“I want us all to succeed.”

Husker quarterback Casey Thompson knew heading into Nebraska’s Red-White scrimmage on Saturday at Memorial Stadium that he would play limited snaps and lead a few drives in front of the 54,000 fans.

“They didn’t want to play me that much during the spring game because of the format and they’ve seen enough up to this point in the 14 practices before the spring game and also in winter conditioning and drills and meeting,” Thompson said on Husker Chat Live. “They didn’t feel they wanted me to play the whole game, so I was OK with that. I was pleased that I was going out there with the first team and that was important.”

He said he has thrown 200 to 300 passes during spring practice and that’s why coaches were comfortable with seeing a few drives from him during the Red-White game.

With a new offense and many new players, Nebraska tried to conceal much of what they had been working on during the spring. Thompson said offensive coordinator Mark Whipple wasn’t calling the plays and that other offensive coaches were making the play calls.

Thompson only played eight snaps, including six pass plays.

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound junior started his Husker career with an 11-yard pass to tight end Nate Boerkircher, perfectly placing it between two defenders and high enough to be only in the 6-foot-4 tight end’s reach.

Nebraska’s offensive line struggled to protect Thompson as he was forced to scramble for three yards and then was sacked by Garrett Nelson for a loss of seven yards. He connected with Boerkircher in the middle of the field on third-and-19 for a 10-yard gain.

On his second drive, his pocket collapsed and he was forced to scramble for a loss of seven yards. Wide receiver Trey Palmer drove forward to snatch a pass from Thompson on the drive, but the next pass was tipped by defensive lineman Colton Feist, falling short of receiver Alante Brown.

Although Nebraska had planned for Thompson to run two drives, they put him in for a third because of his limited reps on the first two drives and Thompson said he wanted a touchdown.

He handed it off to running back Anthony Grant for a 63-yard touchdown on the first play of the drive for the offense’s first score.

Thompson said his goal for the Huskers’ spring game was to complete all his passes. He went 3-for-4 during the scrimmage.

“It was about going out running the offense and just getting out of the game healthy was the main thing we were trying to accomplish today,” He said during the post-game press conference. “I wanted to complete every pass. I was close but that kind of was the goal today to run the offense and get out of the game healthy.”

Nebraska’s defense, or the white team, came out victorious, winning 43-39 thanks to defensive back Darius Moore intercepting quarterback Heinrich Haarberg.

While Thompson said he really wanted to offense to win so they could have bragging rights during the off-season. However, he said he was mostly happy with how the quarterbacks played.

Thompson said he was impressed with Logan Smothers and Chubba Purdy, along with Haarberg.

“I thought that (Haarberg) looked better and he’s been having a lot of progression throughout spring and his footwork looked good yesterday,” he said. “He was making some plays with his legs, tucking in and running, and making some throws. He had a good throw on the touchdown.”

Head Coach Scott Frost said following the scrimmage that the quarterbacks all have a lot of learning to do.

“They say when the offensive is behind the defense is usually when you are doing new things and quarterbacks take the worst of that,” Frost said. “There are pieces of two different systems that those guys are all learning, not just (Thompson). That is why I think at times we have looked like a million bucks and other times looked a little lost but I have seen good progress from that position from multiple guys and we have to make a lot more ground up this summer.”

Walk-on quarterback Jarrett Synek juked his way into the endzone to start the fourth quarter and Thompson was the first player from the sideline to congratulate Synek.

“I want to see everyone do good,” Thompson said. “I want us to all succeed and the better we can be at quarterback and wide receiver and running back and offensive line and tight end, the better we’ll be as an offense and the better we’ll be as a team.”