from a lot of different arm angles, a lot of different arm slots. He’s really creative. He can extend plays. He’s got a really good arm strength to push his ball down the field, but just a really competitive kid,” Milwee said.

Lacey led Saraland to back-to-back runner-up finishes in Alabama’s 6A classification, making the run in 2024 without star receiver Ryan Williams, who re-classified to the 2024 recruiting class to star at Alabama. As a sophomore, Saraland won the state in Lacey’s first season as a starter with the help of four first-half touchdowns by Williams. Lacey finished as No. 2 passer in state history with 10,985 yards, only 40 yards short of the record set by Piedmont’s Jack Hayes.

“We look for guys that have a real competitive spirit and real leadership qualities, and those are two things that really to me stick out initially,” Milwee said.

Some of Lacey’s most appealing attributes started to show up in spring practice.

“All of a sudden I saw KJ Lacey’s mobility and athleticism show up in Thursday night’s scrimmage and him extending plays and him coaching guys on the situations and him being really a really vocal leader,” Sarkisian said.