Last year's painful College Football Playoff experience used as fuel for the 2024 Texas Longhorns

Steve Sarkisian often says, ‘we didn’t come this far just to come this far.’ Texas aims to do more than be part of the final four. The Longhorns want to be part of the final two, then, of course, the last one.

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For members of the 2023 Texas Longhorns, getting this far was a real achievement. And that team sought to advance further to take on Michigan for the national championship. But only two players on that team, Adonai Mitchell and Ryan Watts, had any College Football Playoff experience, and it wasn’t as a members of UT’s roster.

“I feel like last year, we were a little bit loose because it was our first time there,” Hill Jr. said Wednesday. “Now, I feel like we’re ready to go win this football game and we prepared the right way to go win.”

That’s reflected within the stats from the Sugar Bowl loss to Washington. Texas had four fumbles, lost two, committed 10 penalties, and let star Husky receivers get open too often as part of allowing 37 points. Plus, when Texas needed to lock in on offense late, the moments slipped away from not just the quarterback but also a number of skill players.

For whatever reason, the moment was too much for Texas on January 1, 2024. Now, playing on January 10, 2025, Texas feels prepared for the stage it is set to take at 6:30 p.m. on Friday night.

Almost 50 scholarship Longhorns who watched Quinn Ewers’ final pass intended for Mitchell fall incomplete to the Caesar’s Superdome turf will be with the Longhorns for the Cotton Bowl on Friday, plus players like Isaiah Bond, Amari Niblack, and Bill Norton who bring CFP experience from other schools. The Longhorns believe that last year’s journey and the lessons learned on it will apply when they take the field against Ohio State at AT&T Stadium.

“You can’t coach experience,” Ewers said. “All those guys that were in that locker room have that experience and they know what it’s going to feel like running out of that tunnel for a semifinal game. They know what that feeling is going to be like whenever you get that first play.”

Because of that loss, Texas knows what it feels like to be at this stage and not advance. That has functioned as a major source of motivation for Texas ahead of the matchup with the Buckeyes.

“They knew what it felt like when we lost,” Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski said. “You get there, you get a taste of it, and we were one play away from being in the championship last year. I think that experience is a big reason why they’ve done a great job with their preparation all year long. They know how hard it was last year to get there, and they know the pain of losing that game.”

“This game, it’s about the small things, the small little details, right? To young guys, when they first start hearing that, they sort of tune you out. But you just keep presenting it to them on every play. Understanding that is the difference between winning and losing.”

There has to be a balance. Being at this point is worth celebrating, but it’s not the celebration everyone is striving for. Similarly, this is a huge matchup, but at the end of the day it’s still a game of football. Making it anything more than that could prove detrimental.

“You’ve got to stay within the game,” Jahdae Barron said. “The yards aren’t going to change. The color of the field is not going to change. The ball is not going to change. It’s a game. At the end of the day, this is do or die. There is no ‘you play again next week.’ This is do or die, and when you have that process in your head, you’ll do anything in the world to go out there, to have fun, and to go dominate for one another.”

The Longhorns fell short last year, and the reasons why were evident as soon as the whistle blew, and the Sugar Bowl ended.

In order to make it to the next stage, further than Texas has been in 15 years, the Horns will have to lean on lessons learned from a harsh defeat last season.

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“Ultimately, we know what it takes to be able to win the game,” Ewers said. “Now we just have to go put that into motion.”