It’s been 26 years since the Katy Tigers were knocked out of the second round of the Texas High School Football Playoffs.

That streak came to an end on Nov. 17 thanks to Landon Rink and his Cy-Fair Bobcats in a thrilling 28-21 overtime victory.

The upset sent shockwaves throughout the state and is one Rink will remember the rest of his life.

“Oh my God, the adrenaline,” said Rink, a four-star defensive lineman rated as the No. 34 player in Texas by TexasFootball.com. “That was probably some of the best football of my life.”

It was a long time coming for Rink to be in that moment. He and his father, Shane, who played at the University of Texas, always trained together in preparation for his high school career.

“When middle school came around, I was so much more technically sound, faster, stronger than everyone else,” Rink said. “So I knew if I just kept growing at the pace that I was both on and off the field, I could eventually get to the point that I am now.”

That point includes having offers from the likes of Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas, and Notre Dame.

As the offers started to roll in, so too did the trust of his teammates and coaches. Rink was named a team captain as a sophomore at 6A Cy-Fair, the first time in school history a sophomore was named team captain.

That privilege came with pressure, however. Rink knew he’d start to get double teamed from opposing offenses. He and his father had a plan for that.

“Me and my dad, we were trying to put me in a position where I could be successful, be a threat to the offense,” Rinks said. “So I feel like we maximized that, especially in the Katy game, because they couldn’t run the ball on us at all.”

Before the Katy game could happen, Rink knew his Bobcats had some things to iron out. Cy-Fair opened the season with a one-point loss to Bridgeland, a feeling it didn’t want to experience again. It took that one loss for the Bobcats to come together and realize that cannot happen again.

It didn’t happen again during the regular season. Cy-Fair took care of business with Bellaire, 55-10, in bi-district to set up the area round matchup with Katy.

Rink knew what was at stake, and he was able to get a glimpse of what the Tigers were thinking ahead of the matchup. On an unofficial visit to Texas A&M, Rink met up with Katy offensive lineman, Coen Echols, who was committed to Texas A&M at the time. 

“I was just talking to him, and he was telling me how they’re getting ready for North Shore already,” Rink said. “And I was like ‘Okay.’ And we steamed them up pretty well.”

“We knew what they were doing because they don’t run much variety, so we put me and the defense in positions to just dominate them.”

It was everything Rink could’ve asked for in an unforgettable football memory. 

Cy-Fair scored first in overtime, and it was up to Rink and his Bobcat defense to come up with a stop. They made it happen.

The Bobcats’ luck ran out the following week to North Shore, but the overtime victory over Katy serves as a monumental reminder for this offseason of what was possible.

Now, Rink is set to prepare for his senior season and is set to hit the ground running in his recruitment, where he’s one of the most sought after defensive lineman in the 2025 class, holding over 30 Division I offers.

No matter where his recruitment takes him, and no matter how successful his senior season ends up being, Rink will never forget when he and his Cy-Fair team were the toast of Texas, if even for a week.