By CHASE UPTON/Sports Editor
For the first time in Longhorn Football history, the team will open the season as the AP No.1 team in the country, and if that storyline for their opener isn’t flashy enough for you, they’ll be traveling down to Columbus, Ohio, to take on the team that ended their season last year, the defending national champion, No. 3-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.
The game will be nationally televised on FOX Big Noon Kickoff at 11 a.m. (CST) on Aug. 30, and will be only the second time in college football history that two AP top-three teams have faced off to open a season. With the Longhorns looking for some old-fashioned revenge from last year’s CFP semi-final, and the Buckeyes looking to defend “The Shoe” and prove they’re still number one, this showdown has all the makings of an all-time classic.
High Stakes
For Texas, all eyes will be on one 21-year-old young man who’s been in the spotlight for nearly his entire life. Arch Manning, nephew to Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Eli and Peyton Manning, will be under center to lead the first-ranked Longhorns into just his third collegiate start on Saturday, and it comes in one of the toughest road environments in college football. Since Ryan Day took over as head coach in the 2019-2020 season, Ohio State has posted a 30-3 record at Ohio Stadium, the fourth-best home mark in the nation during that span.
That said, Texas enters with the nation’s longest true road winning streak at 11 games, a run that dates back to 2022. During that stretch, the Longhorns have proven they can handle hostile environments, earning wins at Texas A&M’s Kyle Field, Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium and even in “The Big House” home to Michigan, Ohio State’s biggest rival.
To most people, you’d think Ohio State, as defending national champions, would be focused on defending their title. But the Buckeyes see it differently. Head coach Ryan Day has stressed that this is a new team with its own goals. “We’re not defending anything. They can’t take the trophy away. We’re attacking,” Day said during Big Ten Media Days (Bleacher Report). He also called the season “12 sprints,” emphasizing that the team is focused on each game and not relying on last year’s success (YouTube/Ohio State Athletics).
Who To Watch – Texas
Returning for the Texas Longhorns from the squad that fell to Ohio State last year is a group with plenty of experience, but one that will look to reload after losing several playmakers to the NFL Draft. The group that Texas must replace includes QB Quinn Ewers, wide receiver Matthew Golden, running back Jaydon Blue, tight end Gunnar Helm and left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. Defensively, the Longhorns also said goodbye to defensive back Jahdae Barron, safety Andrew Mukuba and defensive lineman Alfred Collins among others.
Even with those losses, the Longhorns bring back major contributors on both sides of the ball. Linebacker Anthony Hill Jr., a 6-foot-3, 235-pound junior, has been a starter since his true freshman season and emerged as the leader of the Texas defense last year, posting a team high 113 tackles and also added 16.5 tackles for loss, eight sacks and multiple forced fumbles. He’ll be joined up front by explosive edge rusher Colin Simons, who in his freshman campaign led the team with nine sacks and tacked on 31 solo tackles and three forced fumbles.In the secondary, senior S Michael Taffe returns with 151 career tackles and five interceptions, while cornerback Malik Muhammad brings another steady presence.
Offensively, Texas will hand the reins to QB Arch Manning, who, as mentioned, has only two career starts but showed promise in that limited sample size, totaling more than 600 yards of offense with five touchdowns and two interceptions. RB Quintrevion Wisner provides Texas with balance in the backfield after rushing for 1,064 yards on 226 carries and adding 44 receptions for 311 yards last season. At wide receiver, DeAndre Moore Jr. returns after hauling in 39 receptions for 456 yards and seven touchdowns in 2024 and will be the primary leader of the Longhorns’ receiving corps alongside Ryan Wingo who put up 472 receiving yards and added two scores last season.
Who To Watch – Ohio State
Ohio State faces a similar challenge, having lost 14 players from its national championship roster to the draft. That group included the standout RB tandem of Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson, WR Emeka Egbuka and QB Will Howard. Defensively, the Buckeyes must replace defensive tackle Tyleik Williams, defensive ends JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer, linebacker Cody Simon and safety Lathan Ransom, among others.
Still, the Buckeyes return perhaps the two best players in the country, with one on each side of the ball. WR Jeremiah Smith delivered a historic true freshman season, earning All-America honors, breaking school records once held by Pro Football Hall of Fame WR Cris Carter, and emerging as the centerpiece of an offense that sent five players to the first two rounds of the Draft. This fall, Smith will be catching passes from new QB1 Julian Sayin, a former five-star recruit who has yet to make a collegiate start and has just 12 career pass attempts. Ohio State also brought in CJ Donaldson, by way of the transfer portal from West Virginia, who is expected to lead the backfield. Donaldson recorded more than 2,200 rushing yards and 30 touchdowns over three seasons with the Mountaineers. Alongside Smith on the outside, wideout Carnell Tate (733 yards, four touchdowns in 2024) adds another explosive option.
On defense, Downs was the driving force behind the nation’s No. 1 unit last season and he enters 2025–26 as one of college football’s most accomplished players. Now he’ll be tasked with leading a defense that lost a significant portion of last year’s top-ranked squad, but the Buckeyes return key contributors like linebacker Sonny Styles, who recorded 49 solo tackles and six sacks in 2024, and CB Davison Igbinosun, who totaled 45 tackles and two interceptions. Ohio State also added UNC transfer DL Beau Atkinson, who ranked sixth in the ACC in sacks last season, giving the defense a proven pass-rushing threat.
Chase’s Take
With both teams starting young, unproven quarterbacks who will be expected to play at a national-championship level, this game is set to be evenly matched throughout, though it may start slow as both QBs work through limited starting experience. That said, I don’t see this as a make-or-break moment for Arch Manning or the Longhorns. Manning is stepping into arguably the toughest college football environment in the country, carrying the weight of being the preseason No. 1, and facing a Buckeyes team coming off a national championship and being led by the most dominant college receiver I have ever seen.
This game has all the ingredients for one of the greatest openers in college football history. Superstar talent like Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith and Caleb Downs is likely to takeover center stage, and it would take a near-movie-quality performance from Manning to pull off a win over the defending national champions in “The Shoe.” Still, if Texas were to pull off the upset, it would instantly announce themselves as the CFP favorites.
Final prediction: Ohio State 31, Texas 24.
