For most of the last two years, the question was a punch line following the call from Joe Tessitore when the Horns beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in overtime to open the 2016 season.
“Texas is back, folks,” Tessitore intoned as Tyrone Swoopes crossed the goal line for a 50-47 win.
As it turned out, Texas was not back, as the call by Tessitore absolutely failed the test of time. A road loss to Kansas that season entrenched “Texas is back” into the pantheon of national college football jokes. A 7-6 record during head coach Tom Herman’s first season didn’t exactly relegate that joke to the dust bin of history.