Texas' comeback win over Ohio State was big. What it could lead to is even bigger | Bohls

AUSTIN – On a steamy Saturday night in which Texas turned over the ball twice on its first five plays, made every kind of mistake imaginable and got booed by its home crowd, the fourth-ranked Longhorns saved their best for last.

That proved to be a true wonderment indeed because for three quarters they’d only played their worst.

Not until they trailed No. 1 ranked Ohio State by a supremely challenging 20-point margin after three quarters of a game did the Longhorns flip the switch for a 24-23 win in the fourth-largest comeback in school history.

But when they did, they looked unbeatable. They rallied for three touchdowns after three consecutive long-distance drives of 91, 72 and 73 yards. They scored the winning touchdown on Hollywood Smothers’ 1-yard leap into the end zone to stun a Buckeyes team that had bedeviled Texas for the past two years. They capped a 21-0 run to send the crowd into a frenzy as the team mobbed Graceson Littleton, who picked off Julian Sayin’s last-second desperation heave.

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Naturally, it was a player named Hollywood to put the finishing touches on the victory, with apologies to placekicker Gianni Spetic for his clinching extra point because that was the kind of script Texas followed to get to the euphoric climax.

Had he jumped over the pile into an end zone before when he played for North Carolina State?

“First time,” Smothers said. “I got a good liftoff.”

He lifted Texas out of a stupor that included two straight losses to Ohio State and three more to Georgia as well as one to a 4-8 Florida team that kept it out of last year’s College Football Playoff.

Now 2-0 for only the third time in Steve Sarkisian’s six years, Texas won this one on its home turf despite playing about as poorly as it could play until the final period. And that has to as jarring as much as jubilant for this coaching staff.

For three long, frustrating quarters, in fact, Texas was its own worst enemy. Raleek Brown lost a fumble on a swing pass on the game’s opening play. A pass from Arch Manning bounced off Cam Coleman’s outstretched hands and to a Buckeyes defensive back for an interception on the Longhorns’ fifth play.

Ryan Wingo let a perfect pass slip through his hands in the end zone. Ryan Niblett muffed a punt. And on it went.

Well, let Sarkisian explain.

“I don’t know if we could have played a worse first half frankly,” the Longhorn head coach said. “We couldn’t get off the field on third down. We couldn’t guard No. 4 (Jeremiah Smith). We couldn’t run the ball. It was an abysmal first half.”

Matters didn’t improve all that much in the third quarter as Ohio State (1-1) turned conservative and tacked on a 48-yard field goal by Connor Hawkins as its only score after intermission.

That opened the door for one of the largest comebacks in school history but probably the most unlikely.

Oh sure, Texas had come back from 12 points down midway through the fourth quarter to topple No. 1 USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl to clinch the school’s last national championship. And the Longhorns rallied from 14 down to shock Arkansas 15-14 in the Big Shootout en route to a national title in 1969.

And Mack Brown’s 2004 bunch weathered a 35-7 beatdown at DKR before rising from the grave and manhandling Oklahoma State in the second half for a rousing 56-35 victory.

But this one was different and feels different. Texas’ 21st home win in the last 22 games under Sarkisian may be its most momentous because of what it could lead to, stacked SEC schedule notwithstanding.

As Sarkisian mentioned when someone suggest this was such a seismic victory, “Have you seen the rest of our schedule? We’ve got some really good teams coming down the pike. But hopefully this pays dividends for us.”

He’s fully aware that his team will cross paths with six SEC teams that are ranked in the top 25, all but Ole Miss away from home. But he was vindicated on two big fourth-down conversions in the comeback, including a risky fourth-and-6 completion to Emmett Mosley V for a key first down.

NO. 4 TEXAS 24, NO. 1 OHIO STATE 23

Ohio St.101030-23Texas03021-24

First Quarter

OSU_FG Hawkins 26, 12:04.

OSU_J.Jackson 8 run (Hawkins kick), 5:39.

Second Quarter

TEX_FG Spetic 37, 5:42.

OSU_FG Hawkins 30, 1:41.

OSU_Je.Smith 19 pass from Sayin (Hawkins kick), :10.

Third Quarter

OSU_FG Hawkins 48, 8:09.

Fourth Quarter

TEX_Wingo 3 pass from Manning (Spetic kick), 14:19.

TEX_Smothers 1 run (Spetic kick), 7:14.

TEX_Smothers 1 run (Spetic kick), :25.

___

First downs1925Total Net Yards372336Rushes-yards31-9441-140Passing278196Punt Returns2-161–2Kickoff Returns0-02-35Interceptions Ret.1-71-0Comp-Att-Int17-32-123-37-1Sacked-Yards Lost2-142-16Punts3-39.03-40.667Fumbles-Lost0-04-1Penalties-Yards4-352-12Time of Possession28:2931:22

___

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING_Ohio St., B.Jackson 19-74, J.Jackson 5-20, West 2-7, Bey 1-0, Sayin 4-(minus 7). Texas, Smothers 21-74, R.Brown 10-54, Manning 8-23, (Team) 1-(minus 1), Wingo 1-(minus 10).

PASSING_Ohio St., Sayin 17-32-1-278. Texas, Manning 23-37-1-196.

RECEIVING_Ohio St., Je.Smith 8-164, B.Jackson 4-37, Williams 2-29, Roberts 1-24, Inniss 1-19, McCuin 1-5. Texas, Mosley 5-67, C.Coleman 4-49, Wingo 4-22, R.Brown 4-1, Winston 3-38, Smothers 2-15, Shannon 1-4.

MISSED FIELD GOALS_Ohio St., Hawkins 45.

This game was one for the ages and, in truth, probably aged every one of the 105,044 who crammed into Royal-Memorial Stadium and witnessed this rollercoaster of a football game.

“This one hurts,” said Ohio State coach Ryan Day, whose team missed a 45-yard field goal with 4:16 left to play. “We had them on the ropes and didn’t finish.”

This win propels Texas into the upper tier of national contenders and gives it a leg up in the national title race this season. Even more it offers much-needed redemption for those galling Buckeye defeats and instills confidence that should bolster the Longhorns in the heart of that SEC onslaught.

Plus, it reveals a monumental change in the reputation of both Sarkisian and Arch Manning, who completed 11 of his last 15 passes under duress and refuted his legion of critics by directing one scoring drive after another and not wilting in the moment.

Manning has undergone more scrutiny than the president and weathered the harsh criticism that has come his way. But he came through in the clutch when he absolutely had no other option.

“I did not want to come in here after a loss at home to Ohio State again and have some sort of bad (questions) and y’all telling me we’re not good,” he said. “All that stuff. I could not let that happen.”

And he didn’t. He played like the quarterback the college football world has waited for. Well, at least for a quarter.

“Arch played like a man tonight,” Sarkisian said.

So did his teammates because the red zone is no longer the dead zone for Texas. After being stonewalled in the 28-14 defeat to  the Buckeyes in the 2024 CFP semifinals and again in the 14-7 loss to Ohio State last fall at the Horseshoe, the Horns scored from inside the 3.

Not once, not twice, but three times.

Smothers ran for one and dived for the other, both from the lip of the goal line. Wingo atoned for his first-half drop with a clean, 3-yard touchdown catch to launch the 21-point comeback.

“Ultimately for us, we haven’t been (good) in goal-line for a couple of years,” Sarkisian said. “It’s been a little bit of a thorn in our side. And to be able to get into it on two different drives and put the ball in the end zone, that was gratifying.”

Not to mention necessary.

The Buckeyes had their way from the outset with a near-perfect first half. Texas dug itself an early hole, and Ohio State gladly brought the shovel.

Julian Sayin and Smith virtually put on a clinic the first three quarters, but new Texas cornerback Bo Mascoe blanketed the Buckeyes’ prolific receiver. Smith torched the Longhorns for three quarters, hauling in eight passes for 164 yards and a touchdown, but Texas put the clamps on him and held him without a catch on his three targets in the last quarter.

“Yeah, if I’ve got my technique down,” Mascoe said, “I knew I could shut him down.”

That’s what it took. That and three sterling touchdown drives of 15, 13 and 12 ball-hogging plays that kept Ohio State’s potent offense off the field and put critical Texas points on the scoreboard.

It took time, and the Longhorns used nearly every precious second of it to work their magic and become the first team in the past 15 years to finish off a win with three straight touchdown drives of 12 plays or more. It was all a matter of being patient but in a hurry at the same time.

“We just kept reminding (Manning) there is no 21-point touchdown pass,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve just got to go try to get seven points.”

And seven points after that and seven points after that. Like any true comeback, especially one for the ages.

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This article originally published at Texas’ comeback win over Ohio State was big. What it could lead to is even bigger | Bohls.