{"id":326132,"date":"2025-08-29T09:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T09:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/326132\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T09:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T09:50:11","slug":"ohio-state-football-vs-texas-a-prime-early-season-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/326132\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio State football vs Texas a prime early-season matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

For those who enjoy the art of alliteration, there are plenty of ways to describe Saturday’s scintillating season-opening showdown<\/a> at Ohio Stadium between Texas football<\/a> and Ohio State.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

NO. 1 TEXAS AT NO. 3 OHIO STATE<\/p>\n

When\/where: 11 a.m. Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.<\/p>\n

TV\/radio: Fox; 1300 AM, 98.1 FM, 105.3 FM (Spanish)<\/p>\n

Gargantuan gridiron game.<\/p>\n

Colossal clash in Columbus.<\/p>\n

Big battle between blue bloods.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

TEXAS FOOTBALL: How Arch Manning is preparing for Ohio State Buckeyes’ home crowd<\/a><\/p>\n

Call it whatever you want. This season-opening football fracas on Fox features a Texas team that tops the Associated Press’ poll and Ohio State, which is third. The game comes a few months after Ohio State’s road to a national championship featured a 28-14 win over Texas in the College Football Playoff semifinals.<\/a><\/p>\n

“I don’t think it can (get here soon enough). I don’t think it can,” UT running back Quintrevion Wisner said this week. “We are definitely ready, though. Big game coming up, big moment. We’re prepared.”<\/p>\n

\"Ohio<\/p>\n

Ohio State Buckeyes safety Sonny Styles (6) tackles Texas Longhorns wide receiver Ryan Wingo (5) during the second half of the Cotton Bowl Classic College Football Playoff semifinal game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Jan. 10, 2025. Ohio State won 28-14.<\/p>\n

Adam Cairns\/Columbus Dispatch<\/p>\n

Ohio State and Texas respectively rank second and fifth on college football’s all-time wins chart. Just two of UT’s 961 wins have come at the Buckeyes’ expense. Ohio State has also beaten Texas twice.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

But despite not meeting each other that often, Texas and Ohio State have created plenty of memories together. Vince Young’s 24-yard touchdown pass to Limas Sweed at Ohio Stadium<\/a> got UT’s 2005 championship run started, and Ohio State bested Texas in Austin a year later in a showdown between the top-two teams in the AP poll. Quan Cosby’s dive into the end zone at the 2009 Fiesta Bowl remains a highlight at Texas while Jack Sawyer’s sack, strip and score to seal last season’s Cotton Bowl won’t be forgotten anytime soon in Columbus.<\/p>\n

TEXAS FOOTBALL: Longhorns focused on results, not No. 1 hype<\/a><\/p>\n

Texas’ history vs defending champions<\/p>\n

After besting Texas at the Cotton Bowl, Ohio State advanced to and won the national championship. Seven months later, Ohio State becomes the ninth defending champion in a 50-year span to play Texas the following season (a 10th defending champion, LSU, had its home game against Texas in 2020 canceled because of the pandemic).<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

None of those defending champs, however, were the first team listed on UT’s schedule. Texas played Michigan last year during the second week of the season, but Oklahoma and Nebraska were conference foes in 1976, 1986, 1996, 1998 and 2001. USC and Miami’s 1990 and 2005 championship follow-ups featured postseason games against Texas.<\/p>\n

\"photoSara Diggins\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n

Ohio State is also just the third top-five team that Texas has faced in a season opener in the past 50 years. Texas beat No. 5 Auburn in 1983, but was beaten by the fifth-ranked Tigers to open the 1987 season.<\/p>\n

Heading into a game of this magnitude, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian admitted that he would have liked to “get some footing underneath you with some new players, some guys that maybe haven’t played with you, even if they’re transfers.” Sarkisian, though, pointed out that Ohio State is in the same boat<\/a>. The Buckeyes are just the sixth team since 2000 to open up their championship defense against a ranked opponent.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

“I think at the end of the day, if it’s both of our first game, you feel OK. Where I’d be really uncomfortable if this was our first game, and they had already gotten the game under their belt,” Sarkisian said. “So it just is what it is. You try to prepare your team as best you can. You try to minimize the self-inflicted wounds, and so you can play as clean a football as possible come Saturday at noon.”<\/p>\n

According to UT, this is the 20th time that the\u00a0NCAA’s defending champion has faced the No. 1 team in the AP poll. The Longhorns were involved in two of the previous 19 showdowns. Texas was the reigning champion when it was beaten in Austin by top-ranked Ohio State in 2006 and No. 1 Alabama at the 1965 Orange Bowl.<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Chris Del Conte, athletics director at the University of Texas at Austin, announces Humann as a new sponsor during a press conference at the Texas Athletics Hall of Fame on Monday Aug. 25, 2025.<\/p>\n

Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n

Del Conte: Texas will continue to schedule opponents like Ohio State\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week, the SEC announced that its football teams will each\u00a0begin playing nine conference games in 2026<\/a>. For UT’s first two seasons in the league, the SEC scheduled eight league games. This means SEC teams will only schedule three nonconference games in the future and league rules mandate that one of those contests must be against Notre Dame or a team from the ACC, Big 12 or Big Ten.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

Texas already has future games against Ohio State (2026), Michigan (2027) and Arizona State (2032, 2033) on the books. Late last year, Texas and Notre Dame announced that they’ll meet in nonconference in 2028 and 2029.<\/p>\n

MORE: Texas vs. Ohio State game on Fox will stay on YouTube TV \u2014 for now<\/a><\/p>\n

Texas hasn’t hidden its desire to schedule games that attract the spotlight.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Texas has completed home-and-home nonconference series with Alabama, Cal, Notre Dame and USC, and the Longhorns hosted LSU and traveled to Michigan and played Maryland inside an NFL stadium. Don’t expect the Longhorns to change that scheduling philosophy. Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte, who was a longtime proponent of the SEC expanding to nine conference games since UT plays Oklahoma on a neutral site every year, told reporters this week<\/a> the Longhorns have an “obligation” to play other big-name opponents.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

“The brand of Texas, we owe it to college football to play this type of game,” Del Conte said. “We have Michigan, we have Ohio State, we just scheduled Notre Dame. We had USC, we had LSU when we had a nine-game (conference) schedule in the Big 12. I think with the discussions going around the CFP whether expansion or not, the regular season matters. Are we talking about the NFL opening games right now? No, they’re talking about Texas playing Ohio State, they’re talking about Alabama playing Florida State, Clemson playing LSU. These games really set the tone for college. We’re not shying away from it. We want to preserve college football in the national landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Us not playing A&M for a long time hurt college football. Nebraska not playing Oklahoma makes no sense to me. We’ve got to have those games, they’re important. Us playing Ohio State, everyone’s talking about it. I’m fired up for the game.”<\/p>\n

When it comes to scheduling, Sarkisian does have a say in the matter<\/a>. The football coach, however, said this week that he leaves most of the work to Del Conte and his team.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

But life in the SEC is tough enough as it is. Wouldn’t the Longhorns be better served playing their nonconference games against teams that aren’t expected to contend for national championships? On Monday, Sarkisian didn’t think so. In the coach’s mind, he said, he didn’t believe that a loss in one of these games would harm a team’s chances at qualifying for the College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n

“I think about the CFP, and as we continue to evolve from two teams to four teams to 12 teams and God knows where we’re going to go next, my thought is almost that you get rewarded for playing these games,” Sarkisian said. “The goal is to be rewarded for playing these games. Obviously, you can reward yourself by winning. That’s helpful, but I just don’t think either us, or Ohio State for that matter, is going to get punished for playing in this game from a CFP standpoint.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For those who enjoy the art of alliteration, there are plenty of ways to describe Saturday’s scintillating season-opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[331,7,49,48,69,384,1078,1079],"class_list":{"0":"post-326132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","13":"tag-steve-sarkisian","14":"tag-texas-longhorns","15":"tag-texas-longhorns-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115111436225931969","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}