Halfway through the third quarter, Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium felt like it had run out of breath.
Texas had just gone three-and-out against Ohio State, and the hush in the building turned fast into boos. The same crowd that had packed in early, battled the humidity and turned the place into a buzz of anticipation before kickoff was suddenly letting the Longhorns hear it. It was the kind of night that started with hope and, for a long stretch, looked like it was sliding the wrong way.
That’s what made the turn so jarring. Texas spent the first three quarters looking stuck and trailing by 20 points, while the smaller Ohio State contingent took over pockets of the stadium with its “O-H!”
“I-O!” chants.
But the game didn’t stay there. Texas clawed back with two quick touchdowns to get within six, and the building shifted from frustration to a kind of nervous electricity.
Nobody wanted to fully believe in a comeback that might still slip away.
Then Ohio State missed the field goal that could have sealed it.
At 23-17, belief started to spread through the stadium for real. The special teams kickoff players sprinted out waving their arms to get the crowd moving, “Don’t Stop Believin” blared from the speakers and the lights flashed across the building. What had felt impossible a little while earlier suddenly looked reachable.
Senior running back Hollywood Smothers, the North Carolina State transfer who scored the winning touchdown, said the atmosphere hit him in a way he hadn’t felt before.
“You come to Texas for games like this and atmospheres like this, man,” Smothers said. “It was everything we needed to be.”
The crowd, meanwhile, seemed to go through every emotion available. People jumped, screamed, cried and even threw water on one another as the comeback came to life. Head coach Steve Sarkisian said the fans stayed with the team when it would have been easy to check out.
“I have to give a shoutout to our fans and our crowd because they were freaking awesome tonight,” Sarkisian said. “Our fans didn’t give up, they stayed and they were there and they were rocking, and they could feel the momentum shift and swing.”
Texas needed all of it. Sarkisian went for it on fourth down twice, the defense held Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin on the final drive, and the wide receivers bounced back after drops. Put together, it became the kind of night people in the stadium won’t forget.
After the game, “The Eyes of Texas” played as it always does, but this time nobody was in a rush to leave. Fans stayed, sang and in some cases cried, while the stadium glowed in burnt orange.
“You dream of playing games like this, hosting the number one team in the country at home,” senior quarterback Arch Manning said. “I mean how ‘bout that, you get the win with one point, let’s go, baby.”
In Other News...
Texas Just Made The AP Poll Debate Very Real
Week 2 did Texas no favors in terms of stress, but it may have done plenty for the Longhorns standing in the AP Top 25. The comeback win over Ohio State in Columbus already gave Steve Sarkisians team a national statement, and now it sits at the center of the early ranking conversation as voters sort through a loaded opening stretch of results across the country. With several contenders around the sport turning in uneven weekends, Texas has a strong case to rise near the top of the poll and force everyone else to react.
The broader debate is what makes this so interesting for Texas. Alabama, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, LSU and Ohio State all factor into the reshuffling, which means the Longhorns are not simply waiting on a number next to their name, but on how the entire top tier is being judged after one of the first major Saturdays of the season. However the poll lands, Texas has already made the conversation much more real than it was a week ago, and the rest of the standings are about to show just how much that win in Columbus changed. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Quieted One Big Sarkisian Concern Against Ohio State
Steve Sarkisian has spent plenty of time worrying about the Longhorns red zone execution, and with good reason. Even as Texas has shown it can move the ball and create chances, the final few yards have often been the place where drives get tightened up, stalls become field goals, and a promising series suddenly feels like a missed opportunity.
Against Ohio State, though, Texas looked far more convincing when the field shrank. The Longhorns were efficient in close and finished multiple trips with real purpose, a sign that the offense can handle the kind of compressed situations Sarkisian has been pressing to clean up. For a team with bigger goals ahead, that sort of response matters because it suggests one of the most nagging issues on the staffs checklist may not be as fixed as it first appeared. [Read more 🡒]
Texas May Have Found A Heat Edge Other Teams Will Hate
The August heat at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium has always been part of the challenge in Austin, but Texas found a way to turn it into a small advantage for its season opener. The Longhorns used the new Frank & Wofford Denius Football Training Complex for pregame work instead of staying outside, taking advantage of an indoor option that could matter more on muggy Saturdays as the year goes on.
Ohio State, meanwhile, did its warmup on the field, leaving Texas to handle the day a little differently than its opponent. Coach Sarkisian said the Longhorns conditioning and the way they practice in the heat helped them finish strong in the fourth quarter, and the new facility now gives Texas another tool for hot-game preparation and recovery when the weather starts to wear on both teams. [Read more 🡒]