Texas football will open its spring practices March 9 and culminate its five full weeks with an April 19 spring game, Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian and the program announced Tuesday.
The first three of the spring practices will take place on March 9, 11 and 13 before Texas takes its spring break March 16-21. After that, the Longhorns will practice every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday between March 24 and April 18.
Due to the NCAA’s “acclimation period,” which is intended to give athletes time to ease back into practices, players will not be able to wear pads until practices following spring break.
The Longhorns’ final day of practice will be reserved for their spring game, which Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte confirmed Feb. 4 during what he calls his annual “town hall.”
“We’re not having a spring game because I’ve got 27 new faces on my roster that I need to take time to develop,” Sarkisian said. “That development starts at the beginning of spring ball, where we’ve got to really build a foundation of understanding the whys of what we do, from how we practice to the drills that we do, to the foundational aspects of the offense, the defense, the special teams.”
Del Conte didn’t reveal many details about the revived spring game. The game will be accompanied by a “fan day,” and the baseball team has a home game against Alabama scheduled for that afternoon.