Texas HC Steve Sarkisian outlines his recruiting strategy on roster limits as coaches await House vs. NCAA changes
Sarkisian plans to keep recruiting as if 2025 roster will have 85 scholarships and wait for House vs. NCAA rule changes
With another bye week upon the Texas football program, the sixth-ranked Longhorns will downshift for a few days and cruise through Halloween.
The players will take it easy while the coaches focus on recruiting. Texas (7-1, 3-1 SEC) doesn’t play again until hosting Florida on Nov. 9.
“Today we did meetings only. We try to give them kind of two days off from practice, Sunday and Monday,” coach Steve Sarkisian told reporters. The players did lift weights Monday with strength coach Torre Becton.
“(Tuesday) will be a lighter practice, similar maybe to a Monday, and then we'll practice Wednesday and Thursday, kind of in game-plan mode for Florida,” the coach said. “They’ll get a workout Friday, but no practice Friday, Saturday, Sunday.”
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Just as they did in the first bye week, the coaching staff will fan out at the end of the week to hit as many high school football games as they can to see recruits.
College football coaches are looking at a potential major rule change that will allow for 105 scholarship athletes next fall as part of the House vs. NCAA settlement. If new roster caps are put in place, teams will no longer have walk-on athletes. You would either on full scholarship or not on the team.
In planning for this new rule change, Sarkisian said he’s not currently recruiting as if he will have 105 scholarships. He’s building the class of 2025 as if Texas will have its normal allotment of 85 scholarships, as currently allowed by NCAA rules.
“I don’t think we can do that yet,” Sarkisian said. “I think that we have to operate as if things are what they are, because the last thing I want to do is take a bunch of commitments and then they turn around and say, ‘No, you only have 85.’ Then what do I say to these seven, eight or 10 kids? Hey, sorry, you can’t come? I just don’t think that’s the right thing to do.
“So we're going to operate as if we’re at 85 until they tell us otherwise, and then we'll have to adjust and pivot at that point from there,” he added. “I’d hate it to go the other way. Maybe other schools can maybe get away with doing that, but not here. You know, I don't think that that would, that would bode well.”
