AUSTIN, Texas — Texas handed the ball to Ryan Wingo on a reverse on fourth-and-1 from the Ohio State 41 with 54 seconds left in the first half. Jermaine Mathews Jr. dropped him for a 10-yard loss.
Ohio State took over at the Texas 49 and needed four plays and 39 seconds. Julian Sayin threw 19 yards to Jeremiah Smith with 10 seconds on the clock, and the Buckeyes led 20-3 at the break.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian had walked his team through its fourth-down calls in a hotel ballroom that morning, that one included.
“I’m aggressive by nature,” Sarkisian said. “We practice plays. If they look good and I feel good about it, and we plan and we talk about it, we meet about it, and we talk about it in the morning. I walked through those plays with those guys this morning in a hotel ballroom, and I told them it’s fourth and one, and I called that play in the hotel ballroom this morning. So we ran that play that didn’t work this morning.”
“I think there’s a sense of confidence from the players to know, hey, if I believe in them to execute a play, I’m going to call the play,” Sarkisian continued. “I believe in our players. And if I don’t, we punt, because that’s what means I believe in our punter and our ability to cover. So the players and the staff are the ones that give me the confidence to make those calls. It’s not some bravado thing that I have. It’s more about, hey, I’m aggressive because I believe in the schemes and the players that we have to go execute it.”
Fourth-And-9 From The Texas 42
Texas faced fourth-and-9 from its own 42 with 2:21 left in the third quarter, trailing 23-3. Arch Manning threw 9 yards to Emaree Winston for the first down. Four plays later Manning found Emmett Mosley V for 22 yards to the Ohio State 27, and the drive ended with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Wingo 41 seconds into the fourth quarter. Fifteen plays, 91 yards, 6:28.
“No, that’s how losers think,” Sarkisian explained. “Winners win, baby. You got to go for it.”
“They didn’t hire me to keep it close,” Sarkisian added. “They hired me to win.”
The second conversion came at 11:45 of the fourth. On fourth-and-6 from the Texas 32, Manning hit Mosley V for 12 yards. That drive covered 13 plays and 72 yards and ended with Daylan “Hollywood” Smothers scoring from the 1 with 7:14 left.
The Down-By-Down Numbers
Texas finished 2 of 3 on fourth down and 9 of 16 on third down. Both conversions came on drives that produced touchdowns, and the failure produced 7 points for Ohio State.
Ohio State went 0 for 1 on fourth down. On fourth-and-2 from the Texas 13 with 13:29 left in the second quarter, Ja’Kobi Jackson ran for 1 yard. The Buckeyes converted 6 of 14 third downs and none of 2 in the fourth quarter.
Texas trailed 23-3 entering the fourth and won 24-23 on the second 1-yard run by Smothers with 25 seconds to play. Announced attendance was 105,044.
Sarkisian is in his sixth season at Texas. The Longhorns went 10-3 last season and had lost both previous meetings with Ohio State, 28-14 in the College Football Playoff semifinal in January 2025 and 14-7 in last season’s opener in Columbus.
Texas is 2-0, moved to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 on Sunday, and hosts UTSA on Sept. 19.
