How’s tackling going in Texas football’s 2025 scrimmages, training camp?

Every year about this time, Inside Texas asks Steve Sarkisian an important question: how’s tackling going?

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The name of the game is tackle football after all. Tackling, and success in tackling, is essential for victory. Though it’s something that every team has to drill and master, it’s something that has to be practiced and repped in moderation. Mismanage that workload in either direction, and a team may not be able to get opponents on the ground.

In 2024, Sarkisian said at this point about tackling after the program’s second preseason scrimmage “for the most part, I didn’t see just blatant, really poor tackling. I did see a high level of physicality, especially from some guys that haven’t shown it in years past that are starting to grow into our style of play.”

Sarkisian said in 2023 that his team tackled more in that camp than they had in previous seasons.

“I’ve been impressed with the tackling,” Sarkisian said. “Sometimes, you even think about the younger guys, you’d be a little concerned with just because of the speed of it and the size of it.”

2022’s report was, “I think we’ve tackled well, better than we did a year ago. I would say that, one, we’re tackling better, two, our pursuit and our effort to the ball is better defensively so that when a missed tackle may occur — which it is football, they do happen especially when you’ve got good players on offense — that the next guys are there to get that player on the ground.”

Ahead of 2021, Sarkisian said this as the Longhorns implemented a different style of tackling compared to the previous regime: “we are working on our fundamentals and our techniques of tackling. I think we’re seeing some guys really gravitating to that and understanding it and doing it well. We have other guys not, and like anything that’s like route running or ball security or whatever that is, we’ve got to coach them all and try to put them in the best position to be safe and put them in the best position to be successful to get people on the ground.”

According to Pro Football Focus, Texas missed 166 total tackles in 16 games in 2024.

The 2023 team missed 140 in 14 games.

The Longhorns’ 2022 squad missed 154 tackles in 13 games.

The first-year Sarkisian team missed 148 in 12 games.

Texas has seen its rate of missed tackles decrease to about 10 per game after it was just over 12 in 2021.

Ahead of the 2025 season, how has Texas tackled in its scrimmages?

“I thought last week might have been a little better than today just from the naked eye, right? Field level,” Sarkisian said. “I’ve got to see how, what, and why a couple of the missed tackles occurred. I feel like today that the ball got in space a little more, which forced some more stressful tackles on the defenders. Which is a good thing, right? We’ve got to learn how to do those things. I also thought there were some very good tackles made, a couple of them touchdown saving tackles that forced the offense to have to go execute in the red area.”

There will still be tackling and full contact as camp winds down, but the Longhorns may not keep the same pace when it comes to how often they hit.

But the name of the game, again, is tackle football. They’ll keep repping it and make the most of chances to corral talented offensive players.

“In the end, we’ve got to find our opportunities to tackle,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve got to do a great job in our individual periods of working on tackling. There’s only so much we can tackle to get ourselves ready to go. You ask any head coach around the country, that’s the first thing out of their mouth of what’s your biggest concerns going into week one. How well are we going to tackle? We can only do it so much for the betterment of the team.”

Texas has around 10 more practices left until the start of the 2025 season. The Longhorns will conduct a “mock game” next week to cap a mock week of preparation. That will help players old and new to understand or refamiliarize themselves with what it’s like to get ready for a regular season game in burnt orange.

There will be more tackling opportunities, both in the lead up to the mock game and in the mock game itself. Then, there will be tackling drills in the week leading up to the Ohio State game.

Texas has been a good tackling team in recent years. Elite defenses aren’t elite without getting guys on the ground.

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To reach greater heights than the semifinals of the College Football Playoff, the Longhorns will have to remain at the very minimum a good tackling team and strive for more in that area. From what Sarkisian mentioned on Saturday, Texas is in a good spot in a crucial aspect of the game.