Ryan Day and the Buckeyes will roll into Austin, Texas, this Saturday, September 12, with eyes on beating the Longhorns for a third season in a row.
Matchup details
Who: Ohio State Buckeyes at Texas Longhorns. Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. ET. Broadcast: ABC.
Ohio State remained atop the Associated Press Top 25 poll after defeating Ball State 56-3, and Texas rose to No. 4 after winning 59-7 against Texas State in Week 1.
Oregon dropped from No. 2 to No. 6 after beating Boise State 34-27.
Head coaches Day and Steve Sarkisian have gotten familiar ever since the 2024 College Football Playoff when the Buckeyes beat the Longhorns at the Cotton Bowl during the semifinals on their run to their ninth national championship. Many Buckeye fans remember that first matchup.
Pregame
Essential resources
Ohio State game notes: https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/ohiostatebuckeyes.com/documents/2026/9/6/2_Texas.pdf?timestamp=20260906111815
Texas game notes: https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/texassports_com/documents/2026/9/9/02_-_OSU.pdf?timestamp=20260909095626
Big Ten weekly release: https://img.boostsport.ai/boost-cms/2026%20FB%20Week%202%20Release.pdf
Southeastern Conference weekly release: https://www.secsports.com/football-weekly-release
Benge Notes
Jeremiah Smith and Texas
All six games in the history of the Ohio State-Texas series have been top-10 matchups (Texas Athletics).
There’s discussion about how Texas has defended Jeremiah Smith in the past two matchups. Here are Smith’s numbers from those two games:
- Week 1, 2025: 6 REC, 43 YDS.
- CFP Semifinal 2024: 1 REC, 3 YDS.
The Longhorns secondary had two interceptions in the season opener against UTEP. Sophomore defensive back Graceson Littleton had one of them, and he also had a 59-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown. He stands 6-foot at 182 pounds.
Texas senior linebacker Rasheem Biles earned SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week after Week 1. Biles, who stands 6-foot-1 at 222 pounds, made five tackles and forced two turnovers for the Longhorns against Texas State. He’s from Columbus, Ohio, and played three seasons at Pitt from 2023-25.
Julian Sayin said earlier this week he looks back on the 2025 game against the Longhorns and there were opportunities he could’ve gotten Smith the ball. Sayin said he wouldn’t descirbe the Longhorns as having “limited” Smith.
Smith’s All-American ability will be a key area of focus for Ohio State this week against Texas. Surely the Buckeyes want their No. 1 receiver to get catches, and surely they want Smith to do so under the lights of a top-four matchup on the road.
Smith had three catches for 40 yards and a touchdown in a hostile Ann Arbor environment when Ohio State beat Michigan in 2025. While DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium is not Ohio State-Michigan level territory, the Longhorns have won 10-consecutive games there, which is the fourth-longest active streak in the Football Bowl Subdivision (Texas Athletics), and Texas is 20-1 at home under Sarkisian since 2023.
The quarterbacks
Arch Manning and Sayin are two quarterbacks I expect to contend for a first round draft selection next April when they enter the NFL. Saturday night’s game will be a chance for either to put a key game on their highlight tape when it comes to battling for a top pick.
Here were their numbers from last August’s matchup in Columbus:
- Manning: 17-for-30, 170 passing yards, 1 pass touchdown, 1 interception, 38 rushing yards on 10 carries.
- Sayin: 13-for-20, 126 passing yards, 1 pass touchdown, 2 rushing yards on two carries.
Manning didn’t rush often last week against Texas State, going for six yards on three carries. However, he did showcase his arm, throwing for 305 yards and four touchdowns.
Sayin played mostly in the first half against Ball State in the Buckeyes opener Sept. 5, completing 84% of his passes for 320 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran in a touchdown.
The Texas defensive line
Hero Kanu started at defensive tackle last week for Texas.
Kanu spent the 2022-24 seasons at Ohio State. He won a national championship with the Buckeyes in 2024, and Kanu had four tackles that year. He played in 13 games and started 12 of them during his Longhorns debut season in 2025.
Texas junior edge rusher Colin Simmons is a projected top pick in next year’s NFL Draft. According to Texas Athletics, Simmons “is on the preseason watch lists for theBednarik Award, Allstate Wuerffel Trophy, Lombardi
Award and Bronko Nagurski Trophy.”
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