Week 2 already has the feel of a headliner, and one of the sharpest individual matchups sits on the outside: Ohio State cornerback Devin Sanchez against Texas receiver Cam Coleman.
The No. 1 Buckeyes are headed to Austin to meet the No.
4 Longhorns at Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium, putting one of the biggest games of the year on the calendar early.
Ohio State has already taken two meetings in the 2025 calendar year, including the one that sent the Buckeyes to the national championship game they went on to win.
This time, Texas gets the shot at home after Ohio State’s 14-7 win in Columbus to open last season. The Longhorns also bring back Arch Manning, while surrounding him with new pieces on offense in running backs Hollywood Smothers and Raleek Brown, plus Coleman, the top transfer wideout.
Coleman arrives from Auburn with a résumé that jumps off the page: 93 catches and more than 1,300 yards across two seasons. His likely assignment figures to be Sanchez, Ohio State’s former 5-star cornerback recruit.
Sanchez played in 13 games as a freshman last year, finishing with 12 total tackles and two passes defensed. With a bigger role ahead and a return to his home state of Texas for this early-season test, he’s already made his message to Coleman clear: “I Gotta Beat You!”
That’s the kind of one-on-one battle that can tilt a game like this. In a matchup loaded with star power, Coleman versus Sanchez has the feel of the duel everyone will be watching.
In Other News...
Chris Warren III Just Reopened A Frustrating Tom Herman Debate
Chris Warren III has reopened one of the more frustrating debates from Tom Hermans time in Austin, publicly revisiting how his role was handled during the 2017 season. The former Texas running backs comments cut back to a year when his usage never seemed to match the expectations around him, and the contrast with other backs on the roster only made the decisions look more uneven from the outside.
What Warren said now adds another layer to a season Longhorns fans already remember as messy and hard to explain. His criticism suggested there was more happening inside the program than the public ever fully saw, which is exactly the kind of lingering detail that keeps the 2017 conversation from really going away. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Fall Camp Battles Are Heating Up In Two Key Spots
Texas 2026 fall camp has started to sort out a few of the depth-chart questions that will matter once the season gets rolling, and Steve Sarkisian has already pointed to some players making real cases for bigger jobs. Justin Cryer has drawn notice for his physical play and overall improvement, while others such as Chatman, Bell and Shannon have also shown enough growth to keep the competition moving in the right direction.
The interesting part for the Longhorns is that these are not just background reps in camp, but spots where the pecking order could change before opening week. Bell is pushing for a larger role at Y tight end, Shannon is trying to make his way into that same mix, and there is also movement elsewhere in the room as Texas keeps sorting out who belongs where on the chart. [Read more 🡒]
Texas May Already Have Sarkisians Next Backfield Centerpiece
Texas is already looking past the current backfield and into what could be the next wave of playmakers, with a room that still includes Hollywood Smothers and Raleek Brown alongside a few younger names worth tracking. Redshirt freshman Michael Terry III has been part of that conversation in fall camp, while true freshman Derrek Cooper and four-star recruit Landen Williams-Callis add more long-term intrigue to a group that is starting to look deeper by the day.
The bigger picture is what happens after this season, when the Longhorns could lose their top two backs to the NFL Draft and force the next man up into a much larger role. Terry is the clearest candidate to step into that opening, and the path to a future depth chart is already taking shape around him, even before Texas gets to see how the rest of the young talent settles in. [Read more 🡒]