AUSTIN, Texas — Arch Manning completed 1 of 3 passes for minus-4 yards in the first quarter Saturday night, lost a fumble on his first attempt and threw an interception on his fourth.
Texas trailed Ohio State 20-3 at halftime. Manning was 7 of 14 for 60 yards at that point.
He was 16 of 23 for 135 yards over the last two quarters, and the Longhorns won 24-23.
“It was a weird start,” Manning said. “I don’t think any of us played as well as we wanted to. We didn’t play great at all. And I think it’s a credit to the new guys coming in, like Juice, the freshmen, the guys returning, the leadership. It was just all heart.”
“I’m really proud of the way we responded because we could have let that thing go,” Manning continued. “I mean, that’s just a testament to our coaches and our culture, I think.”
A Year After Columbus
Manning went 17 of 30 for 170 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception in last season’s 14-7 loss to Ohio State in Columbus. Texas had also lost to the Buckeyes 28-14 in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl in January 2025.
“I did not want to come in here after a loss at home to Ohio State again and have some sort of bad, y’all telling me we’re not good, all this stuff,” Manning explained. “I could not let that happen. So I think that was going through the back of my mind, like let’s not let that happen.”
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian pointed to last September, when Texas followed the Ohio State loss with games against San Jose State and UTEP.
“Last September was a hard month for him, not just this game against Ohio State, San Jose State, UTEP,” Sarkisian said. “There were some tough moments, but he got on the other side of it. And I think him getting through that adversity last year helped him get through the adversity of tonight. Because we got booed. I don’t know what series that was. We were going left to right and we were getting booed coming off the field. We had to punt.”
“But his ability to come back, and then when he comes back everybody else comes back, that’s a guy who has some grit, some resilience,” Sarkisian continued. “You can come back and fight through adversity and get on the other side of it in real time, in a short amount of time. And I don’t know if he could have done that if it hadn’t been for the adversity that he had to go through last year.”
The Fourth-Quarter Line
Manning finished 23 of 37 for 195 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. He ran 8 times for 24 net yards, including four carries for 27 yards in the third quarter, when he opened the touchdown drive with runs of 10 and 8 yards from the Texas 9.
In the fourth quarter he was 8 of 11 for 83 yards. He converted a fourth-and-9 from the Texas 42 to Emaree Winston and a fourth-and-6 from the Texas 32 to Emmett Mosley V, threw 3 yards to Ryan Wingo for the first touchdown, and hit Mosley V for 17 and 19 yards on the winning drive. Daylan “Hollywood” Smothers scored from the 1 with 25 seconds left.
Manning passed for 3,163 yards and 26 touchdowns with 7 interceptions last season and ran for 399 yards and 10 scores. Texas went 10-3 and beat Michigan 41-27 in the Citrus Bowl.
Announced attendance at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium was 105,044. Texas is 2-0, moved to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 on Sunday, and hosts UTSA on Sept. 19.
