Texas Football could play at least 16 games, but Kyle Flood has been there before

AUSTIN – There have been many rumors this offseason about expanding the College Football Playoff to 12 teams and what that might mean for the number of games the two CFP finalists ultimately play.

The Longhorns will use the University of Texas for this exercise and play their 12 regular season games. They could play in the SEC Championship Game, which marks Game No. 13. A win there would give Texas a bye to the CFP quarterfinals. If they then play in the semifinals and championship game, Texas would have played 16 games.

For accuracy, if the Longhorns lost the SEC Championship game and still made the CFP field, they would have to play a first-round game. If they then made it to the title game, the season would end up being 17 games.

This topic was recently addressed with offensive coordinator Kyle Flood, specifically how the Longhorns plan to manage practice this fall and keep the personnel fresh while they likely have to play 16 or 17 games.

Flood made an interesting point. In 2003, Flood was the offensive line coach at the University of Delaware, which played 16 games en route to an undefeated season and the NCAA I-AA national championship.

For Flood, who also serves as Texas' offensive line coach, playing 16 games this season would be nothing new.

“I want to say I started every game with the same five guys for 16 games,” Flood said, smiling. “I didn't have nearly the depth that I have now, so I don't know if I did that because I wanted to, but we did play with another lineman in certain situations as kind of an extra tight end like we do here, but I've been through that before and I know the players will be able to do it.”

In the four-team CFP era, the two championship game participants were playing their 15th game of the season. To get through 15 games, the emphasis throughout the week was to find the line between what you needed to get done and what you couldn't overdo.

That assumption will only grow stronger now that teams may have 16 or even 17 games to play. For Texas, finding that line has already become crucial for head coach Steve Sarkisian, whose running backs are dealing with significant injuries. Projected No. 1 running back CJ Baxter suffered a torn posterior and cruciate ligament in his right knee on Aug. 6 and is out for the rest of the season. On Monday, freshman running back Christian Clark suffered a torn Achilles tendon and is also out for the rest of the season.

With those two injuries, Texas is down to three scholarship running backs, and there will likely be positional moves to bolster running back coach Tashard Choice's depth ahead of the Aug. 31 season opener against Colorado State.

Aside from the running back situation, Sarkisian has made a point in spring training to have a dual-position approach to practice, meaning he needs to have enough depth to match first-team players against third-team players and second-team players against fourth-team players on two separate practice fields.

Just this week, Sarkisian noted that he is not just looking for his best 22 players, that is, his first-team players on offense and defense, but his best 44 players, that is, a full, serviceable roster depth of two players per team.

How Sarkisian does this over the course of the season will help determine how far Texas can go.

“I think we do a good job week to week of making sure we develop the physicality in practice to be ready for games. That changes from year to year and team to team,” Flood said. “I have a lot of confidence that Sark does a great job week to week of looking at the team, seeing where we are and saying, 'Okay, this is what we need to do to make sure, because we don't want to go the other way.'”

“You go the other way and say, 'Okay, we're not going to hit there this week,' and then what happens is that sometimes when you do that, you're not ready to hit on Saturday either. Something physically has to happen during the week for you to be ready on Saturday.”