Longhorns Coach Steve Sarkisian Looking for 'Clean' Orange-White Game

As the Longhorns prepare to wrap up spring practices, Steve Sarkisian detailed what he hopes to see in Saturday's Orange-White game.

© Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK

There have been plenty of reports out of spring practices for the Texas Longhorns, both good and bad, about just how the team will look this fall in year three under Steve Sarkisian.

While judging how a team will look based on practices in April is a fool's errand, there is some valuable information that can be gleaned from the Orange-White game that will bring an end to spring practice. 

However, one obstacle teams can run into in their spring game is evaluating which unit looked better since they're playing each other - an obstacle that Sarkisian discussed on Tuesday. 

"That's always the hard part when you play yourself," Sarkisian said. "That's always the challenge, 'Who won?' What I look for is a clean game. I try to look for the mental errors, guys doing the wrong things or guys lining up incorrectly." 

"I look for physicality, who can play well at the point of attack, whether it's inside the box or on the perimeter, and playmaking ability. Those are the types of things I look for. Ultimately, if both sides play pretty well it should be pretty evenly matched."

After all, the Longhorns did field two of college football's elite units on both sides of the ball last season. They averaged 34.5 points per game on 429.5 yards of offense per game while managing to hold opposing offenses to 21.6 points per game on 368.4 yards of total offense. 

With Sarkisian mainly looking for a clean game on both offense and defense, he is aware that errors can and will occur. 

"The problem comes when the big plays occur," Sarkisian said. "Whether it's a big touchdown, or a turnover or a sack. Generally, there's an error somewhere, and so hopefully we can reduce the number of errors that occur in the game. That's really what I'm looking for."

When the final whistle blows on Saturday afternoon and the Texas spring game is over, the Longhorns will be one step closer to taking the field in the fall for Sarkisian's third year.

There won't be a "winner" in the traditional sense, of course, but it will provide Sarkisian and his staff an opportunity to see how the team looks in live action as they progress into the next step of the offseason. 

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You can find Connor Zimmerlee on Twitter @Connorjz98

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