The inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff brings an abundance of potential storylines. Some teams are looking to build upon already-historic seasons, while blue bloods look to once again reclaim the sport's summit.
Belonging to the latter category are the Texas Longhorns, whose struggles in recent years have made them an easy target for mockery by the college football community.
The mocking of the Longhorns is often summed up in three sarcastic words: "Texas is back." The phrase has been repeated countless times since 2016, when ESPN's Joe Tessitore first used it during his call of Texas' winning touchdown in their season opener against Notre Dame.
The question of Texas being back -- or not -- quickly took on a life of its own on college football social media, with Longhorns fans and haters alike rushing to post those three words after every big win or defeat. At one point there was even a website, istexasback.com, devoted to the rhetorical question.
Texas will host the Clemson Tigers on Saturday as they start their playoff quest to claim their first national title since 2005. Here are some of the most notable moments in the last eight years where it seemed like Texas could be, truly, back.
The moment: Sept. 4, 2016. Tyrone Swoopes walks off Notre Dame in double overtime to start the 2016 season
What happened next: Texas finishes the fall 5-7 and Charlie Strong is fired at the season's end
The origins of the statement date back to 2016, when the Longhorns and Fighting Irish delivered an instant classic in Week 1 of that season. After a pair of losing seasons in Charlie Strong's first two years as head coach, he turned to freshman quarterback Shane Buechele to spark the team ahead of his third campaign, with Buechele becoming the first freshman quarterback to start a season opener for Texas since 1944.
One additional period wasn't enough to separate the two blue bloods. In the second overtime, Tyrone Swoopes dove into the endzone to send DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium into a frenzy and prompt Tessitore to proclaim "Texas is back, folks."
The quip quickly turned into a taunt, however, as the season went on. The Longhorns would go on two different three-game losing streaks that fall, including one to end the campaign, with each defeat being punctuated by plenty of "are they still back?" jokes on social media. Strong was fired after the final game of the season.
The moment: Jan. 1, 2019. Sam Ehlinger proclaims "we're back" in a postgame interview after winning the Sugar Bowl
What happened next: Texas goes 8-5 across the next two seasons and Tom Herman is fired at the end of the 2020 season
After a 7-6 debut campaign, the Longhorns' next coach Tom Herman struck a chord in his second fall to the tune of a 9-win regular season -- highlighted by a thrilling 48-45 win over Red River rival, the then-ranked No. 7 Oklahoma Sooners.
The Sooners would get their revenge in the Big 12 title game, but another top-ten win in the Sugar Bowl against the Georgia Bulldogs gave Texas momentum heading into the offseason. Quarterback Sam Ehlinger took the chance to harness the momentum, reclaiming the taunt as an elongated rallying cry to Longhorn fans after the game.
Texas QB Sam Ehlinger discusses beating Georgia in the Sugar Bowl before riling up the crowd with a short message about the Longhorns' future.
Things would slowly peter out under Herman though, as a pair of underwhelming seasons in 2019 and 2020 led to his own exit.
The moment: Sept. 9, 2023. Steve Sarkisian pilots the Longhorns to a win over No. 3 Alabama on the road
What happened next: Texas finishes 11-1 and wins the Big 12, but loses to Washington in the College Football Playoff semi-final
Growth under Herman's successor -- Steve Sarkisian -- proved to be linear, with the Longhorns winning 5 games in 2021 and 8 games in 2022. 2023 proved to be a breakout year with their biggest statement coming in early September when they upstaged Sarkisian's former boss Nick Saban in a 34-24 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
TEXAS IS OFFICIALLY BACK AFTER KNOCKING OFF NO. 3 ALABAMA 🤘 pic.twitter.com/wyF9t8ELLh
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 10, 2023
Unlike some of Texas' other recent high points, their win over the Tide wasn't the predecessor to a humiliating crash. The Longhorns lost in the Red River Rivalry to Oklahoma, but finished the season 12-1 with a Big 12 title win. Texas fell to the Washington Huskies in the College Football Playoff semifinal, however, preventing the Longhorns from a shot at the ever-elusive national title.
The moment: Nov. 30, 2024. The Longhorns win the first football Lone Star Showdown since 2011 to advance to the SEC championship game
What happened next: Georgia beats Texas 22-19 to claim the SEC title
Texas' inaugural regular season in the SEC was a decided success, with the Longhorns earning a trip to Atlanta as a result of their win at Kyle Field over in-state rival Texas A&M in the Lone Star Showdown's return to the gridiron.
Entering the SEC title game as the No. 2 team in the country, things didn't go as planned for Texas in its bid to win the conference in its first season. Georgia prevailed in overtime, costing Sarkisian and Co. a bye in the 12-team playoff bracket. The Longhorns instead have turned to their opening round game against Clemson as the start of their quest to silence their haters and prove once and for all that Texas is back.