Texas HC Steve Sarkisian offers insight into why the Longhorns won't be playing a spring game

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian recently announced that the team won't be playing a spring game this season, drawing mixed reactions from many fans and analysts.

The Longhorns' spring game typically took place in April; however, Sarkisian shared that because of the wear and tear that his team has suffered along with the fact that they have a lot of young talent coming in this year, they will need more training to be ready for the spring game.

Sarkisian also shared that the program is becoming more NFL-driven, which resulted in their decision to cancel the spring game.

During his latest press conference on Monday, Sarkisian offered some more clarity on the decision:

"I think one thing is important, that there's a little bit of a misnomer of why we're not having a spring game. To be clear, the portal opens on April 26, and the portal closes on April 25, that is Friday. So we're not not having a spring game, so people don't tamper with our players."

"They could go out and catch five touchdowns on that Saturday. They couldn't go in the portal anyway. Okay? That's not the premise of what we're doing. You know, people are going to tamper with our players, whether they we like it or not. That's fine."

"We're not having a spring game because I got 27 new faces on my roster that I need to take time to develop, and that development starts at the beginning of spring ball, where we've got to really build a foundation of understanding the whys of what we do, from how we practice to the drills that we do."

Steve Sarkisian opens up about rejecting NFL jobs

Texas had a thrilling 2024 season, and the football world praised Steve Sarkisian for his work with the program so far.

So much so that many NFL teams were interested in bringing in Sarkisian as their head coach.

Talking about why he never paid heed to such choices, Sarkisian said on Monday:

"We've got a lot of unfinished business," he said. "So I wasn't entertaining anything that was beyond making sure that I had a really good job here, and I could solidify the job here, and I could hire the best people I could here, and I could recruit the best players I could here."

Steve Sarkisian has an overall record of 38-17 as the Longhorns head coach.