It’s a tweet that should live in infamy.

This September will mark the 7-year anniversary of when Joe Tessitore declared after a thrilling Sunday night victory against Notre Dame that Texas was “back.” Never mind the fact that it was Week 1 and the Longhorns were coming off a 5-7 season. Who cared that Texas was still 7 years removed from its last conference title and it was still trying to have its first winning season in Year 3 of the Charlie Strong era?

Texas? Back … because of 1 game on Labor Day weekend.

Texas was not back, folks. Since that night, Texas is 39-37 vs. Power 5 competition. It has yet to win a Big 12 Championship since 2009.

Ah, but let’s not forget when Sam Ehlinger declared that Texas was back after the Longhorns beat No. 6 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl to close the 2018 season:

Nope. Wrong again.

Also, in no world should a program so proud declare that it’s “back” after a 4-loss season.

At least Ehlinger had the presence of mind to wait until after the season to make such a declaration. Getting caught up in the moment with Texas and declaring it’s “back” has somehow become the default response for some. And sure, it’s tongue-in-cheek for many, but there needs to be some sort of parameters.

Why? Let me paint you a little picture.

If Texas goes into Alabama and wins in Week 2 — that’s a massive “if” — many will declare that the Longhorns are “back.” They’ll ignore the fact that in the past 4 seasons, we’ve seen teams like 2022 LSU, 2021 Texas A&M and 2019 Auburn all beat Alabama and fail to reach a New Year’s 6 bowl. As impressive as that would be, don’t get fooled.

Beating Alabama wouldn’t mean that Texas is back.

It would, however, potentially be Texas’ first win against an AP top-5 team since 2010. That’s an important step in Texas actually showing it can be one of the college football elite and not just a fun early-season storyline about a traditional power returning to its glory days.

The problem with prematurely declaring Texas is “back” is that it spits in the face of what Mack Brown did in the 2000s. From 2000-09, Texas had 10 consecutive top-15 finishes. Since then, Ehlinger’s aforementioned “we’re baaaaaaaaack” was the lone such finish.

But wait! There’s more!

Did you know that the last time Texas won a post-October game while being ranked inside the top 10 of the AP Poll came in 2009? It was the infamous 2009 Big 12 Championship wherein Texas got an extra second added to the clock that allowed it to defeat Nebraska.

When that happened on Dec. 5, 2009:

  • A) Nick Saban had yet to win a national title at Alabama
  • B) LeBron James had yet to win an NBA title
  • C) Instagram wasn’t a thing
  • D) Uber had yet to hire a single employee
  • E) All the above

It’s “E.” It’s always “E.”

Just for a little perspective, 12 of 14 current SEC members have won a post-October game as an AP top 10 team since Dec. 5, 2009 (Kentucky and Vandy are the lone SEC teams that haven’t).

That’s the problem. How can you be considered “back” if you aren’t playing for a title or even a Playoff berth?

This isn’t about some September or October ranking. Texas was in the top 10 as recently as 2019, but then a 2-2 start spoiled that because that’s seemingly what always happens in September (shooting a cannon through Joe Burrow’s LSU jersey on College GameDay wasn’t the smartest move). Texas played a post-October game as an AP top 10 team as recently as 2018, but it was a Big 12 Championship loss to Texas native Kyler Murray and the Sooners (that performance lifted him to the Heisman Trophy).

There’s a realistic scenario in which Texas starts the 2023 season 6-1 with a close road loss at Alabama. Picture the post-Oklahoma victory narrative about the Longhorns. That bye week, we’ll get the lazy question being tossed around … is Texas back?

Let me say it in Spanish for you. “No.”

We don’t need to be so black and white about this. Maybe a 6-1 or 7-0 start would show that Texas is “returning.” I get it, though. That doesn’t move the needle. Who wants patience and realistic expectations when you can dial into nostalgia with a massive fan base?

There are very few things that can happen in 2023 that would make me pull the trigger on declaring that Texas is indeed back. That’s because this should really be a 2-year process. Going to a New Year’s 6 bowl doesn’t make a program back. Texas is living proof of that. If you’re a Power 5 program, you can have a one-off year like that. Even Illinois and Kansas have done that within memory (everybody was doing that in 2007).

In the Playoff era, 55% of Power 5 teams have been to a New Year’s 6 Bowl, including Texas. In no world should the Longhorns reaching a New Year’s 6 Bowl 5 years removed from its last such feat be grounds for being “back.”

But what about if Texas wins the Big 12 for the first time since 2009?

There’s a perfectly real world in which that happens with Quinn Ewers in Year 2 of the Steve Sarkisian offense, which added former Georgia Playoff hero AD Mitchell to an already loaded group of pass-catchers. Still, though. Winning the Big 12 alone isn’t grounds for being back. Going 10-2 and missing the Playoff isn’t some sign that Texas is back to what it was in the 2000s.

So then what about making the Playoff? Can we set that as a 2023 benchmark for Texas being back?

You might. I, however, won’t go that far. Not in a 1-year sample size coming off an 8-5 season. Making the Playoff is no small feat, but we’ve seen plenty of teams reach the Playoff and clearly look like they didn’t belong.

So is it Vince Young-confetti levels or bust for Texas to be back in 2023? Not quite.

The only possible 2023 declaration we should make for Texas being back is if it can reach a national championship. If the Longhorns join the group of 7 teams that have won a Playoff game in the 4-team field — a group Oklahoma isn’t even a part of yet — then I’ll declare them “back.”

But outside of that, this should be a 2-year process. Texas can begin the process by finishing in the top 10 of the AP Poll this year. Doing that in 2023 and 2024 — even without a Playoff berth — would qualify as being “back.” Why? We know what awaits Texas in 2024 — the SEC.

That’s why the 2023 standard should be so high. No matter what Texas does in 2023, outside of winning reaching a national championship, we’re all going to be asking the same question at this time next year. That is, how will Texas fare in the SEC? If Texas wins the Big 12 this year, loses in the semifinal but then goes 7-5 in its inaugural SEC season, was it back in 2023? No way. We’d again be guilty of prematurely declaring Texas is back to being one of the big boys.

Maybe we’ll feel that sense of regret if Tennessee regresses back to mediocrity in 2023. But at least with the Vols, they took down Nick Saban for the first time at Alabama, and that game marked their first win against an AP top-5 team in 17 years. The Vols were No. 1 in the first Playoff poll, and while the season ended without a CFP invite, it was still the program’s best season in 21 years.

Call me crazy, but that’s far more worthy of being considered “back” than winning some early-September game. By now, we should know better than to do that with Texas. We should have a way in which we can be encouraged by Texas without assuming that it’s about to reach the top of the college football mountain and stay there.

It’s been a long journey for the Longhorns since they watched Alabama end those national title dreams to close the 2009 season. The Longhorn Network came and went. They changed conferences. The sport’s postseason format changed … twice. Uber hired an employee or two.

Texas might soon return to a much different world. Let’s just cool it with those declarations in 2023.