Five questions for Steve Sarkisian ahead of spring drills

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian will be available to the media on Monday at 11:30 a.m. Inside Texas will be on location providing updates in the Inside Texas Members Only Board.

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Sarkisian, who signed a one-year extension in the offseason that keeps him at Texas through 2031, has not been available to the local press since after the Cotton Bowl loss to Ohio State. He’s made media rounds though, appearing on popular YouTube shows, SportsCenter, and even NFL Network during the combine.

Monday will be the first opportunity to hear about the 2025 Longhorns from the man himself. With that in mind, here are five questions for Sarkisian before Spring football gets going in late March after the University of Texas’ spring break.

What do “OTAs” really look like?

During his multiple media appearances since the end of the season, whether with Kay Adams or on SportsCenter at the combine, Sarkisian has talked about moving spring practices toward a more professional model and making them look like OTAs.

Here’s how OTAs, or organized team practice activities, are defined by the NFL.

Phase One consists of the first two weeks of the program with activities limited to meetings, strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation only.

Phase Two consists of the next three weeks of the program. On-field workouts may include individual or group instruction and drills, as well as “perfect play drills,” and drills and plays with offensive players lining up across from offensive players and defensive players lining up across from defensive players, conducted at a walk-through pace. No live contact or team offense vs. team defense drills are permitted.

Phase Three consists of the next four weeks of the program. Teams may conduct a total of 10 days of organized team practice activity, or “OTAs”. No live contact is permitted, but 7-on-7, 9-on-7, and 11-on-11 drills are permitted.

In reality, the Longhorns have been doing things that look like Phase One and Phase Two already, and Spring drills are likely to look like Phase Three. There’s no collective bargaining in college football (yet), so Sarkisian gets to determine what the 14 practices ahead of April 26’s fan day looks like.

How much contact will there be? Professionals, real professionals in the NFL, don’t need tackling drilled into them like 18–20-year-olds do. Moving toward this style is a reaction to the sheer volume of games Texas has played in the past two years. So how will practices limit contact while still achieving benchmarks every championship contender needs to hit?

Who will get the majority of the snaps? Is this a chance for freshmen and second-stringers to make the most of opportunities in practice?

In the years prior to the 12-team College Football Playoff, early bowl practices were opportunities for younger players to get more opportunities for hands-on development with the coaches. But now, the schedule created by the 12-team field turned those developmental practices into preparation practices for elimination games. Also, there are way, way more coaches on staff to help develop the younger players.

So does spring offer the chance for players like Arch Manning, DeAndre Moore, Michael Taaffe, and Anthony Hill to recuperate while up-and-comers like Alex January, Kaliq Lockett, and Kobe Black get more reps? It’s uncharted territory for college football. How will Sarkisian go about navigating it?

How’s the team’s health?

The primary questions will be about Christian Clark, Derek Williams, and CJ Baxter, but who else is feeling the effects of a 16 game 2024 season?

The availability of certain players will reveal a significant amount about what the depth chart throughout spring will look like, and therefore what practice rep allocation will look like.

What will the competition to replace four O-line starters look like?

Kelvin Banks, Hayden Conner, Jake Majors, and Cameron Williams all left the Longhorn football program and recently participated in the NFL Scouting Combine. There’s a chance that all four get selected in the upcoming draft, leaving a significant talent vacuum in Austin on the O-line.

Things are not dire in Austin, however. DJ Campbell returns and Cole Hutson has the experience of a multi-year starter. One prospective replacement at tackle, Trevor Goosby, brings a resume that looks a lot like the one Williams had ahead of his first year as a starter in 2024.

Other possible replacements like Neto Umeozulu, Brandon Baker, Andre Cojoe, Jaydon Chatman, or Malik Agbo are entering anywhere between their second and fourth years in the program. Losing experienced players is never easy, but having options that have been a part of the program and are more physically developed is as good of a thing a team can ask for if it sees no reason to go to the portal.

This is the storyline to watch on offense as the players will be charged with protecting an important piece of not just the Longhorn football program, but the entire athletic department and arguably the university.

What’s different with Arch Manning?

Manning has a different skill set than the one Quinn Ewers utilized in Austin for the past three seasons. And while Sarkisian has a vision for his offense, there will be some parts of it that are altered in order to make the best use of what No. 16 brings to the table.

How will Manning operate similarly or differently than Ewers? Of course, athleticism and mobility are two traits Manning has, and how he might be asked to utilize them is different than most Sarkisian quarterbacks.

Outside of the run game, are there things different in the passing game, whether it be on deep passing plays or on RPOs? No two players are the same, so what will look a bit different?

Any freshmen catching your eye?

Texas just brought in the No. 1 ranked recruiting class, with five players earning On3 Industry Ranking five-star status. Four are currently in the football program, while Jonah Williams is on the diamond with Jim Schlossnagle’s baseball team.

Those other five-stars are Justus Terry, Lance Jackson, Kaliq Lockett, and Kade Phillips. Texas also brought in top-100 prospects like Jaime Ffrench, Elijah Barnes, Graceson Littleton, Michael Terry, and Smith Orogbo.

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Whether it’s a player from the group above, or any of the 25 signees, are any catching Sarkisian’s eyes early?