AUSTIN, Texas — Daylan “Hollywood” Smothers went up and over the pile from the 1-yard line with 25 seconds to play, and No. 4 Texas finished off a 21-point fourth quarter to beat No. 1 Ohio State 24-23 on Saturday night.
The Buckeyes had led 23-3 entering the quarter. Announced attendance at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium was 105,044, with a kickoff temperature of 92 degrees.
Texas Scores 21 In The Fourth Quarter
The drive that started it began badly. Joe McGuire punted 50 yards with 5:56 left in the third, Ryan Niblett muffed the catch at the Texas 11, and Kade Phillips fell on it at the 9.
Fifteen plays and 91 yards followed. Arch Manning ran for 10 and 8 yards on the first two snaps. On second-and-14 from the Texas 26, Devin Sanchez was called for pass interference, a 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down. On fourth-and-9 from the Texas 42, Manning hit Emaree Winston for 9 yards. Two plays later Emmett Mosley V caught a 13-yard pass and fumbled at the Ohio State 12, and Cam Coleman recovered for Texas. Manning threw 3 yards to Ryan Wingo for the touchdown 41 seconds into the fourth quarter.
The next drive covered 13 plays and 72 yards. Manning converted a fourth-and-6 from the Texas 32 with a 12-yard pass to Mosley V. Raleek Brown ran 12 yards to the Ohio State 3, and Smothers scored from the 1 with 7:14 left.
Ohio State reached the Texas 27 on the possession that followed. Connor Hawkins, who had made field goals from 26, 30, and 48 yards, missed a 45-yard attempt with 4:16 to play.
Manning’s read on the deficit was that Texas had to get something going and would be in it at the end.
“Right when that happened, I knew it was our time,” Manning said.
Texas took over at its own 27 with 4:15 on the clock. Mosley V caught passes of 17 and 19 yards, the second one to the Ohio State 1. Smothers was stopped for no gain on first-and-goal, then fumbled at the 1 on second-and-goal, with Brown recovering. Smothers scored on the next snap.
Manning credited Winston for the fourth-and-9 catch that kept the first touchdown drive alive.
“I told him after the game it was probably best that he fell at the whatever inches line, get some clock, so they didn’t have much left after we scored,” Manning said of Mosley V. “He’s a really good player. We’re going to continue to get the ball to him. He’s a hell of a player.”
Gianni Spetic‘s extra point made it 24-23. Ohio State had no timeouts left, and Julian Sayin‘s last pass was intercepted by Graceson Littleton at the Texas 40.
Manning finished 23-of-37 for 195 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception, and ran 8 times for 24 yards. Smothers carried 21 times for 74 yards and 2 touchdowns, added 3 catches for 29 yards, and returned a kickoff 19 yards. Mosley V had 5 catches for 65 yards, 4 of them for 52 yards in the fourth quarter.
Texas ran 27 plays for 150 yards in the quarter, converted 4 of 5 third downs, and held the ball for 10:04 of the 15 minutes.
What Changed At Halftime
Ohio State led 20-3 at the break. Texas had 1 first down and 5 total yards in the first quarter and held the ball for 3:42 of it.
Sarkisian’s view is that a 66-0 win over a lesser opponent would not have told him anything about his team.
“I think when we first got to the locker room, there was a little bit of shock because we felt like we had a good plan,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We felt like the things we wanted to do, we could do. And then the scoreboard was screwed up, right? It was like, what happened?”
“That’s why I was just trying to get them to focus on looking forward and what the second half was going to look like,” Sarkisian continued. “And let’s get over the first half. We’ve made the adjustments. How are we going to play in the second half? I think there was a level of frustration for some guys. But in the end, it was more about picking them up to say, hey, let’s just go play one play at a time.”
Manning told Wingo and Coleman on the sideline to move on from the interception and the incompletion in the end zone.
“A lot of this stuff had to do with us, like miscommunication, just talking and getting the right spot,” Manning explained. “They have talent all across the board over there. So they’re going to make plays, but we can’t kill ourselves. The goal is just to not beat ourselves up and just make sure that if they’re going to make a play, let them make the play on their own. We can’t go out there and just give it to them.”
“We weren’t out there just letting them get free shots or letting them run free wide open,” Manning added. “We made them earn it. So that was the biggest difference between half one and half two.”
Ohio State converted 1 of 6 third downs after halftime and none of 2 in the fourth quarter.
Sarkisian Goes for It on Fourth Down
Texas converted 2 of 3 fourth downs. The one that failed came with 54 seconds left in the first half, when Wingo took a handoff from the Ohio State 41 and lost 10 yards.
Sarkisian walked his team through those fourth-down calls in a hotel ballroom that morning, and the one that lost 10 yards was among them.
“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.”
Sarkisian said Manning was booed coming off the field after a Texas punt earlier in the night.
“I think we just kept reminding him there’s no 21-point touchdown pass,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve got to go try to get seven points. But how do you do that? You have to execute one play at a time. And then you try to call things accordingly to where there’s ability to move the ball forward, and then there’s opportunities to maybe take a shot somewhere in there.”
“I remind him, hey, we’re in four down territory this drive until I tell you we’re not,” Sarkisian noted. “And so when you can play with the mindset of knowing we got four downs instead of three, you can be a little bit more cautious as you matriculate the ball down the field.”
Ohio State Builds a 23-3 Lead
Ohio State won the toss and deferred. Texas then turned the ball over on each of Manning’s first two pass attempts. Jay Timmons forced and recovered a fumble by Brown at the Texas 18 on the game’s first snap. Four plays into the next Texas possession, Jaylen McClain intercepted Manning at the Ohio State 12 and returned it 7 yards. Ohio State scored 10 points off the two turnovers and Texas scored none off its one.
Ja’Kobi Jackson ran 8 yards for the game’s only Ohio State touchdown on the ground. Bo Jackson carried 19 times for 74 yards.
Jeremiah Smith was targeted 15 times and caught 8 passes for 164 yards and a 19-yard touchdown with 10 seconds left in the half. Six of the catches and 110 of the yards came in the first half. Smith had 7 catches for 46 yards in his two previous games against Texas, and he was not targeted successfully in the fourth quarter.
Sayin finished 17-of-32 for 278 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. Colin Simmons and Lance Jackson had the Texas sacks. Ohio State gained 52 yards in the fourth quarter.
Spetic’s 37-yard field goal in the second quarter, which capped a 16-play, 69-yard drive, accounted for Texas’ points through three quarters.
Texas finished with 25 first downs to Ohio State’s 19 and held the ball for 31:28, and Ohio State outgained Texas 372-336. Texas fumbled 4 times and lost 1. Earl Little Jr. led Ohio State with 11 tackles. Justin Cryer had 9 for Texas.
Texas had lost both previous meetings with Ohio State, 28-14 in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl in January 2025 and 14-7 in last season’s opener in Columbus.
Manning’s own account of the first half is that nobody on the Texas offense played the way it wanted to.
“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 said. “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.”
Saturday was the fourth time a No. 1 team played at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Alabama came in 2022, Ohio State in 2006, and SMU in 1950. Texas beat SMU and lost the other two. The Buckeyes won 24-7 in Austin in 2006.
Up Next
Sarkisian is in his sixth season at Texas. The Longhorns went 10-3 last season and beat Michigan 41-27 in the Citrus Bowl. Manning passed for 3,163 yards and 26 touchdowns with 7 interceptions and ran for 399 yards and 10 scores.
Sarkisian’s framing of what comes next is that Texas has tough environments ahead in October and November.
“The biggest thing for this game to put in the bank is knowing when we get faced with adversity, and we’re going to in September, October, November, hopefully into December and January, that we can fight back,” Sarkisian said. “We got a lot more meat on our bone that we got to chew off here before we start worrying about is this win help us get into a playoff or not. We’ve got a long way to go.”
Texas is 2-0 after a 59-7 win over Texas State on Sept. 5. Ohio State is 1-1 after opening with a 56-3 win over Ball State.
Texas hosts UTSA on Sept. 19. Ohio State hosts Kent State the same day at noon Eastern on FOX.
