ATLANTA, Ga. – Steve Sarkisian made a change to his recruiting strategy two years into the job as the head coach of the Texas Longhorns. 

Not only would his staff prioritize talent on the recruiting trail, but they’d also evaluate the high school programs that housed those prospects. He wanted to build a winner in Austin, and he knew he needed to surround himself with winners to rebuild the Texas program into a championship contender. 

“That wasn’t unintentional. As we worked ourselves into this arena, we’d have players used to that stage,” Sarkisian told Dave Campbell’s Texas Football at media day two days ahead of the Peach Bowl against Arizona State. His Horns have played in two conference championship games and two College Football Playoff games over the last two seasons. “I think we’re seeing the value of that now. We have guys who are comfortable competing at a championship level.”

The expanded playoff field and a trip to the SEC championship game means that the Horns will play in 17 games if they reach the national championship game, which is in Atlanta on Jan. 20. That’s the same as an NFL regular season and longer than college football seasons were historically. For most of the sport’s history, teams played in 12 or 13 games with only one of them – a bowl – taking place after the regular season. No more. Texas will play in four playoff games if it wants to hoist the championship trophy. 

Sarkisian was ready for the evolution. He stacked his roster with players used to long seasons. Nearly half of the 40 or so players made available for media day at the College Football Hall of Fame early Monday morning made deep runs in the Texas high school playoffs as prep stars. A road that requires teams to win six games to be champions after a 10-game regular season. 

Quinn Ewers played in a state title game at Southlake Carroll. Tre Wisner won a championship at DeSoto. Michael Taaffe won two at Westlake. Andrew Mukuba reached the championship game at Austin LBJ. Colin Simmons, Anthony Hill Jr., and Malik Muhammad are also former state champions. Even Hayden Conner’s Katy Taylor squad reached the semifinals as a senior. 

“We know what this time of year means,” Muhammad, who helped South Oak win Dallas ISD's first state title in over 60 years, said. “Going from preseason to regular season to postseason isn’t anything knew for us. Coming to Texas, I felt like I had a championship pedigree on my shoulders and were used to that pressure in December.” 

His teammates agree. The only way to learn how to deal with the pressure of a win-or-go-home situation is to play in those games. The core of this Texas team did that as teenagers, and now they’re doing it again in college. Sark wanted winners. And that’s exactly what he got.

The Longhorns were 13-12 over his first two seasons as the head coach. They are 24-4 over the last two seasons following Sarkisian's added emphasis on recruiting players from state championship contending programs. 

“The winning mindset isn’t something we had to learn in college because we were part of programs that taught us that as teenagers,” Mukuba said. “The experience of the high school playoffs definitely helps because a lot of us have played 15 or 16 games in a season before and we’ve been in games that were all or nothing.” 

The UIL state championships in Texas take place over four days at AT&T Stadium in Arlington – home of the Dallas Cowboys. It is also home to the Cotton Bowl that serves as one of the semifinals for the CFP. If Texas beats Arizona State on Jan. 1, the Longhorns face the winner of Ohio State-Oregon at Jerry World on Jan. 10. The dozen or so players on the roster who’ve made it there before want nothing more than to return.

“I’ve had great memories at that stadium at Westlake winning state and then here winning the Big 12,” Taaffe said. “We play a great team in Arizona State here in Atlanta and that has our full attention.”

The benefits of playing for state championship caliber programs extends beyond any physical or mental advantage in knowing how to handle a longer season. The high school programs that consistently compete for championships – think SOC, Duncanville, DeSoto, Westlake – are there because of coaching and culture. 

The backbone of the Texas roster didn’t need a roadmap when they arrived on the Forty Acres. The path to success was already plugged into their GPS by high school coaches who instilled a winning mentality that so many of the Horn players mentioned on Monday morning. The level of competition jumped up from high school to college, but the ingredients required for winning remain the same. 

“High school football in Texas is unmatched and that experience absolutely helped us adjust to this type of stage in college,” Ewers said. “You grow up playing in front of 15,000 people and for coaches who run programs like major colleges. Most of us were part of high school teams that were still playing when most of the other schools were at home. Now, we’re on a college team that is playing when most of the other schools are at home.”