Normally after eight games, Texas would be two-thirds done with the regular season and getting ready for the homestretch. Not anymore. Not with the new 12-team College Football Playoff format.

Now through eight games, the season is only half over. It’ll take an NFL mindset and approach to win a college national championship going forward.

“The goal is to be playing on January 20,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “And if you want to be playing January 20th, you’re at minimum playing eight more games. So when you look at this way, we’re at the halfway point.”

In Sarkisian’s mind, sixth-ranked Texas (7-1, 3-1 SEC) first has four more regular season games remaining. Then a possible SEC championship game appearance. Then comes three or four games in the CFP to play for — and presumably win — the national title.

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Sarkisian has experience preparing for 16-game and elongated seasons. He was once the Oakland Raiders quarterback coach (2004) and Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator (2017-18). Granted, the NFL season is a completely calendar with spring minicamps, August training camp, a three-game preseason and now 17-game regular season followed by the playoffs.

This will be the first season where college teams have started essentially on August 1 and gone all the way through mid-January playing 14, 15 or even 16 games. Remember, only a small few (think Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, etc.) played in the four-team CFP format.

Managing the extended time is foreign territory for college coaches who have never worked in the professional ranks.

“This offseason, I just tried to tap into the guys that do it the best,” Sarkisian said. “I tapped into Bill Belichick, Andy Reid, Sean McVay, guys who, you know, year in and year out are accustomed to being in the playoffs, what that looks like, and the length of a season and how you get your teams ready, what do your bye weeks look like in the NFL, if you have an in-season bye or if you get a first-round bye in the playoffs, how they attack that.”

Sarkisian said one of the most difficult aspects of playing in the SEC is the mental aptitude it takes week in and week out. Sure, it takes physical strength. But the psychological challenge is fierce, too.

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“I don’t think anybody thought when our schedule came out that when we went to Vanderbilt that would be a top-25 matchup against a 5-2 football team,” Sarkisian said. “You just don’t know in this conference when teams kind of get hot and when they start playing better, start playing differently. You think, ‘Oh, they’re going to get that game and then a bye.’ Well, we found out they're pretty good football team.

“The point is, every week in our conference, you have to, yes, be physically prepared to play, but also mentally prepared to play. And that’s probably the biggest challenge.”

Going forward, Texas players may do more off-the-field team bonding activities, if nothing else just to get away from the locker room.

“And I think that’s part of our secret sauce, a little bit,” Sarkisian said. “But it’s also a chance to kind of let our hair down and relax a little bit with one another and enjoy each other’s company, because that's what it’s going to take.

“We’re going to need everybody before this season is done, and the best way to feel part of is to actually be part of,” he added. “And we’ve got to include everybody in this thing again, not just in practice, but outside of the facility.”