For Steve Sarkisian and Texas, Sunday was for celebrating. On Monday, the preparation for Washington began.
Before Sunday’s College Football Playoff selection show, the Texas Longhorns were in a celebratory mood after taking home the Big 12 Championship on Saturday thanks to a 49-21 win over Oklahoma State. Whether that celebration would escalate was the only remaining question.
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“Regardless of how today was going to go, I wanted to make sure that we continued to celebrate that,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said Sunday. “I don’t want to lose sight of it’s been 14 years since we had won one, and only four in the last 27. What a great accomplishment for this team. Happy for those kids. Now, the cherry on top is an opportunity to go compete for a national championship.”
But when the Longhorns saw burnt orange flash on the screen, the party really started.
Sarkisian said he focused on players like Jaylan Ford, T’Vondre Sweat, Jordan Whittington, and Ja’Tavion Sanders during the festivities. To see the joy on those players faces, a few who signed up to play and win for a different head coach, was one of the more rewarding moments of the entire Sunday for Texas.
That set off a day of joy for the Longhorns. Texas held its annual team banquet later that night looking back on a banner season that concluded with a conference championship.
But Sarkisian knows his team has its work cut out ahead of the College Football Playoff matchup with No. 2 Washington.
“Washington is a great team, as we all well know,” Sarkisian said. “We played them last year in the Alamo Bowl. It’s going to take a lot of preparation. It’s going to take us playing our best football when that game rolls around to try to be successful.”
The celebration lasted until Monday morning, when Sarkisian said his team would go through a lift and run period. The Longhorns will be in that stage for two weeks before putting the pads back on for what Sarkisian believes will be 12-13 total practices ahead of the Sugar Bowl.
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This time will be key as the Longhorns have endured a 13-game season and need to get healthy, especially players like Xavier Worthy, Ryan Watts, and Austin Jordan.
Sarkisian said Sunday he feels confident in Worthy and Watts being available, but said he’d have to see “how he recovers” when speaking about Jordan. Still, the opportunity to rest up ahead of the Longhorns’ first ever playoff game is one Texas will take full advantage of.
“The fact that we’ll have everybody there and hopefully healthy, and that we’ll have time to get ourselves healthy which has been a little bit of an issue of ours over the last month or so of just little nagging injuries, to get our team healthy and an opportunity to put our best foot forward is huge. It’s going to be needed. Washington’s a very good team, and they’re going to be healthy too.”
And if Texas is at full strength?
“I’ve always felt like if we can get in, we can play with anybody in the country,” Sarkisian said.
Sarkisian said Sunday in a way similar to previous explanations that while he was at Alabama, he knew he would have the opportunity to become a head coach again. But chasing championships as Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator directed his interest to places where he could do something similar.
Texas presented that opportunity to him, and almost three years after taking the job, he’ll walk into the Sugar Bowl with a conference title and the chance to compete for a national championship.
The CFP wasn’t just Sarkisian’s hope, it was a goal. And now, it’s a goal within reach.
“It’s why I came here,” Sarkisian said.
