Steve Sarkisian spent the first day of Texas fall camp looking at more than just his offense.
That’s usually his lane. On most practice days, the Longhorns’ head coach is locked in on the quarterbacks and the skill players around them. Wednesday, though, he made a point to watch the whole operation unfold as Texas opened camp and introduced a few new voices into the mix.
“I was trying to watch a little bit more, get a sense and a feel,” he said. “I wanted to see our coaches coach.
We've got some new faces. So I enjoyed it.”
One of those new faces was defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, who has taken over for the fired Pete Kwiatkowski and brought a very different edge to the practice field. Another was Blake Gideon, one of Sarkisian’s three new assistants, who could be heard riding a group of receivers and defensive backs during a punt-blocking drill. Players who missed on technique heard about it before jogging back to rejoin the group.
Sarkisian liked what he saw from the sideline.
“One thing I was impressed with today -- and I know this sounds, well, it's day one, of course it should be (this way) -- I thought our coaches were really good today,” he said. “They coached, they were getting after it.
And that, culturally, is something that I think is important for the players to understand: That our coaches are going to be demanding, and we're going to push them to try to be the best that they can become. I felt our coaches today.
I think that is part of our culture that our players understand how hard we're going to coach them to try to get them to become the best players they can.”
That kind of noise and pressure is part of the plan. Texas wants the practice environment to reflect the chaos players will face once games start, while still building the kind of composure that holds up under stress.
“There should be a relative sense of calm, that we can execute through that level of intensity and through those stressful moments because games are going to present stressful moments to us,” Sarkisian said.
The players are helping set that tone, too, especially when it comes to one of the issues that hurt Texas last season. The Longhorns averaged 8.3 penalties per game in 2025, a number topped only by Georgia State and Toledo among college football teams.
On Wednesday, when one side of the ball got flagged in practice, the other side made sure everyone knew it. Sarkisian called it “banter,” and he sees value in it.
He also sees the staff’s edge as part of the answer.
“We make it as intense as possible between Coach Muschamp, Coach (Kyle) Flood, everybody screaming and doing their stuff. I think -- like I touched on at media day -- I think it's group punishment, too.
I hate saying it like that, but that's the reality of the situation. Everybody's got to feel the effect of a penalty because that's what happens in a game.
One guy doesn't get flagged and he's the only foul. It's all of us.
We all feel that, and so I think that innately has helped.”
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Texas Fall Camp Buzz Is Building Around A Few Early Standouts
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The camp buzz also centered on some young talent making an impression in a hurry. Kanu pointed to defensive lineman Justus Terry as a promising presence up front, while McDonald singled out freshman cornerback John Meredith III for the kind of competitiveness that tends to get noticed fast in August. It is still early, but the conversations around Texas are already hinting at a roster with plenty of movement and a few names pushing themselves into the picture. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Faces A New Recruiting Test With Easton Royal
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Royal is slated to be in the stands for LSUs opener against Clemson in Week 1, a setting that will naturally keep the spotlight on the home-state program pushing hardest to change his mind. The Longhorns will get their own chance to make an impression when Texas and LSU meet in November, and for a program trying to hold together a top-end class, this is exactly the kind of recruiting tug-of-war that can linger well beyond one weekend. [Read more 🡒]
John Meredith III Has Texas Fans Watching One Early Camp Test
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Merediths early practices offered a first real look at how his body was handling the jump, and he was seen putting in extra conditioning work with Director of Football Performance Torre Becton. Becton said Meredith will be fine after some early signs of fatigue, which is the sort of checkpoint that matters for a player trying to get up to speed quickly in a demanding camp environment. For Texas, the long view on Meredith remains obvious, but the short-term watch is whether his early adjustment settles in as smoothly as the program expects. [Read more 🡒]