Steve Sarkisian Makes Final Decision on Texas Longhorns Spring Game

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian made a firm decision on the questions surrounding the annual spring game.

Matt Galatzan | Feb 20, 2025

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian watches from the sideline during the first half of the Cotton Bowl Classic / Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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The Texas Longhorns are coming off of a tremendously long season, in which they were taken to the brink mentally and physically over 16 games, throwing the idea of a spring football game just a couple of months later into question.

On Thursday during an appearance on Up and Adams, Sarkisian answered those questions, confirming that the Longhorns will not be holding a spring football game.

“No, we’re not going to have a spring game,” Sarkisian said. “A couple of reasons why. Over the last two years, we’ve played 30 games. That’s a lot for college football. Fourteen two years ago, 16 this year. I just mentioned, we’ve had 25 guys get invited to the NFL Combine the last two years, so we have a lot of young players on our roster. We have 21 mid-year high school kids that just showed up."

Jan 10, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian during the second quarter of the College Football Playoff semifinal against the Ohio State Buckeyes / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

So what will the Longhorns do instead? Obviously they will still go through spring practice, as those reps will be critical for the young players to get integrated into the fold.

However, according to Sarkisian, Texas will now be taking a more 'NFL-like' approach, with an OTA-style camp.

“Our approach is going to be a little more NFL-driven, kind of more of an OTA style early on as we grow into more of the scrimmage formats in the second half of spring ball. I just don’t know (if) rolling the ball out and playing the game when we only get 15 practices is the best for us to maximize the opportunities that we get. It’s going to be a little bit of a different approach, but I think college football is changing right now. We need to do a great job as coaches of adapting to college football. That’s what we’re trying to do, and I think that’s going to be good for our team.”

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Published Feb 20, 2025

MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.