When was the last time Texas won a national championship in football?
Every college football season — and sometimes in the offseason too — there’s a debate among fans: Is Texas back? And what exactly “back” constitutes.
Is Texas back if it wins a national championship? Is it back if it wins the Big 12 or has a 10-plus-win season or simply beats Oklahoma? However you subjectively define “back” for the Longhorns, the fact is that they haven’t been a consistent national powerhouse in more than a decade.
Texas’ last national championship in football was back in the 2005-06 season when it finished with a perfect 13-0 record. The Longhorns played a thrilling game against unbeaten USC, which was looking for a three-peat. Enter Vince Young, who scrambled for an 8-yard touchdown with just 19 seconds left to give Texas the lead and deliver a 41-38 victory.
The Longhorns also won national championships in 1970, 1969 and 1963, but the 2005 one was definitely the most recent, even if it was almost 20 years ago.