Arch Manning’s fourth-quarter surge helped Texas stun top-ranked Ohio State on Saturday, but the biggest fallout from the game had nothing to do with the scoreboard.
Texas was staring at a 23-3 deficit heading into the final quarter, and Manning had already thrown an interception in a bruising matchup. He settled in anyway, finishing 11 of his final 15 pass attempts and sparking the comeback with a touchdown strike to Ryan Wingo.
As Texas fans erupted in the stadium, cameras captured a group of South Asian and Indian students celebrating the win. One of those images then became the center of ugly online abuse.
Texas Railroad Commission candidate Bo French posted a screenshot of the student section on X and claimed the photo showed a huge immigration issue, saying Americans are being “displaced by foreigners.” That message quickly drew a wave of xenophobic replies across social media, with commenters mocking the school as “Bollywood University” and asking why the students were not watching cricket instead.
The reaction prompted sharp pushback from several Texas political figures. State Representative Jared Patterson called the post explicitly racist and deeply demeaning, saying there is “absolutely nothing Christian or conservative” about attacking young Texans based on skin color. He added that these kids are “not political props and not targets for racial attacks.”
Senator John Cornyn also condemned the rhetoric, warning that “this is how great political parties self-destruct” if racism goes unchecked. Governor Greg Abbott likewise rejected the message, saying the image actually showed Texans coming together under one brand.
In Other News...
Texas Just Delivered The Kind Of Win That Changes Everything
A September showdown with Ohio State ended up looking like the kind of early-season measuring stick Texas has spent years chasing, and it came with a comeback that instantly put the Longhorns in the center of the national conversation. The victory also carried the sort of reach that only high-end marquee games can produce, with television numbers that reflected just how many people wanted to see these teams meet.
The backdrop matters because this was not just a one-off upset or a tidy nonconference win. Several college football and program records fell along the way, giving Texas a result that resonated well beyond the final score and hinted at how quickly the mood around the season can change when a game of this size breaks the right way. [Read more 🡒]
Jeff Traylor Keeps Producing Talent Texas Fans Know All Too Well
Jeff Traylor has built UTSA into one of the Group of Sixs more reliable talent factories, and that reputation keeps resonating far beyond San Antonio. The Roadrunners have watched plenty of players move on through the transfer portal to Power Four programs, a sign that Traylor and his staff have become adept at spotting and developing prospects before bigger schools come calling.
Trey Moore is one of the clearest examples of that pipeline at work. He arrived at UTSA as an unheralded prospect, grew into a productive player under Traylor, and then kept climbing from there, eventually landing at Texas before continuing his rise to the next level. For Longhorn fans, it is another reminder that Traylor has a knack for identifying talent that can travel well once it leaves his program. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon Is Chasing College Footballs Elite With A Price Tag Few Can Match
College footballs financial arms race keeps getting louder, and a new Athletic report on roster spending puts the sports biggest players into sharper focus. The survey identifies 11 programs spending around $40 million or more annually, with Ohio State out front and Oregon close behind, while Texas and LSU sit in that same upper tier of heavy investment. Even in a landscape where some lower-profile programs are working with far smaller budgets, the gap at the top keeps widening.
For Texas, the takeaway is less about a surprise than a reminder of where the Longhorns now live in the sport. The report places them among the teams operating at or near the top of the spending board, in the same conversation as the Buckeyes and Ducks, which helps explain why the stakes around roster building have become so high. The broader question, though, is whether that level of spending can translate into the kind of playoff consistency the biggest checkbooks are clearly chasing. [Read more 🡒]