Texas somehow cracks top 25 of final ESPN FPI for 2021-22 season

More than one month removed from the end of a tragic regular season for head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program, we are already starting to look forward to projections for the 2022 season. That is really the case with the College Football Playoff National Championship Game wrapping up on the night of Jan. 10.

With the Georgia Bulldogs topping the Alabama Crimson Tide to win the school’s first National Championship in more than 40 years, the focus will now officially be on way-too-early projections for 2022 for a good while.

The famed “list season” that tends to take part in multiple phases each and every offseason will begin its first part in the next few weeks. And one of the first parts of the list season is the final ESPN Football Power Index from the season that was.

On Jan. 11, ESPN released the final edition of the FPI for the season that was. And it featured the Longhorns much higher than really any other poll would. Given that this is essentially solely metrics-based aggregated from different data points, the FPI can be flawed in the sense that it overlooks win-loss records to a certain degree.

Texas football is the lone five-win team in the final ESPN FPI of the season

Texas was already ranked pretty high in the last FPI that was released before the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. But the final edition of the FPI had the Longhorns actually cracking the top 25.

In fact, Texas cracked this final edition of the FPI at No. 24.

Texas had the fewest wins of any of the teams that cracked the top 25 in the final FPI. The only team with a losing record that ranked higher than the Longhorns was the Auburn Tigers, who finished up with a record of 6-7 after a loss in bowl season. Auburn rang in at No. 20 in the final FPI.

Offensive and special teams efficiency did a lot of the carrying for the Longhorns in terms of how high the team finished in the final FPI. Texas ranked in the top 40 in the FBS in offensive efficiency in the FPI and in the top 25 in special teams efficiency. The Longhorns even somehow finished in the top 60 in defensive efficiency in the season that was.

Texas finished up last season with a record of 5-7 (3-6 Big 12) following their Black Friday win in the regular season finale over the Kansas State Wildcats. The losing record meant Texas missed out on the postseason for the first time since 2016.