A 17-game season? It's one Steve Sarkisian wants, but he has to make sure his team can handle it

In the new era of the 12-team College Football Playoff, the team that wins the national championship could have to play as many as 17 games in a season. That’s three more than the school record 14 the Texas Longhorns played in the 2023 campaign that featured 12 regular season games, the Big 12 Championship, and the Sugar Bowl as part of the College Football Playoff.

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The season could last from August 31 all the way to January 20, a schedule reminiscent of a professional one. Because of that new workload, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is assessing how he prepares his team for the season over the course of the summer with lofty goals on the table not just this year, but in the coming years as well.

“Like anything, I think balance is critical,” Sarkisian said on Wednesday at the Touchdown Club of Houston. “We’re going to get back to work in June, and my goal is that we’re playing January 20th. That’s a long road. That’s a long road. The last thing I want is our team coming out of training camp already tired of football after June, July, and August. We have got to build this thing the right way. We need to stay creative as coaches in all aspects of how we try to teach, how we try to get our players to develop.”

Put succinctly, “balance is critical, but I think balance is what’s going to help us for the long road. You think about starting up in June and playing well into January, that’s a long road.”

Balance won’t make it cooler in Texas in June, July, or August. Nor will it lower the temperature on the artificial surface of Campbell-Williams Field at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Heat is a fact of life when it comes to football in Texas, and in the SEC for that matter.

Sarkisian understands that his team has to be ready, but they also have to last. That’s why Sarkisian enjoys rotating a significant number of players into the game like he did in the non-conference portion of the 2023 season and in select lobsided games.

“I think what’s important is we still have to prepare our team to play on a lot of levels,” Sarkisian said. “I also know how vitally important our depth is, and that we’re going to have to play the bulk of our roster in those first four games. We have to expose our players to playing football. You start thinking about 16 or 17 games, that’s a long road. That’s a lot of potential injuries that could come across my desk. Point being, I don’t want to wait until December of January to throw somebody in there who hasn’t played all year. I’ve got to expose these guys.”

During the first game of the season against the Rice Owls, when the official box score listed the gametime temperature as 99 degrees creating scorching conditions on the artificial surface, 70 Longhorns saw game action. At Alabama in a game that required a tighter rotation, 49 players took the field. Fifty-six entered the game against Wyoming, a game that was tied at 10 entering the fourth quarter before Texas scored 21 points in the final 15 minutes.

The theme continued into conference play and through the end of September. During the Big 12 opener at Baylor, 62 players appeared in the Longhorns’ 38-6 win in their final scheduled trip to Waco. Finally, while hosting the Kansas Jayhawks at DKR with a game-time temperature of 91 on September 30, Texas put 62 different Longhorns onto the field during the pull-away win.

To be sure, this strategy isn’t unique to Texas. The Michigan Wolverines played almost 80 players during their September 16 win over Bowling Green. In Alabama’s season-opening win over Middle Tennessee, one week prior to their matchup with Texas, Nick Saban put 73 players on the field as part of a 56-7 win. Not to be left out considering their appearance in the College Football Playoff, Washington played 64 players in a 56-19 season-opening win over Boise State.

Sarkisian mentioned on Wednesday he might assess his in-season practice habits as well. Sarkisian mentions regularly the name of the game is tackle football and banking physical reps is important, but Texas’ season could be longer than ever with a Playoff appearance and striking a balance is key.

Plus, as Sarkisian mentioned, the Playoff starts much earlier. Last season when the Longhorns made the Sugar Bowl, they had just over four weeks to heal up and prepare for the Sugar Bowl. During those four weeks, Texas had an allotment of 15 practices, and many of those were spent giving opportunities to younger players before the whole team dived into prep for the semifinal.

The calendar is different this year. If the Longhorns make the SEC Championship this year, they’ll be playing in Atlanta, Ga. on December 7. If they were to win, their next game would be during the traditional New Years Eve/New Years Day window. But if they were not to earn a bye? Texas would take the field, likely at home, just 13 days after the conference title game.

That’s not an immediate turnaround, but it’s not the lengthy break teams are used to for bowl games.

As Sarkisian aims high with the goal of playing for the national championship on January 20, 2025, he understands some parts of his system may have to be modified just as the calendar has been modified.

At this point in May, it’s a process he’s still working to nail down.

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“You start playing, and as long as you keep winning you have to keep playing,” Sarkisian said. “We have to look at a lot of things there, and that research is already underway. We have a great sports science department that supplies me with a ton of information, but we really need to look at this thing the right way to make sure we’re at our best when our best is needed — December and January — to put ourselves in position.