Texas football holds steady at No. 7 in post-Week 0 ESPN FPI
Head coach Steve Sarkisian and Texas football are now less than one full week away from the 2022 regular season opener. Texas will open up the 2022 regular season at home at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium against the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks out of the Sun Belt on Sep. 3, with the kickoff time set for 7 p.m. CT.
Sark and the Longhorns look to be in a good spot to be one of the more improved teams in the Big 12 in 2022. But Texas will be confronted with a challenge that is the difficulty of the non-conference schedule in the last two weeks with opposition such as the No. 1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide and defending Conference-USA Champion UTSA Roadrunners.
The hype is definitely there, though, from a few different sources for the Longhorns in 2022. One particular ranking that holds Sark and the Longhorns in high regard heading into the 2022 season is the ESPN Football Power Index.
The latest edition of the ESPN FPI that was released post-Week 0 this weekend holds Texas steady at No. 7. Texas was ranked as the No. 7 team in the preseason FPI, and given how none of the other top 10 teams in this ranking were in action in Week 0, it makes sense that there wasn’t any movement here.
Texas football and Steve Sarkisian hold at No. 7 in latest ESPN FPI
Yet, one notable part of Texas holding steady in the top 10 of the latest FPI is that there was no movement for this team following the season-ending injuries to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Isaiah Neyor and senior interior offensive lineman Junior Angilau.
Moreover, it’s also worth noting that Texas is the highest-ranked team from the Big 12 in this edition of the FPI. Texas sits one spot ahead of the Oklahoma Sooners, who sit at No. 8, in the latest FPI.
Texas is given just over a 35 percent chance to win the Big 12 in this FPI, and north of a 13 percent chance to make the College Football Playoff. Those are definitely some lofty standards for Sark and the Longhorns after posting a losing record last season.
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Sark and the Longhorns finished up last season with a record of 5-7 (3-6 Big 12), missing out on bowl season for the first time since 2016. After the season opener next weekend against ULM at home, Sark and his squad will really be put to the test against the team that is far and away at the top of the latest FPI in the Crimson Tide.