"There's a formula to it": When Steve Sarkisian revealed his recipe to building Texas training camp schedule

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian likes to have his team ready and healthy when it matters the most. To do it, he doesn’t have a random training schedule in the offseason; he follows a process.

In August 2023, he talked about the structure of this process on “Green Light with Chris Long” with the former football player. He laid out how he would mix in training days with helmets and pads with days off to keep the team fresh.

“There’s a formula to it in a sense that I don’t ever want our guys to feel like they are saving themselves because they know there’s such a grind of days in a row. I want them to feel they can exhaust themselves for a couple of days knowing we are going to have a recovery day,” Steve Sarkisian said (10:28).

That approach has helped Texas in its two most recent seasons, with Steve Sarkisian’s squad reaching the College Football Playoff Semifinal each time. Sark may not have known about the expanded CFP back then, but it also helps prepare the team for longer postseasons.

“It is much more of the NFL model that way, but to make that work you have to have highly competitive practices,” Steve Sarkisian added.

In 2023, they lost to the then-undefeated Washington Huskies, while last year it was the eventual national champion Ohio State Buckeyes that sent the Longhorns packing.

Sarkisian will enter his fifth season as the Texas head coach in 2025, looking for his first championship in Austin.

Before arriving at Texas, Sarkisian worked at Alabama as an offensive coordinator for a couple of years, getting to learn from Nick Saban.

Steve Sarkisian lets science guide training

In that same talk with Chris Long, the Texas coach also shared that he believes that whatever science dictates is better to prepare his team for the season. That way he tries to stay on top of the latest methods. (Start at 14:20)

“I’m a total believer in sports science. I totally believe that science has given us tools now that we just didn’t have before. Whether it’s workload. Whether it’s explosive movements. Whether it’s change of direction, acceleration, deceleration. Whether it’s hydration tests. The sleep pattern. All the things that go into it to put yourself in position to be optimal success,” Steve Sarkisian said.

However, the coach doesn’t go away from fundamentals either. He feels the game is still one of running, blocking, and tackling, so he still tries to develop physical and mental toughness on his teams.