Texas Longhorns' Steve Sarkisian Supports Drastic Redshirt Change

On Thursday, Sarkisian voiced his support for eliminating redshirts and simply giving all players five years of eligibility.

"I would, at this point, with the length of our season," Sarkisian told reporters. "The way they set it up now, you get to play four games in the regular season, and then once postseason play begins - and that postseason play includes your conference championship game - those games don't count. So, you can play four games in the regular season, then you can play the entire postseason and still have a redshirt eligible. To me, why not just give them the whole year and let these guys play?"

The Longhorns thankfully haven't had to deal with mid-season transfers much, though they have had a few players - most notably former backup quarterback Maalik Murphy - leave during the College Football Playoff over the past couple of years.

Sarkisian also pointed out how eliminating redshirts could help prevent players from intentionally holding out to preserve their redshirt and then transfer. He specifically pointed out last year's situation with former UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka, who redshirted before the team's fourth game due to an NIL dispute.

"Because what's about to happen around the country is players holding out not wanting to play to preserve their redshirt, knowing they're going to transfer at the end of the year," Sarkisian said. "You're going to see this come up here pretty soon, too, and hopefully not on our roster."

"We saw it last year with the quarterback at UNLV, where guys opt out to preserve their redshirt year. I think that when you do that in terms of getting rid of the redshirt year, you eliminate that, and you're just giving everybody five years. Then, when guys are on a team, they go play and when the season is done, if they want to transfer, they can transfer."