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Snap Judgments: No. 1 Texas ends non-conference play with a sloppy win over UTSA

Through the 11:26 mark of the second quarter in Saturday’s 30-6 win over UTSA, No. 1 Texas picked up where it left off in the fourth quarter of last week’s 24-23 comeback win over Ohio State.
The Longhorns led 17-3 after Arch Manning’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Cam Coleman capped a seven-play, 57-yard drive. Steve Sarkisian’s offense averaged 5.5 yards per play, with Manning’s 9-for-12, 102-yard effort and two touchdowns balancing a rushing attack that churned out 57 yards on 11 carries.
Unfortunately, it was downhill from there. The offense lacked cohesiveness, consistency and flow until Derrek Cooper ended an eight-play, 66-yard drive in the fourth quarter with his first career touchdown (a 1-yard run over the right side of the line).
Manning completed seven of his final 20 pass attempts. Texas (3-0) went 4-for-13 on third down the rest of the way and failed to move the chains twice on fourth down (0-for-2).
Obviously, if the Longhorns execute at a similarly forgettable level against Tennessee in their SEC opener next Saturday (11 a.m., ABC), it’ll be a different story on the scoreboard. While Saturday’s clunker came in a lopsided win, Monday’s film session will show a lot of meat on the bone against Jeff Traylor’s scrappy Roadrunners.
***
Manning wasn’t good on Saturday. There’s no sugarcoating his struggles.
He's still unable to hit the crossing routes in Sarkisian’s offense. While the Longhorn receivers either couldn't get open against man coverage or dropped his on-target throws, Manning either misfired or didn’t pull the trigger on plays that could’ve gone for big yardage.
For now, it’s fair to put Manning’s performance (16-for-32 for 161 yards and two touchdowns, with 50 yards rushing on nine official attempts) in the column of a bad night. It’s too early in the season (and too soon after his late second-half outing against the Buckeyes) to hit the panic button. Nevertheless, Manning looked more like he did when he struggled throughout the first half of the 2025 season on Saturday, not like the guy who played as well as any quarterback in the country down the stretch.
***
UTSA deserves credit for crossing up the Texas offensive line with various blitzes, games and stunts and making the Longhorns play behind the chains. That led to Manning bailing out of the pocket more than anybody wanted him to, which exposed him to too many hits in a game Texas won comfortably.
***
Late, hard-charging runs by Cooper (44 yards on 11 carries), Hollywood Smothers (10 carries for 54 yards) and Michael Terry III (seven carries for 39 yards) helped Texas finish with a season-high 228 rushing yards (4.8 yards per attempt). Still, the Longhorns did a solid job running the football; only seven of the 39 carries by the running backs were stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage and seven of the team’s 47 non-sack rushing attempts went for 10 or more yards.
***
Sarkisian doesn’t need to call a jump ball in the red zone for the rest of the season unless it’s going to Cam Coleman.
***
The most disappointing aspect of the offense’s performance was that they wasted outstanding field position. Five drives that started at their own 43, 45, 48 and 49 and the UTSA 39-yard line resulted in Texas only scoring 13 points.
***
Maybe Saturday’s offensive performance will be in 2026 what the Wyoming game was in 2023.
After the Longhorns went on the road and handed Nick Saban his largest margin of defeat in Tuscaloosa, Texas was tied with the Cowboys, 10-10, going into the fourth quarter; a 44-yard touchdown pass from Quinn Ewers to Xavier Worthy kickstarted a 21-point surge, leading to a 31-10 victory.
Time will tell. Still, if we’re judging this offense against the offseason expectations of it potentially being Sarkisian’s best on the Forty Acres, Saturday’s effort fell woefully short.
***
I’ve dissected the offense long enough. The Longhorns’ overall margin for error was significant because Will Muschamp’s defense put the clamps on UTSA (2-1).
After the Roadrunners kicked a field goal at the end of a 13-play, 59-yard drive, one on which Will Henderson III had success running off-tackle, Muschamp’s adjustments suffocated Henderson, Owen McCown and the rest of the Roadrunners’ offense. From the 7:05 mark of the first quarter, UTSA had 146 yards of total offense (3.04 yards per play), three first downs and went 0-for-9 on third down.
Although the offense looked as unappealing as possible, Texas played championship-caliber defense.
***
The game was so tightly officiated (both teams combined for 20 penalties) that I don’t know what to make of the Longhorns finishing the game with eight penalties for 88 yards. It was a sloppy performance, but the SEC officiating crew contributed to the clunky flow.
Jeff Howe

No. 1 Texas vs. UTSA: Stats to track when the Longhorns host the Roadrunners

AUSTIN, Texas — Steve Sarkisian couldn’t have been blunter when describing how No. 1 Texas has protected the football and played defense on third down through two games.
On Monday, two days after the Longhorns rallied for a 24-23 win over then-No. 1 Ohio State and immediately following his team’s first practice ahead of their non-conference finale against UTSA on Saturday (7 p.m., SEC Network+), Sarkisian mentioned ball security and third-down defense as things Texas (2-0) must fix after the team’s film review of the good, bad and ugly plays from the victory over the Buckeyes.
“I got on the offense's butt this morning about the ball. Our ball security is not good enough. Not to be a championship team,” Sarkisian said. “Our third-down defense right now is not good enough. Not to be a championship team.”
Only five SEC teams have fumbled the football more than Texas has heading into the Longhorns’ third all-time meeting against Jeff Traylor’s Roadrunners, with three fumbles coming against Ohio State. While heads-up plays by Kade Phillips (to recover a muffed punt by Ryan Niblett late in the third quarter) and Cam Coleman (to recover fumble on the ensuing offensive series by Emmett Mosley V at the end of a 15-yard completion from Arch Manning) helped Texas end the game with Raleek Brown’s fumble on the first play from scrimmage as its only lost fumble, the Longhorns are almost halfway to their 13-game fumble total in 2025 (eight, two of which were lost) and one-third of the way to the nine turnovers they had last season (Brown’s fumble and two interceptions by Manning, one in each game).
“We take pride in our ability to take care of the ball,” Sarkisian said. “We've got to improve our ball security because it wasn't just about the turnovers; it was the other fumbles.”
With only eight FBS teams forcing more turnovers heading into Week 3 than UTSA (2-0), this would be a good week to right the ship. The Roadrunners have five takeaways this season (tied for fifth nationally with a plus-2.5 turnover margin per game), three of which came in their 31-26 come-from-behind road win over Texas State last week.
“We have got to value the football more in the organization than we have through two games,” Sarkisian said.
Will Muschamp’s defense getting off the field more frequently on third down, however, requires a more nuanced resolution. The Longhorns are tied for 125th nationally in third-down defense, with Texas State and Ohio State moving the chains at a combined 50-percent clip (14-for-28).
What was most disappointing about the third-down effort against the Buckeyes was the defense’s inability to get off the field on third-and-long. Ohio State, which was faced with an average to-go distance of 7.9 yards on third down, converted three of the five third-and-9 or longer situations it had, including a pair of third-and-10 completions from Julian Sayin to Jeremiah Smith (a 19-yard strike in the first quarter and a 43-yard bomb in the third quarter), which came on two different Buckeye scoring drives (a first-half touchdown drive and a third-quarter field goal).
After Ohio State went 5-for-8 on third down in the first half, the 43-yard connection between Sayin and Smith was the only third-down conversion Texas allowed in the second half. The Buckeyes went 1-for-6 trying to move the chains, which Sarkisian credited to Muschamp’s defensive adjustments after a rough start, which included turnovers putting the defense in disadvantageous sudden-change situations (31 of Ohio State’s 37 first-half plays from scrimmage occurred in Longhorn territory).
With Texas’ defensive identity a work in progress, Sarkisian indicated the second-half adjustments against the Buckeyes could be what Muschamp does from the jump against the Roadrunners, who are 6-for-24 on third down this season (25-percent conversion rate is tied for 129th nationally).
“I thought Ohio State, to their credit, did a lot,” Sarkisian said. “They taxed us mentally with some formations, motion, shifts, alignments that caused a lot of communication, and I didn't think our communication was as good as it could have been. I thought we got better in the second half, but I think we're better defensively right now when we're in your face, when we're aggressive. We tried to play the other way a little bit in the first half and that wasn't, kind of, I think, where our identity is. I thought when we just, kind of, got in your face and played a little bit more aggressive, we played better football. That's probably where our bread and butter is right now, but we need to be more versatile.
“We've got to continue to work on those other things.”
OTHER STATS TO TRACK
— What’s impressive about Texas’ third-down offense goes beyond the 64.5-percent clip at which the Longhorns are converting (No. 5 in FBS). That’s on pace to shatter the Sarkisian-era high of 44.03 percent in 2021.
The same is true of the offense’s third-down tries based on a two-game sample.
With 31 third-down attempts through two games, the current pace of 15.5 third-down attempts per game would surpass last season (13.5 third-down attempts per game) for the Sarkisian-era high. Typically, Sarkisian’s offense has relied on big plays to move the chains, ranking among the nation’s leaders in percentage of first downs made on first and second down.
Instead of trying to avoid third down and score in a hurry, the Longhorns are facing more third downs, converting them at a higher clip and putting together more long drives. After recording 14 scoring drives that amassed 10 or more plays in 2025, Texas has already had six such drives through two games this season, including each of the offense’s last three scoring drives against Ohio State.
The trend should continue against a UTSA defense that’s 115th nationally on third down (45.7 percent conversion rate allowed) and 133rd against the run (233 yards per game allowed), with the Roadrunners surrendering more than 5.5 yards per carry.
— With the SEC opener on the road against an explosive Tennessee offense (a top-30 offense in the country with 35 10-plus-yard plays and 14 20-plus-yard plays from scrimmage) looming, the Longhorn defense needs to clamp down on allowing big plays.
Texas is currently tied for 87th nationally in plays from scrimmage of 10 or more yards allowed (25) and is tied for 96th in FBS with nine 20-plus-yard plays allowed. Most of the damage has been through the air; 18 of the 25 10-yard plays and seven of the nine 20-yard plays have been on passing plays by the opponent.
This is another statistical category in which Muschamp’s defense can iron things out before jumping into SEC play. In wins over UTRGV and Texas State, UTSA’s offense has completed 17 passes of 10 or more yards (tied for 74th nationally), with only five of 20 or more yards (tied for 92nd in FBS).
Jeff Howe

Burning Question Revisited: Did Texas win the line-of-scrimmage battle against Ohio State?

AUSTIN, Texas — It’s time to revisit On Texas Football's “One Burning Question,” where we ask a question about the Texas Longhorns heading into a game.
Entering Saturday’s 24-23 win over No. 1 Ohio State, our burning question was:
Can the Longhorns win the line-of-scrimmage battle against the Buckeyes?
They did. In emphatic fashion.
Winning in the trenches played, arguably, the most significant role in the program’s first home victory over the Associated Press’ No. 1-ranked team since a 23-20 win over SMU on Nov. 4, 1950.
From the time Texas took possession after an Ohio State punt with 5:47 to go in the third quarter, the Longhorns had a plus-28 play differential over the Buckeyes. Forty of the Texas offense’s 83 snaps came on the unit’s last three possessions: touchdown drives of 15, 13 and 12 plays, respectively.
Even though Arch Manning sparked the first two scoring marches with a pair of fourth-down conversions (a desperation throw while on the move to Emaree Winston and a dart to Emmett Mosley V), Steve Sarkisian put the 20-point comeback on the shoulders of Kyle Flood’s much-maligned offensive line. Including the 34 yards Manning picked up on the five times he called his own number, the Longhorns toted the rock 22 times for 96 yards on their last three drives, including Hollywood Smothers’ over-the-top, game-winning 1-yard touchdown with 25 seconds left on the clock.
The 22 late-game carries accounted for more than half of Texas' 41 official rushing attempts. After rushing for 140 net yards (3.4 yards per attempt), the Longhorns improved to 23-2 in 40-carry games under Sarkisian.
Texas’ only two games with 40 or more official carries last season came against UTEP (56) and Sam Houston (41). The Ohio State game was the Longhorns' first with 40 or more official rushing attempts against a Power Four opponent since a 48-carry, 292-yard outing in a 2024 College Football Playoff first-round win over Clemson.
Whether it’s been a lack of trust in the position groups responsible for making the running game go (the offensive line, running backs or both) or a desire to hunt big plays through the air, Sarkisian has, more often than not, abandoned the run in big games.
That wasn’t the case against the Buckeyes. The belief in the ground attack can be linked to Sarkisian’s trust in the offensive line and running backs after both groups underwent massive offseason overhauls.
The line is playing well together, Sarkisian said Monday while recapping the win over Ohio State and looking ahead to No. 1 Texas’ non-conference finale against UTSA on Saturday (7 p.m., SEC Network+), because of Connor Robertson’s veteran presence at center. While acknowledging that Robertson’s experience helps communication flow better on game day, Brandon Baker and Trevor Goosby have a full season as starters under their belts and seasoned transfer portal acquisitions Melvin Siani (859 snaps at Wake Forest last season, according to Pro Football Focus) and Dylan Sikorski (444 snaps as a sophomore at Oregon State) have exceeded expectations since joining the program.
“I think there's a lot of experience and I think they're just working cohesively well together, but what I liked was the physicality that they played the game with,” Sarkisian said. “They moved the line of scrimmage and they created running lanes.”
For their part, Smothers (74 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries) and Raleek Brown (10 carries for 54 yards), “didn’t go down on contact," Sarkisian said.
According to PFF, Smothers and Brown combined for 80 rushing yards after contact, with nine missed tackles forced. between them.
“We made guys miss; we ran through safeties,” Sarkisian said. “They were physical.”
The running back group’s toughness translated to much-needed pass protection for Manning, who was pressured on just 11 of his 44 dropbacks, according to PFF. Manning was the sixth-most-pressured quarterback in FBS last season (165 total pressures, on 35.6 percent of his dropbacks), with Ohio State pressuring him on 14 of 34 dropbacks (41.2 percent) in last season’s 14-7 loss in Columbus.
The Longhorns flipped the script in Austin.
While Texas kept Manning relatively clean, Will Muschamp’s in-game adjustment to play man coverage against Jeremiah Smith and put another defender in the box to bolster the run defense paid off with a winning effort against the run (94 yards and three yards per attempt by the Buckeyes, who didn’t have a run from scrimmage longer than 11 yards) and more consistent, effective pressure on Julian Sayin. After the Longhorns only pressured Sayin on five of his 20 dropbacks last season, Muschamp’s defense pressured the 2025 Heisman Trophy finalist on 15 of his 36 dropbacks (41.7 percent), mirroring what Indiana (pressured Sayin on 12 of 34 dropbacks in the Big Ten championship game) and Miami (pressured Sayin on 17 of 40 dropbacks in the Cotton Bowl) did last season in wins over the Buckeyes.
When Texas faced critical downs and needed a defensive player to step up and make a play, Alex January, Hero Kanu, Maraad Watson and Ian Geffrard won must-win battles at the point of attack. Muschamp went with heavier fronts featuring three and sometimes four tackles on the field, the latter being the case when January led the charge to stuff Ja’Kobi Jackson on fourth-and-2 from the Longhorns’ 13-yard line early in the second quarter.
Winning the rushing yardage battle, providing adequate protection for Manning and bringing the heat on Sayin more than Ryan Day and Arthur Smith wanted (Sayin overthrew Devin McCuin on a potential game-clinching touchdown in the third quarter, with Justin Cryer forcing a hurried throw as an unblocked rusher coming off the edge) added up to the Longhorns winning the trench battle and the game. They won the way Sarkisian hoped they could against elite opponents after spending the offseason trying to get Texas to play with more of a physical edge by putting the fulcrums of the running game through competitive, intense inside-run periods in practice.
With the trench battles sharpening both lines of scrimmage, Texas delivered when and where it mattered against the No. 1 team in the country.
“As a coach, you get what you emphasize, right? And we've been emphasizing being a more physical football team, being a more physical offensive team and running the football when they know you're going to run the football and having the ability to do that and having the ability to have confidence to call it that way,” Sarkisian said. “At the end of that game, when we were down there first-and-goal, it was like, 'We're running it, man.' And they knew we were running it. There wasn't a secret. We weren't going to call a bootleg or a tight end corner route or something. The ability to get that ball in the end zone is gratifying as a coach that your players have bought into what you're asking of them to get accomplished."
Jeff Howe

Texas is No. 1: Longhorns sit atop AP Top 25 after comeback win over Ohio State

After Saturday’s 24-23 comeback win over Ohio State, Texas has replaced the Buckeyes atop the Associated Press Top 25 as the new No. 1-ranked team in the country.
It’s the third consecutive season the Longhorns have been No. 1 in the AP Top 25. Previously ranked No. 4, Texas (2-0) received 56 first-place votes, topping No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 4 Indiana and No. 5 Miami in Sunday's poll (the Buckeyes fell to No. 6 after losing to the Longhorns).
After spending four weeks in the AP’s top spot in 2024, Texas entered the 2025 season as college football’s No. 1-ranked club. Before Steve Sarkisian’s squad rose to No. 1 following a 31-12 dismantling of reigning national champion Michigan at the Big House on Sept. 7, 2024, the 2008 season was the last time the Longhorns earned an in-season No. 1 ranking.
Mack Brown’s team, which vaulted to the top of the AP Top 25 after a 45-35 win over then-No. 1 Oklahoma on Oct. 11, 2008, was the first Texas squad to be tabbed No. 1 by AP Poll voters since 1984 (excluding the 2005 season, when the Longhorns won the program’s most recent national championship and were ranked No. 1 in the final poll). The current No. 1 ranking marks the 51st time the Longhorns (also No. 1 in the AFCA Coaches Poll) have been the nation’s top team in the AP Poll, which ranks 10th all-time.
ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25: SEPT. 13 (FIRST-PLACE VOTES)
1. TEXAS (56)
2. Georgia (3)
3. Notre Dame (1)
4. Indiana (3)
5. Miami (4)
6. Ohio State
7. LSU (1)
8. Ole Miss
9. Texas A&M
10. Alabama
11. BYU
12. USC
13. Texas Tech
14. Penn State
15. Tennessee
16. SMU
17. Utah
18. Iowa
19. Michigan
20. Missouri
21. Oregon
22. Houston
23. Louisville
24. Oklahoma
25. Virginia
Jeff Howe

Snap Judgments: Gritty comeback lifts No. 4 Texas to last-second win over No. 1 Ohio State, 24-23

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.
***
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.
***
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.
***
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.
***
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).
***
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.
Jeff Howe

One Burning Question: Can Texas win the line-of-scrimmage battle against Ohio State?

It’s time to tackle “One Burning Question,” an On Texas Football in-season feature where we’ll examine a question facing the Texas Longhorns entering a game.
On Sunday, we’ll revisit the question to see whether Steve Sarkisian’s team answered it successfully.
This week, with No. 4 Texas hosting No. 1 Ohio State on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC), the question is:
Can the Longhorns win the line-of-scrimmage battle against the Buckeyes?
In the back-to-back losses the Longhorns have suffered at the hands of the Buckeyes, rushing yards have only told part of the story in the trenches.
When Ohio State ended Texas’ 2024 season with a College Football Playoff semifinal win in the Cotton Bowl, the Buckeyes out-rushed the Longhorns by 23 yards, 81-58. Last season, Texas took advantage of Matt Patricia deploying more resources to defend Arch Manning and the passing game, racking up 166 yards on 37 attempts and leaving Columbus with a plus-89 edge on the ground in a loss.
Rushing yardage isn’t the only way to determine which team wins in the trenches. Those other areas, unfortunately, have been problematic for the Longhorns against the Buckeyes.
Fourth down, for instance, was a consequential down in the first two rounds of a college football blue-blood trilogy.
The Buckeyes are 2-for-3 on fourth down in their last eight quarters against Texas. One of those conversions was an 18-yard run by Will Howard on fourth-and-2 in the fourth quarter of the Cotton Bowl, which kept a 13-play, 88-yard touchdown drive alive. The other came in last year’s game, when CJ Donaldson scored the first touchdown on a 1-yard run that capped a 13-play, 80-yard drive.
The Longhorns, meanwhile, went 1-for-3 on fourth down in the Cotton Bowl, with one failed attempt resulting in Jack Sawyer’s game-clinching 83-yard scoop-and-score. Texas was 1-for-5 on fourth down in last season’s loss, including a failed quarterback sneak on fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line, a fourth-quarter drive that stalled in the red zone and the offense’s last possession, which ended with Manning finding Jack Endries under duress two yards short of the line to gain on fourth-and-5 from midfield.
Clearly, Ohio State’s pressure on Manning last season and Quinn Ewers in the Cotton Bowl significantly tipped the scales in the Buckeyes’ favor.
The Longhorns pressured Howard on 11 of his 36 dropbacks (a 30.6 percent pressure rate, according to Pro Football Focus) in the CFP semifinal, resulting in an interception and two sacks. Ohio State turned the heat up a few more notches on Ewers, who was pressured on 20 of 44 dropbacks (45.5 percent pressure rate). Ewers was 6-for-15 throwing the football when pressured and was sacked four times. Texas only pressured Julian Sayin on five of his 20 dropbacks last season (the Buckeyes played with heavier personnel and designed a game plan that protected Sayin from making a potential game-changing mistake in his first start), with no negative plays to show for the few times the Longhorns moved the Heisman Trophy finalist off his spot. Manning was pressured on 41.2 percent of his dropbacks (14 of 34), and while his ability to get away from the rush resulted in only one Ohio State sack, a 5-for-10, 60-yard day with an interception meant Patricia’s defense did its job.
Sarkisian's offseason changes to the roster and coaching staff weren’t just to get over the hump against the Buckeyes. Still, a quarterback with a full season as QB1 under his belt, a running back room with a new coach and an infusion of juice from the transfer portal, a revamped offensive line, the addition of a havoc defender the caliber of Rasheem Biles and Will Muschamp’s desire to dictate the terms of the game when sending in the defensive signals should make Texas more equipped to finish the job in the fourth quarter.
Given the perimeter skill talent on the field and the quarterback play on both sides, the winner could be decided by whichever team can defend the run more often with a light box (six defenders or less).
Both offensive play-callers (former Atlanta Falcons head coach and Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith calls the plays for Ryan Day's Ohio State offense) don’t mind using 12 personnel (two tight ends). Getting either offense to keep an extra tight end on the field is a win, with a capable running back or wide receiver relegated to spectator status on the sideline.
The Longhorns have the tools to protect Manning, disrupt Sayin and control the running game well enough to win.
We're roughly 24 hours away from seeing how it plays out and whether Texas can deliver a powerful statement that 2026 might indeed be different.
Jeff Howe

Who Has the Edge?: How No. 4 Texas stacks up with No. 1 Ohio State

It’s time to determine "Who Has the Edge?," an On Texas Football in-season feature that looks at how the Texas Longhorns stack up with their opponent.
The college football world will be fixated on the Forty Acres this week, with No. 4 Texas hosting No. 1 Ohio State on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC). With a slew of future NFL players littering the Longhorn and Buckeye rosters, the edges in the six categories were determined by the slimmest of margins.
The game wasn’t decided until late in the fourth quarter the last two times Texas and Ohio State met on the field. Saturday’s tilt isn’t expected to be different.
WHEN TEXAS RUNS THE FOOTBALL
Matt Patricia’s decision to drop more defenders into coverage against Arch Manning in Columbus last season and Steve Sarkisian’s willingness to stick with the running game (37 rushing attempts were the third-most the Longhorns recorded in a game last season) played big roles in how well the Longhorns moved the ball on the ground against the Buckeyes.
It was arguably the most consistent the Texas running game was in 2025. According to Pro Football Focus, Texas gained 55 yards on 15 A- and B-gap rushing attempts (3.7 yards per carry) against Ohio State last season.
Patricia’s plan should focus on denying the Longhorns wide-zone runs, which tend to be Sarkisian’s go-to calls when the running game is clicking. Hollywood Smothers, Raleek Brown and the other Texas ball-carriers bouncing duo concepts to the outside should also be a point of emphasis for the Buckeyes.
When that’s happened in the recent past, Sarkisian hasn’t had a counterpunch. To that end, expect the Longhorn running game to look a lot different schematically than the relatively bland plan of attack against Texas State, which produced inconsistent results.
The Texas running backs had four of their combined 31 carries go for at least 10 years. Nine of those 31 carries were stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage. A combination of the running backs making more decisive cuts and blockers staying engaged longer (straining, as Sarkisian calls it) will go a long way toward the Longhorns achieving more ideal balance.
The Buckeyes should feel confident stopping the run with a light box, with Eddrick Houston and John Walker leading the charge up front and Christian Alliegro and Payton Pierce cleaning things up behind them. Needless to say, forcing Ohio State to devote an extra defender to stopping the run (which is easier said than done, especially if Derrek Cooper can’t go after injuring his right ankle in the opener) will open things up for Manning in ways he didn’t have available to him inside the Horseshoe last season.
EDGE: Ohio State
WHEN OHIO STATE RUNS THE FOOTBALL
Just looking at the box score from the Buckeyes’ season-opening 56-3 rout of Ball State, one might think the running game was dominant. Ohio State rushed for 237 yards (6.8 yards per attempt), with Bo Jackson and Ja’Kobi Jackson both gaining 89 yards on the ground and finding the end zone in the resounding victory.
However, two long second-half touchdown runs (a 65-yarder by Bo Jackson and a 49-yard run by Ja’Kobi Jackson) bolstered the raw numbers.
The Buckeyes ended the first half with only 35 net yards on 21 carries (2.1 yards per attempt). Six of Ohio State's 28 running back carries were stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage, while 20 attempts gained five yards or less.
Like Sarkisian’s offense against Texas State, Arthur Smith utilized 12 personnel to fuel the Buckeye running game. Heavier personnel could force Will Muschamp’s hand when deciding how many defenders to devote to stopping the run. That would put more pressure on a Texas secondary entering the game under the gun, knowing it has to deal with Jeremiah Smith for 60 minutes.
While the Longhorns will face better personnel than they did in the opener, Ohio State's offensive line isn't as big as Texas State's. The Buckeyes also won’t push the tempo like the Bobcats did (few FBS offenses do), which should keep Texas' defensive linemen from getting gassed as quickly as they did last week.
EDGE: Texas
WHEN TEXAS THROWS THE FOOTBALL
After struggling for three and a half quarters, Manning found something that worked late in last year’s loss to Ohio State. He nailed a few vertical throws, including a 28-yard strike to Ryan Wingo and a 32-yard touchdown to Parker Livingstone; a 30-yard completion to Jack Endries kickstarted the Longhorns’ final possession, which ultimately ended in a turnover on downs in the closing minutes of regulation.
Manning's trip to Columbus mirrored his development throughout the 2025 season. Although it took a while for Sarkisian to figure out what gets Manning going, what keeps him hot and what can get him out of a lull, the quarterback’s trajectory took off once he and the play-caller got on the same page.
Manning has more seasoned personnel around him for his second start against the Buckeyes in 378 days. The Ohio State defense Manning faced last season is also replacing five of the first 62 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft.
The Buckeyes still ooze talent. But Manning might find it more comfortable operating at home, without trying to identify where elite playmakers like Caleb Downs, Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles (three of the first 11 picks in the draft) are lined up before the snap.
Ohio State isn’t facing the same quarterback who was struggling to keep his head above water in last season’s meeting. Manning, who quarterbacked Texas to three wins over top-10 opponents (two at home) last season, has proven himself as one of the top scrambling quarterbacks in the country, meaning he can make Patricia's call wrong, even when everything leading up to the time he takes off with the football looks right.
EDGE: Texas
WHEN OHIO STATE THROWS THE FOOTBALL
Jeremiah Smith is due for a big game against the Longhorns. After holding him to one catch for three yards in a College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl, Texas bottled him up last season, limiting him to 43 yards on six catches (with two drops, according to PFF).
What’s interesting about Smith’s 30-game career with the Buckeyes is that in the four losses he's played in, he’s put up massive numbers. Smith had a 100-yard game in three of the four losses and scored in two games. Smith's only sub-100-yard game in a loss was a five-catch, 35-yard performance against Michigan in 2024, when Will Howard took a big hit early, which helped derail the Ohio State passing attack.
In the two wins over Texas, when Smith was held in check, Carnell Tate (and Emeka Egbuka in the Cotton Bowl) made clutch catches. Are Devin McCuin, Brandon Inniss, Chris Henry Jr. or Legend Bey ready to step up if the Longhorns successfully put the clamps on Smith again?
For Muschamp’s defense to pull its weight in a winning effort, the plan must also include pressuring Julian Sayin.
There might not be a better quarterback in the country than Sayin when he’s got a clean pocket. Sayin’s PFF grade of 94.4 from a clean pocket (82.1-percent completion rate, 2,883 yards and 25 touchdown passes against five interceptions) led FBS in 2025.
In Ohio State’s losses to Indiana and Miami, however, Sayin was pressured on 39.2 percent of his dropbacks. Sayin completed just 42.1 percent of his passes (8-for-19) for 93 yards, no touchdowns and an interception, with 10 of the pressures leading to a sack.
The question is whether Muschamp’s fronts and coverages can work well enough together to get to Sayin. If they do, it'll lead to the Longhorns generating the kind of pressure that will create opportunities for negative plays and turnovers.
EDGE: Ohio State
SPECIAL TEAMS
The punters played a big role in last season’s game in Columbus, with Jack Bouwmeester’s ability to flip field position helping Texas stay in the game. Joe McGuire, who punted a career-high six times against the Longhorns, is back for Ohio State, while Bouwmeester’s replacement, Mac Chiumento, didn’t punt against Texas State.
The Longhorns enter the game with the most proven return man on either side. Will the Buckeyes kick to Ryan Niblett?
Former Baylor kicker Connor Hawkins connected on all seven extra points against Ball State. Hawkins, however, didn’t attempt a field goal, so the Liberty Hill product's first try in a Buckeye uniform will be under the lights at DKR. From that standpoint, one of the most important moments of last week’s win over Texas State might’ve been Gianni Spetic attempting and making a 48-yard field goal.
Texas has suffered numerous kicking game lapses in games of this magnitude under Sarkisian. The Longhorns have the edge in the third phase on paper, but Jeff Banks needs to make sure they maximize it and make it an advantage on Saturday.
EDGE: Texas
COACHES
Steve Casula is one of Sarkisian’s offseason staff additions that could help Texas against Ohio State.
Casula was an analyst at Michigan in 2021, when the Wolverines started a four-game winning streak over the Buckeyes. Casula, who works with the Longhorn tight ends, didn’t bring a secret sauce with him from Ann Arbor that will magically give Texas an edge on Saturday.
Still, Casula has been on a staff that put together a successful, winning game plan against a Ryan Day-coached Ohio State squad.
Where Casula's impact could be felt is when the Longhorns run the football. The tight ends set a physical, nasty tone in the running game against Texas State. The offensive line and running backs following their lead could give Texas the toughness it needs to get over the hump against an opponent of the Buckeyes' caliber.
Day has two former NFL head coaches calling plays on offense (Arthur Smith) and defense (Patricia). Even as Day has had to fill more coaching vacancies than he'd probably like throughout his tenure, Ohio State is in the discussion for boasting the best coaching staff in the country year in and year out.
After losing to the Buckeyes in back-to-back seasons with largely the same group of coaches, will Sarkisian's staff changes be enough to help the Longhorns slay the scarlet-and-gray dragon?
EDGE: Ohio State
SCORE PREDICTION
Texas 34, Ohio State 31
Jeff Howe

Longhorns in the NFL: Setting the table for Week 1

Three Texas Longhorn alums will be on the field when the New England Patriots visit the Seattle Seahawks to kick off the 2026 NFL season on Wednesday (7:20 p.m., NBC).
Michael Dickson and Byron Murphy II ended the 2025 season by helping the Seahawks top the Patriots and Brenden Schooler in Super Bowl LX. The return bout at Seattle’s Lumen Field will be highlighted by the Seahawks raising the franchise’s second Super Bowl championship banner.
Dickson and Murphy are the latest Longhorns to be a part of a Seahawks Super Bowl team. Seattle has had at least one Texas product on its roster for each of the franchise’s four trips to the Super Bowl, with Dickson and Murphy joining D.D. Lewis (Super Bowl XL), Marcus Tubbs (XL) and Earl Thomas (XLVIII and XLIX).
While Dickson and Murphy were drafted in 2018 and 2024, respectively, Schooler is one of nine former undrafted Longhorns on a 53-man roster entering Week. Ethan Burke is the latest member of the group after making the Baltimore Ravens’ 53-man roster, joining Schooler, Isaiah Bond (Cleveland Browns), PJ Locke III (Dallas Cowboys), Lil’Jordan Humphrey (Denver Broncos), Malcolm Roach (Broncos), Cameron Dicker (Los Angeles Chargers), Poona Ford (Los Angeles Rams) and Andrew Beck (New York Jets).
— Trey Moore (Miami Dolphins), Jaylan Ford (New Orleans Saints) and DeShon Elliott (Pittsburgh Steelers) will begin their respective seasons on injured reserve with designations to return at some point during the season.
Unfortunately, Alfred Collins won’t be joining them, with his impending trip to injured reserve for the San Francisco 49ers marking the official end of his second NFL season.
Collins suffered a torn patellar tendon during the team's practice in Australia on Tuesday ahead of the 49ers’ season opener against the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday (7:35 p.m., Netflix). The No. 43 overall pick in the 2025 draft, Collins played in 16 regular-season games for the 49ers as a rookie and saw action in both of the team’s playoff games.
While Collins is the only former Texas player on the 49ers roster for lifetime Longhorn Kyle Shanahan, the Rams’ roster features five products from the Forty Acres: Ford and Jordan Whittington on the active roster, Matthew Caldwell on injured reserve and Jack Bouwmeester and Bill Norton on the practice squad.
— The number of Longhorns in the NFL entering Week 1 is 53. That includes 43 on 53-man rosters, six on practice squads and four on injured reserve (Caldwell was placed on season-ending injured reserve when the Rams cut their roster down to 53 players).
The number of Texas products on the practice squad is the same as it was after cutdown. The players, however, have changed.
The Kansas City Chiefs released Cole Brevard after waiving him on cutdown day and bringing him back to the practice squad. Brevard worked out for the Buffalo Bills last Friday, but the team didn't sign him.
Thankfully, D’Shawn Jamison helped the numbers hold steady. On the same day Brevard worked out for the Bills, the Arizona Cardinals added Jamison to their practice squad, giving the Cardinals three former Longhorns in the organization (Hayden Conner and Devin Duvernay are on the 53-man roster).
***
Longhorns in the NFL in Week 1: 53
Longhorns on the 53: 43
Practice Squad: 6
Injured Reserve: 4
***
Arizona Cardinals (3): Hayden Conner, Devin Duvernay, D’Shawn Jamison*
Atlanta Falcons (2): Bijan Robinson, Cameron Williams
Baltimore Ravens (1): Ethan Burke
Carolina Panthers (2): Jonathan Brooks, Ja’Tavion Sanders
Chicago Bears (3): Roschon Johnson, Christian Jones*, Malik Muhammad
Cincinnati Bengals (1): Jack Endries
Cleveland Browns (1): Isaiah Bond
Dallas Cowboys (2): PJ Locke III, Demarvion Overshown
Denver Broncos (5): Jahdae Barron, Sam Ehlinger, Lil’Jordan Humphrey, Brandon Jones, Malcolm Roach
Green Bay Packers (2): Matthew Golden, Barryn Sorrell
Jacksonville Jaguars (1): Quinn Ewers
Kansas City Chiefs (1): Xavier Worthy
Los Angeles Chargers (1): Cameron Dicker
Los Angeles Rams (5): Jack Bouwmeester*, Matthew Caldwell#, Poona Ford, Bill Norton*, Jordan Whittington
Miami Dolphins (3): DJ Campbell, Trey Moore#, Michael Taaffe
New England Patriots (1): Brenden Schooler
New Orleans Saints (3): Kelvin Banks Jr., Vernon Broughton, Jaylan Ford#
New York Jets (4): Andrew Beck, Adonai Mitchell, Joseph Ossai, T’Vondre Sweat
Philadelphia Eagles (4): Jaydon Blue*, Jake Majors*, Andrew Mukuba, Moro Ojomo
Pittsburgh Steelers (1): DeShon Elliott#
San Francisco 49ers (1): Alfred Collins
Seattle Seahawks (2): Michael Dickson, Byron Murphy II
Tennessee Titans (2): Gunnar Helm, Anthony Hill Jr.
Washington Commanders (2): Samuel Cosmi, Charles Omenihu
* — Practice Squad
# — Injured Reserve
Jeff Howe

No. 4 Texas vs. No. 1 Ohio State: Matchups to watch when the Longhorns host the Buckeyes

AUSTIN, Texas — The most fascinating matchup when No. 4 Texas welcomes No. 1 Ohio State to DKR is between two men who won’t play a snap on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC).
Ryan Day has turned the Buckeye offense over to Arthur Smith, the former Atlanta Falcons coach who spent the last two seasons as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive coordinator. Steve Sarkisian hired Will Muschamp as the head coach of the Longhorn defense when he brought him back for his second stint on the Forty Acres, which started with last week's 59-7 thumping of Texas State.
Wisely, neither coach showed much in their respective openers. Still, their units produced big plays in lopsided season-opening wins.
Smith’s Ohio State offense rolled up 671 total yards (9.3 yards per play), with seven plays from scrimmage that went for 20 yards or more (the Buckeyes averaged 4.1 20-plus-yard plays per game in 2025) in a 56-3 rout of Ball State. Muschamp’s defense forced three Bobcat turnovers last Saturday, including Rasheem Biles' forced fumble, which led to Graceson Littleton's 59-yard scoop-and-score.
Both coordinators want to highlight players who can take over the game.
Smith would love to facilitate Jeremiah Smith’s breakout game against Texas. That's one of several facets of the Ohio State offense that poses problems for Muschamp's group.
The Longhorns held arguably the most talented offensive player in the country without a touchdown in two meetings with the Buckeyes. Smith turned 13 targets into seven catches for 46 yards and two dropped passes against Texas, according to Pro Football Focus; the Cotton Bowl (one catch for three yards) is Smith’s least productive game in the 30 he’s played for Ohio State, while last season’s yardage total in Columbus is the seventh-lowest he’s recorded in a game.
Arthur Smith went with a heavy dose of 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends) to help the Buckeyes get the running game untracked (Smith’s offenses with the Steelers ranked in the top half of the NFL in snaps out of 12 personnel in 2024 and 2025, respectively). While Ohio State entered halftime with 35 net rushing yards on 17 attempts (2.1 yards per carry) against the Cardinals, the running game exploded in the second half, ending the day with 237 net yards on the ground (249 yards and 7.5 yards per attempt when adjusted to exclude two sacks).
Muschamp’s defense is expected to throw multiple looks at what should be a more dynamic offense, quarterbacked by Heisman Trophy finalist Julian Sayin. That means using Biles and Colin Simmons, who finished last season’s 14-7 loss to the Buckeyes with two tackles and a critical penalty that aided a Buckeye touchdown drive, as moveable chess pieces, which will force the Ohio State offensive line and Sayin to communicate amid a raucous crowd when locating two of college football’s best box defenders before the snap.
“When you have a plan against somebody like him, you can't just throw all fastballs,” Sarkisian said on Monday. “As good a fastball as you have, if that's all you've got, sooner or later they're going to hit it. We've got to be able to mix our pitches up and how we defend him and how we defend the scheme. Arthur and Ryan, they believe in running the ball. They've got a good runner (Bo Jackson and Florida transfer Ja’Kobi Jackson both rushed for 83 yards and a touchdown against Ball State) and a good O-line. They've got other weapons.
“Not every game you go into where you say, 'Hey, we need to know where this guy is every snap,'” he added. “We'd better know where No. 4 is on every snap.”
Arthur Smith must put together a plan that unlocks Jeremiah Smith and creates playmaking opportunities for the Buckeyes’ other weapons, including UTSA transfer wide receiver Devin McCuin, who caught six passes for 97 yards and a touchdown in his Ohio State debut. Carnell Tate took advantage of the attention paid to Smith, catching seven balls for 87 yards in the Cotton Bowl and hauling in a game-clinching 40-yard touchdown last season at the Horseshoe.
The biggest question Muschamp faces is whether he can maximize his edge over the Ohio State offense.
It's a role reversal from last season when Matt Patricia, who hadn’t called a game defensively since his three-year stint as the Detroit Lions coach ended in 2020, made life difficult for Sarkisian's offense in Arch Manning’s first-ever road start. The shoe is on the other foot in 2026, with Day and Smith trying to figure out what Muschamp, who hadn't been an in-game defensive play-caller since 2020 before doing so against Texas State, will do.
“Coach Muschamp's a great coach, and we all have a lot of respect for him,” Day said on Tuesday. “But he really hasn't called the game in a while, so there's unknown here on how it's going to play out, what they're going to do defensively. We have to be able to respond to that in-game and figure that part of it out.”
Other matchups to watch when No. 4 Texas hosts No. 1 Ohio State on Saturday:
— Texas WRs Cam Coleman and Ryan Wingo vs. Ohio State CBs Jermaine Matthews Jr. and Devin Sanchez
Does Patricia have faith that his highly-touted cornerbacks can win one-on-one battles with the talented Longhorn wideouts? The Buckeyes dropped a lot of defenders into coverage in last season’s matchup with Texas, but that was against a wide receiver group without Emmett Mosley V (injury), with Wingo as the only proven commodity.
While the Longhorns would love to take advantage of the speed and playmaking ability on the perimeter down the field, that can only happen if Manning can adequately execute the quick passing game and if Texas can run the football with any measure of consistency.
— Texas Interior Offensive Line vs. Ohio State DTs Eddrick Houston and John Walker
Taking away Raleek Brown’s 21-yard touchdown run in the third quarter brings into focus how the Longhorns struggled to run the football between the tackles against Texas State. Minus Brown’s scamper on a delayed handoff, Texas recorded 14 rushing attempts on A- and B-gap runs for 37 yards (2.6 yards per attempt), with a 7-yard run by James Simon the longest of the day.
It’s a much tougher challenge for Connor Robertson, Brandon Baker and whoever’s in the game at left guard (Sarkisian said Monday that the plan for now is to continue rotating Laurence Seymore and Dylan Sikorski) this week against the Buckeyes. Houston and Walker, a transfer from UCF, can go a long way toward wrecking Sarkisian’s game plan by winning the line-of-scrimmage battle.
It’s imperative that the Longhorns prevent that from happening.
— Texas Edges Lance Jackson and Zina Umeozulu vs. Ohio State OTs Phillip Daniels and Ian Moore
The trench concerns for the Buckeyes reside on the edges, where Daniels was benched early in the win over Ball State. It’s a given that Ohio State has to know where Simmons is, but this would be a great time for Jackson or Umeozulu to emerge as the kind of pass-rushing threat who can make teams pay for playing them straight up.
Texas forcing Arthur Smith to put an extra tight end on the field to deal with edge pressure is a lot different than the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator utilizing 12 personnel purely out of personal preference. Simmons needs one of the two edge defenders opposite him to start taking steps toward being a reliable threat who can be counted on to get to the quarterback.
— Texas LB Justin Cryer vs. Ohio State QB Julian Sayin
Last season, Sayin was tremendous when attacking the middle of the field. According to PFF, 27 percent of his pass attempts in 2025 came on throws between the hashes and within nine yards of the line of scrimmage, which accounted for the highest percentage of his throws.
Sayin was 96-for-106 through the air for 888 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions when throwing the ball to the part of the field Cryer will be responsible for covering. Furthermore, Sayin was 26-for-33 for 424 yards, five touchdowns and one interception on middle-of-the-field throws from 10-19 yards down the field (93.9 PFF grade); his 99.9 PFF grade on middle-field throws of 20 yards or more beyond the line of scrimmage was his highest-graded target area of the season (19-for-24, 763 yards, eight touchdowns and one interception).
Until proven otherwise, the path of least resistance trying to move the football against the Longhorns is to force Cryer and the Texas safeties to make plays in space. The second and third levels of the defense handled the challenge they faced from Texas State, but the degree of difficulty accomplishing the task will be cranked up several notches on Saturday.
Jeff Howe

No. 4 Texas vs. No. 1 Ohio State: Stats to track when the Longhorns host the Buckeyes

AUSTIN, Texas — Offensive issues in the red zone alone aren't to blame for Texas entering a colossal bout with No. 1 Ohio State on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC), saddled with a two-game losing streak to the Buckeyes.
Still, it’s hard not to look at the Longhorns’ woes inside the 20 when trying to figure what must change to achieve a different outcome in their third meeting with Ohio State in just over 600 days. Steve Sarkisian said as much on Monday when asked if Texas took the right steps in the offseason to fix its issues in goal-to-go situations against the Buckeyes.
“When it comes to those scenarios, personnel helps,” Sarkisian said. “Schemes help, the right play call at the right time helps, the mentality helps. It all adds up because they've got good scheme(s), they've got good players, they've got good play-callers. It's the marriage of those two things coming together. Ultimately, we need to be better in those scenarios. You just think about these last two games we've played them; that was probably the difference in the ballgame was our inability to score inside the 10.”
The red-zone issues were front and center during last season’s 14-7 season-opening loss in Columbus. The Longhorns failed to score on their two trips inside the Ohio State 20-yard line, including a sloppy attempt at a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line in the second quarter and back-to-back incomplete passes by Arch Manning (a crossing route to Ryan Wingo on third down and a corner route to Parker Livingstone on fourth down) from the Buckeyes’ 9-yard line in the fourth quarter.
Last season, Texas was 4-for-7 in the red zone in its three losses, with its 57.1-percent scoring rate ranking 127th among FBS teams who had at least one red-zone possession in a loss. With only three total red-zone touchdowns in losses to Ohio State, Florida and Georgia, the Longhorns tied for 107th in FBS with a 42.9-percent red-zone touchdown rate.
Unfortunately, red-zone misfires have been a trend in Texas’ last eight losses under Sarkisian.
Since the start of the 2023 season, the Longhorns are 15-for-24 in the red zone in their eight losses (Oklahoma, Washington, Florida, Georgia three times and the Buckeyes twice). Along with recording a 62.5-percent scoring rate, Texas has also tallied an abysmal 41.7-percent touchdown rate in those losses, scoring only 10 touchdowns on 24 red-zone possessions.
The Longhorns have an 84.4-percent red-zone scoring rate in their last 36 wins (135-for-160), including a 6-for-7 mark in last Saturday’s 59-7 rout of Texas State. James Simon’s 6-yard touchdown run with 2:08 left to play against the Bobcats was the 100th red-zone touchdown (62.5-percent red-zone touchdown rate) Texas has scored in a win since it dispatched Rice, 37-10, to open the 2023 season with a victory.
The Longhorns need to reverse the trend to change their fate against opponents ranked in the top five of the Associated Press Top 25 (2-5 since 2023). Included in Texas' nine failed red-zone possessions across its last eight losses are some of the most painful what-if moments of Sarkisian’s tenure.
— The Sooners’ goal-line stand in 2023. Texas came up empty after facing first-and-goal at the 1-yard line.
— The Longhorns couldn’t finish a potential game-winning drive against the Huskies in the 2024 Sugar Bowl, failing to score after driving the ball to the Washington 12-yard line with 15 seconds on the clock.
— Texas settled for field goals on its last drive in regulation and its lone possession of overtime in a 22-19 loss to Georgia in the SEC championship game in 2024.
—  A forgettable sequence in a Cotton Bowl loss to Ohio State, which went downhill after the Longhorns had first-and-goal at the 1-yard line with 3:56 remaining in regulation.
Under Sarkisian, Texas has ascended high enough in college football’s national championship race to see the summit.
It would’ve been easier to deal with the College Football Playoff losses in particular if the Longhorns had been blown out in both games, Sarkisian joked. While a win over the Buckeyes wouldn’t guarantee Texas a trip to Las Vegas for the CFP title game, it would be a monumental step in helping the program reach heights it hasn't since Vince Young crossed the goal line on fourth-and-5 in the Rose Bowl more than 20 years ago.
“When you're that close, it's probably harder to get over, but I say it a lot: that's the life of a competitor,” Sarkisian said. “We're very fortunate to put ourselves in that arena, to put ourselves on that stage and I wouldn't want it any other way than to be on that stage. There's a lot of other people that were sitting at home on their couch watching us play in that game. The goal is to win that one and then win one more. We've got to do everything in our power to try to put ourselves back in those positions to be even better if we're fortunate enough to be in that situation again.”
That includes improving their execution in critical situations like the red zone, which should play a significant role in determining the outcome of another top-five tussle with the Buckeyes.
Other statistics to follow when No. 4 Texas hosts No. 1 Ohio State on Saturday:
— The Longhorns haven’t had a problem generating explosive plays against the Buckeyes. Texas had a 9-4 edge in explosives (rushing attempt of 12 or more yards and a pass completion of 15 or more yards) in the Cotton Bowl and a 7-2 advantage in Columbus.
Nevertheless, the Buckeyes made theirs count, whereas the Longhorns’ production was largely for naught.
Of the 16 explosive plays Texas has tallied in the two games, only five led to a touchdown or reached the end zone. Five of Ohio State’s six, however, occurred on a touchdown drive or scored, including Julian Sayin’s game-deciding 40-yard touchdown strike to Carnell Tate in the fourth quarter.
— If red-zone issues weren’t solely responsible for the Longhorns losing the game last season, penalties could’ve been largely to blame. The Buckeyes’ first touchdown drive (a 13-play, 80-yard march in the second quarter) was aided by a 15-yard face mask penalty against Colin Simmons on third-and-4 from the Texas 44 and a 10-yard defensive holding call against Malik Muhammad two plays later.
The Longhorns also had a safety wiped off the board when Simmons forced a holding call in the end zone in the third quarter, only for Liona Lefau to get called for illegal hands to the face, forcing second-and-9 from the Buckeyes’ 2-yard line to be replayed. Ohio State won the penalty battle in a landslide (two for 15 yards, whereas Texas was assessed six penalties for 50 yards), which the Longhorns can’t repeat.
— To-go distance on third down is more critical to Texas because the Buckeyes have won the last two games despite going a combined 6-for-22 on third down. While the Longhorns finished last season’s game at the Horseshoe with an average to-go distance of 5.5 yards on third down, they were 1-for-6 on third-and-8 longer (the only conversion was a 32-yard touchdown pass from Manning to Livingstone on third-and-10, which was third-and-5 before Texas was flagged for a false start).
Sarkisian will have more of his call sheet available on critical downs if the offense stays as close to on-schedule as possible. That’s where the running game will be a huge factor, especially with the Longhorns coming off a game against Texas State in which nine of the team’s 31 rushing attempts by a running back (29 percent) were stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage.
Texas can’t count on a 2-for-4 day on third-and-9 plus like the offense had last Saturday. Likewise, Will Muschamp’s defense will look to put Ohio State behind the chains more often than the Bobcats, who averaged 4.3 yards to go on third down (nine of Texas State's 14 third-down conversion attempts were third-and-4 or less).
— It shouldn't need to be said that turnover margin is important in a game of this magnitude. It's hugely important for the Longhorns, though, who are 6-12 under Sarkisian when they lose the turnover margin. That includes their losses to the Buckeyes; a David Gbenda interception against Will Howard in the Cotton Bowl is the only turnover Texas has forced in its last eight quarters against Ohio State.
Jeff Howe

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