Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian announced that the Longhorns will not be having a spring game this year. Sarkisian is the latest coach to change up the format in spring practice.
“No, we’re not going to have a spring game,” announced Sarkisian on the “Up & Adams Show”. Sarkisian’s decision is part of growing trend of college programs that will be forgoing spring games this year in favor of practice or scrimmages.
“Couple of reasons why… over the last two years we’ve played 30 games,” explained Sarkisian. “That’s a lot for college football.”
The Georgia Bulldogs find themselves in a similar situation to Texas. Georgia has played in 28 games over the past two seasons.
“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 midyear high school kids that just showed up,” Sarkisian said.
Georgia interestingly has had exactly 25 players invited to the NFL combine over the past two seasons. Georgia also had 24 early enrollees, so Georgia and Texas basically have the same situations entering the offseason. Both schools will have new starting quarterbacks, elite incoming recruiting classes (UGA’s 2025 signing class is No. 2 and Texas is No. 1) and will be replacing tons of NFL draft talent. Both teams made the College Football Playoff last season and did not bring in a ton of transfers.
Head coach Kirby Smart and Georgia have not set their spring practice plans in stone yet. However, as a fan and member of the media, having no spring games is disappointing. Spring is a time of optimism for college football fans and provides a low-barrier chance for fans to see their favorite team without spending too much money.
Sarkisian further explains his spring game decision
“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,” Sarkisian said. “And so our approach is going to be a little more NFL driven. 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. And I just don’t know (if) rolling the ball out, playing the game, when we only get 15 practices, is the best for us.”
Both Georgia and Texas will have scrimmages this spring. However, both schools may not allow fans to watch. Additionally, schools are leery of opposing teams’ scouts watching spring game film and recruiting their players.
This article originally appeared on UGA Wire: UGA has similar situation to Texas, could cancel their spring game
