Texas will join a growing list of college football programs doing away with traditional spring games in favor of a slightly restructured practice slate, coach Steve Sarkisian said during a recent appearance on the “Up & Adams Show.” Sarkisian cited the ever-shifting landscape of college football and Texas’ increased workload during the season itself — the Longhorns have played 30 games over the past two seasons, including 16 in 2024 — as reasons for the change.
“I just don’t know if rolling the ball out, playing the game, when we only get 15 practices, is the best for us to maximize the opportunities that we get,” Sarkisian said. “So it’s going to be a little bit of a different approach, but I think college football’s changing right now and we need to do a great job, as coaches, of adapting to college football, and that’s what we’re trying to do. I think it’s going to be good for our team.”
Instead, Sarkisian said that Texas will try and mimic the NFL’s organized team activities to the best of its ability while moving towards more of a scrimmage format as spring practice wears on. Sarkisian’s philosophy reflects a growing campaign to transform the allotted 15-day spring period into NFL style OTAs over the summer, ramping up to fall camp.
Other prominent figures, like Nebraska’s Matt Rhule, have decided to move away from open spring games due to increased worries over transfer portal tampering.
“The word ‘tampering’ no longer exists,” Rhule said. “It’s just absolute free, open, common market. So I don’t necessarily want to open up to the outside world. I don’t want these guys all being able to watch our guys and say ‘Wow, he looks like a pretty good player. Let’s go get him.'”
Roster turnover was also among Sarkisian’s concerns.
“I just mentioned, we’ve had 25 guys get invited to the NFL Combine the last two years, so we’ve got a lot of young players on our roster,” Sarkisian said. “We have 21 midyear high school kids that just showed up. The development that’s needed for these guys to get ready for the fall is a little bit different than it used to be.”
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