Monday Was The 5,000-Day Anniversary of Texas’ Last Big 12 Championship
The year was 2009. Swine Flu had the world in a panic (just wait about 10 years lol), Barack Obama was voted into office, and “My Life Would Suck Without You” by Kelly Clarkson was the top song in the world.
On December 5, 2009, the Texas Longhorns won their third Big 12 Championship in school history after Hunter Lawrence hit a walk-off field goal with “One Second Left” to beat Ndamukong Suh and Nebraska, 13-12.
The victory sent Mack Brown, Colt McCoy, and the Longhorns to the National Championship, where they fell to Alabama, 37-21, giving Nick Saban his first national title with the Crimson Tide in his third year.
Little did Texas fans know, that would be their last brush with greatness for well over a decade. As the title above states, Monday marked the 5,000th day since Texas won its last Big 12 Championship.
Since then, Texas has had three head coaches, five losing seasons, and one 10-win season. We’ve also heard the phrase “Texas is Back” coined since then, and used over and over again.
We’ve seen Tom Herman’s shenanigans. We’ve seen Kansas, who has been the worst power five program in this stretch of time, beat Texas not once, but twice.
We’ve seen underappreciated players like Sam Ehlinger and D’Onte Foreman come and go. We’ve seen all kinds of crazy finishes in the Cotton Bowl and lots of close finishes in Big 12 play.
We’ve seen five different teams win Big 12 titles since 2009, but one of them wasn’t Texas. They’re hoping to change that in 2023, but history isn’t on their side. If history repeats itself, and Texas doesn’t win the conference, 2009 will serve as the last time Texas ever won a Big 12 title, and the number 5,001 will just continue to climb for the rest of history.
So, happy late anniversary Texas! *Cazoo noises*
