It didn’t matter if it was by one point or 100.
It doesn’t matter that it took a horrendous, miserable first half to set up the program’s biggest comeback win since 2007.
It doesn’t matter that Texas still has to navigate a brutal SEC schedule before thinking about returning to the College Football Playoff.
The Longhorns needed Saturday’s 24-23 win over No. 1 Ohio State in the worst way.
To get the scarlet-and-gray monkey off their back
For Steve Sarkisian, who’s won four of his last five games against top-10 opponents, to change the narrative about him in big games.
For Arch Manning, who’s yet to lose a start at home, to prove that he’s not the same quarterback who looked miles away from being a franchise player in Columbus last season.
For Texas to prove that it's ready to kick in the door to national championship contender status after knocking on it in 2023 and 2024.
The Longhorns overcame a 23-3 third-quarter deficit to win, scoring the game’s last 21 points. After stumbling, fumbling and falling over itself in the first half, Texas flipped the script in the second half, outgaining Ohio State by 107 yards (239-132), winning the battle on the ground (103-46) and executing critical situations at an elite level (5-for-9 on third down, 2-for-2 on fourth down and 3-for-3 in the red zone with three touchdowns).
Sarkisian and the Longhorns have a lot to fix. That work can start on Sunday.
Playing the Buckeyes close wasn’t going to be good enough. Texas made the plays it needed to make to position itself for an epic comeback.
And now that it’s done, the Longhorns cleared a huge hurdle toward grabbing the next rung in college football’s hierarchy.
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Kade Phillips and Cam Coleman deserve huge kudos for the comeback.
Phillips recovered a punt that bounced off Ryan Niblett’s face mask in the third quarter. With a 23-3 lead, an Ohio State recovery deep in would’ve paved the way for a Buckeye rout.
On the offense’s ensuing possession, Coleman pounced on an Emmett Mosley V fumble, which would’ve wiped out a third-and-9 conversion in the Ohio State red zone.
The comeback wouldn’t have been possible without those two plays. The mistakes Texas made time and again in the first half gave way to timely clutch moments down the stretch.
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Colin Simmons made two game-changing plays in the second half that won’t show up in the box score.
On third-and-4 from the Longhorns’ 27-yard line, Simmons pressured Julian Sayin, rushing a throw down the sideline intended for Jeremiah Smith (a well-defended play by Bo Mascoe) that fell incomplete.
The next snap was Connor Hawkins’ 45-yard field goal that went wide left.
On Ohio State’s last drive, Simmons forced a holding call (Austin Siereveld was in the game at right tackle after Phillip Daniels left earlier with an apparent injury), which put the Buckeyes 85 yards from the end zone with 17 seconds on the clock and no timeouts.
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The Texas offensive line came up big in the second half. Kyle Flood’s group reestablished the line of scrimmage in critical situations; two of the first downs the Longhorns gained on their game-winning drive were on the ground, which doesn’t include Hollywood Smothers going over the top for the winning score with 25 seconds left in regulation.
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Will Muschamp’s defense was up against in the first half. The offense’s inability to put together drives led to awful field position; 31 of Ohio State’s 37 first-half snaps (83.8 percent) were in Texas territory.
With the Longhorns getting their act together on offense, the Buckeyes only ran 10 of their 26 second-half snaps (38.5 percent) on Texas’ side of the field. Texas winning the play differential in the second half played a big role in the Longhorns limiting Ohio State to 5.1 yards per play (6.5 in the first half) and a 1-for-6 mark on third down (5-for-8 in the first half).
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The All-22 film of Manning’s night will be picked apart in the coming week.
Manning's first two and a half quarters were a worst-case scenario for any quarterback in a big game. When he wasn’t missing reads or open windows, Manning’s receivers let him down.
With a comfortable lead, Matt Patricia dropped defenders into coverage to deny him deep shots. Thankfully, things changed on the Longhorns’ last three possessions and by the time he ripped a second-and-7 completion to Mosley for 19 yards down the Ohio State 1-yard line with 1:19 to play, he was locked in and dealing.
Manning went 8-for-11 for 67 yards and a touchdown on the second play of the fourth quarter (a 3-yard toss to Ryan Wingo). Manning's second half (16-for-23 for 136 yards) was much better than his first two quarters (7-for-14 for 60 yards and an interception).
Manning's two most important completions came on fourth down: a fourth-and-6 scramble that resulted in a 9-yard completion to Emaree Winston en route to the first touchdown of the game and a 12-yard strike to Mosley on fourth-and-6 to keep a 13-play, 72-yard touchdown drive alive.
Even though Smothers (21 carries for 74 yards and two touchdowns) and Raleek Brown (54 yards on 10 carries) helped the offense grind out long drives in the second half, Manning wasn’t a bus driver on Saturday. In program history, only Colt McCoy (2006 over Texas Tech and 2007 over Oklahoma State) and Vince Young (2004 over Oklahoma State) quarterbacked Texas to bigger comeback wins than the one Manning engineered over the Buckeyes.
It wasn’t always pretty, but Manning executed when it was do-or-die down the stretch, which is what the great ones do.
***
It’s going to take a minute to process everything that happened on Saturday.
What felt like another chapter in the ongoing saga of the Longhorns failing to deliver when sharing the stage with Ohio State instead became an epic comeback, capping an unforgettable week on the Forty Acres. Instead of another version of Texas’ previous losses to the Buckeyes or Georgia, the Longhorns went back into their bag from last year’s comeback win over Texas A&M.
Down at halftime after a mostly listless first half against a top-five opponent, Texas dug deep and gutted out a victory the hard way.
Thankfully, that’s the performance the Longhorns replicated.
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