Texas opened spring practice Monday in Austin under Steve Sarkisian, entering his sixth season with a program that has won consistently in the Big 12 and now faces its second full season in the SEC with an expectation that the step up in competition is fully priced in.

The Longhorns finished 10-3 in 2025 in their first SEC season, which was widely read as a reasonable outcome given the difficulty of the schedule and the transition. The internal expectation heading into 2026 is different — the program has recruited at an elite level since Sarkisian's arrival, and the roster depth is now at a point where the 2025 record feels like a floor rather than a ceiling.

The quarterback situation is settled in a way that Texas has rarely been able to say. Quinn Ewers, entering his senior season, is the most experienced starter in the Big 12 not named Arch Manning, and the offensive infrastructure around him — the receiver corps, the developing offensive line — is deeper than it was a year ago. Sarkisian's offensive system has been at its best when it has continuity at quarterback. The expectation this spring is that the work being done is refinement rather than installation.

The defensive roster presents the program's most significant growth challenge. Texas's defense in 2025 was good against the lesser half of the SEC schedule and vulnerable against the top programs. Spring will be used to identify whether the additions made through the portal and recruiting class fill the gaps that were exposed in October and November. The edge rush depth — a genuine weakness in 2025 — has been addressed on paper. Whether those additions translate to production is a spring and fall camp question.

Texas's spring game is April 18. It will draw significant attention, both as a program evaluation moment and as one of the larger events of the college football spring calendar in the SEC.