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Steve Sarkisian, Texas Football cancel Spring Game
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- Steve Sarkisian, Texas Football cancel Spring Game
College football is very different than it was even five years ago. With the advent of the transfer portal, NIL and an expanded college football playoff , programs like the Texas Longhorns have had to adjust and adapt. Sometimes, it means the end of long-standing practices and traditions.
The spring game has been a Texas tradition for decades. The traditional culmination of spring practice, the Orange-White game has been a chance for the players to put into action all of the things they've practiced over the two weeks of drills. It's also a chance for fans to get an early peak at the team.
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But Texas played an incredible 16 games during the 2024 season, more than any other season in history. Players are also more valuable commodities since they are now getting paid. These are just some of the factors that have lead to a momentous decision by Texas coach Steve Sarkisian. There will be no spring game this year.
Appearing on Up & Adams Thursday morning, Sark explained his reasoning. "A couple reasons why," Sarkisian said. "Over the last two years we played 30 games. That's a lot for college football. 14 two years ago. 16 this year. And 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. We have 21 mid-year high school kids that just showed up. And so the development that's needed for these guys to get ready for the fall is a little bit different than it used to be."
"Our approach is going to be a little bit more NFL driven," Sark continued. "Kind of more of an OTA style early on and as we grow into more of the scrimmage formats in the second half of spring ball, that 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. So it's going to be a little bit of a different approach, but I think college football is changing right now. And we need to do a great job as coach of adapting to college football and that's what we're trying to do."
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Ohio State, Nebraska and USC are other major programs that have also canceled their spring games. The main detriment to Texas fans is they will have to wait until fall to see Arch Manning truly take the reigns of the first team offense.
This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Texas Football, Steve Sarkisian cancel Spring Game
