Texas Longhorns Unveil Replacement for Spring Football Game

The Texas Longhorns are one of a handful of major programs to announce their decision to move away from a traditional spring football game in favor of a different approach.

This news came as a major disappointment to many Texas fans, who annually looked forward to a chance to see their favorite team take the field with an added bonus of free admission.

However, Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte will not let the fans hang their heads too long.

Chris Del Conte and Steve Sarkisia — Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte, left, said he plans to discuss a possible contract extension and raise for head football coach Steve Sarkisian, right, in the next few weeks. Sarkisian has three years left on his contract and is the country's 30th highest-paid coach. | Aaron E. Martinez/American-State / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On Wednesday night during his annual Town Hall Meeting, Del Conte unveiled the university's plans for a replacement event known as 'Texas Football Fan Day', which will take place on April 26, and consist of numerous different types of interaticve events for fans.

Among those activities are photo ops with players, team autographs, a team shop fire sale, with more teased to be revealed at a later date.

“We are not going to have a traditional spring game, but we’re going to have Fan Day.," Del Conte said.
"Think about SEC blowout. Think about Bevo, about what we do. We’re going to try to have an incredible – we’ll still have the Fire Sale. We’ll do all the things we’re going to do. We’re going to have interactions with our student athletes, but it will not have a traditional spring game. Y’all okay with that? ... I know people are like – we’re all jacked up to see Arch, buddy. We’ve got enough of that, you know. Our appetite has been whetted, but we got so many young guys, I can’t wait. You can see the rest of them.”

🚨 Mark your calendars 🚨

The Texas Football Fan Day is set for April 26! More details to come 🤘 pic.twitter.com/X51jRcjXjw
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) February 27, 2025

As for camp itself, what could that look like? Obviously they will still go through traditional, as those reps will be critical for the young players to get integrated into the fold.

However, as Del Conte revealed, Sarkisian and Texas will now be taking a more 'NFL-like' approach, with an OTA-style camp.

"Sark comes to me and says 'I think we're going to go to OTAs," Del Conte said. "We've got to look at spring ball differently. We're trying to win a national championship. We've got 25 new kids. We've got to get them into our system. We've got to coach them up."

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