Texas Football: Where 247Sports ranked 2005 Horns among best title teams since 2000

Among the best national title winners from each year since 2000, where does the 2005 Texas football team fall in line in the ranking?

The last national title for the Texas football program came from that legendary 2005 team, under the guidance of superstar quarterback Vince Young. Texas knocked off the USC Trojans in the 2006 Rose Bowl to decide the BCS National Championship, on that legendary play where VY scampered for the game-winning touchdown run on 4th-and-5.

Given all that’s happening with the novel coronavirus pandemic, there’s a lot of nostalgia that fans of the Texas Longhorns football program get from looking back on this Rose Bowl game. From re-airs of the 2006 BCS National Championship Game, to look backs on the career of VY himself, there’s a lot of fond memories for Longhorns fans to turn to at this difficult time for so many.

And Brad Crawford of 247Sports recently slotted where the 2005 Longhorns belonged in the midst of the ranking of every national title squad since 2000. Now that the first two decade of national title winners are in the books since the turn of the century, there’s a lot of teams to compare over two different eras in college football.

Crawford wound up ranking the Longhorns title team in 2005 second best among all college football national champions since 2000. Here’s what he had to say on the matter.

"The Longhorns snapped USC’s 34-game winning streak with their 20th straight victory, outlasting the Trojans, 41-38, in one of the best college football games of all-time. The victory over USC was the program’s first over a top-ranked team in 40 years. Robbed of the Heisman as the second-place finisher behind USC’s Reggie Bush, Vince Young took it personal and it showed. He ultimately finished his junior season with 4,086 yards of total offense and 38 touchdowns before declaring for the NFL Draft. Texas eclipsed 50 points seven times and only played one game decided by single digits (at Ohio State) prior to beating USC."

The 2000’s started out with the BCS deciding who was the national title winner. That transitioned in the College Football Playoff-era to determine the national title winner starting during the 2014 season. The Ohio State Buckeyes were the first College Football Playoff National Champions to wrap up the 2014 season.

Moreover, the only national championship team that was ranked ahead of the 2005 Longhorns on this list were the 2001 Miami Hurricanes, and deservedly so. That 2001 Miami team was thoroughly dominant.

The 2009 Alabama Crimson Tide team that beat Texas in the BCS National Championship Game ranked at No. 6. And the most recent national title winner, the 2019 LSU Tigers, actually slotted as the third best team in this ranking.

That VY-led Longhorns team in 2005 was dominant until they reached the national title game against Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, and the Trojans in the Rose Bowl. Those two teams battled to an instant classic game decided by one possession in the Longhorns favor.