AUSTIN, Texas — Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian is changing up how his team approaches the offseason, which includes nixing the traditional spring game.
Sarkisian broke the news while appearing live on the "Up & Adams Show with Kay Adams!" on Thursday and said there were a couple of reasons why he made that decision.
“Over the last two years, we’ve played 30 games, and that’s a lot for college football. Fourteen two years ago, 16 this year,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve had 25 guys get invited to the NFL combine in the last two years, so we’ve got a lot of young players on our roster…And so the development that’s need for these guys to get ready for the fall is a little bit different than it used to be.”
Sarkisian said he is looking to the NFL as a model for this year's offseason, which means practices that look more like the NFL’s OTAs–organized team activities–at the beginning and then move into scrimmages.
“I think college football is changing right now. And we need to do a great job as coaches of adapting to college football, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” he said. “I think it’s going to be good for our team.”
Texas football’s Orange-White Game has been traditionally played every April as a way for the team to simulate what a game would be like and for fans to see them in action–for free–a few months before the season officially kicks off.
During the interview, Sarkisian also vaguely confirmed that Arch Manning would be the starting quarterback in the fall.
“It would be pretty tough for me to say he’s probably not going to be our starting quarterback,” Sarkisian said. “He started for us a couple of games last year, played really good football.”
Sarkisian went on to say that he thinks the exposure Manning has had over the past year has made him ready for the position.
“I think he’s ready for the moment,” he said. “We’ve got a pretty good team. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re in February, and we’ve got a long way to go until the fall rolls around, but we’re in a good spot to, I think, have a pretty good football team. And it’s going to be even better knowing he’s going to be the guy for us.”
After some more pushing from Adams, Sarkisian finally let up and said “sure” Manning would be the starter.
Manning will replace Quinn Ewers, who declared for the NFL draft last month after leading the team to back-to-back playoff appearances.
Sarkisian had something to celebrate about during the interview as the University of Texas System Board of Regents on Thursday approved his seven-year contract extension. His new contract includes a $400,000 raise this year and would see him earn up to $12.3 million in the final year.
