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

Ohio State Buckeyes at Texas Longhorns. Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. ET. Broadcast on 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://ohiostatebuckeyes.com/documents/2026/9/6/2_Texas.pdf

Texas game notes: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://texaslonghorns.com/documents/2026/9/7/02_-_OSU.pdf__;!!KGKeukY!2-i2cvluuX4TwKQZdO5r7ViynQR0tDOUSlsWVSE_KR8A2pdIia7XEWJ8LlI_NBi59w-_FM1R4lm0oJXRrNkQJCSe-cUHUG9tMXTw$

On the road for Game 2️⃣ pic.twitter.com/MW8epkyz3r

— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) September 7, 2026

Benge Notes

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 recorded its first multi-interception game in the season opener against UTEP. “Jelani McDonald and Graceson Littleton snagged one apiece” (Texas Athletics).