AUSTIN, Texas — Every Friday we’ll bring you a quick-hit look at the game ahead for the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Ohio State at Texas
Kickoff: 7:30 PM ET
Network: ABC
Announcers: Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Holly Rowe, Laura Rutledge
History: Ohio State leads the series 3-2. Texas won in Columbus in 2005 and in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State won in Austin in 2006, in a playoff semifinal in the 2024 season, and in Columbus last year.
Info: Ohio State game notes & Texas game notes
Game Trailer
Buckeye I’ll be watching Saturday
DE Kenyatta Jackson: The senior was credited with seven pressures last week in 35 snaps. Ohio State’s other three other every-down edge rushers (Bea Atkinson, Zion Grady, Epi Sitanilei) were credited with four combined pressures in 72 combined snaps. Arch Manning has a chance to make his biggest plays waiting for his receivers to come open after the initial coverage — unless Jackson can get there and prevent him from hanging in the pocket. — Doug
LB Riley Pettijohn I don't think Ohio State is going to hide its youth in this game. Young players like Pettijohn are inexperienced, but they are part of the plan. Ryan Day has talked enough about Texas' offensive speed this week for me to think Ohio State will want to get its defensive speed on the field. Whether it's spying Arch Manning or keeping pace with Texas' speedy running backs, Pettijohn's wheels will be needed to help keep Texas' offense in check. — Bill
One thing I want Ohio State to do Saturday
Move the pocket with Julian Sayin. The Buckeyes have to assume they’re going to have issues on the right side of the offensive line. So get Sayin on the move. His rollout to the right in the red zone against Penn State last season created his most enthusiastic touchdown pass of the season. Let Sayin feel that juice on the move … and get away from the pressure that might be coming off the right side of the OSU line. — Doug
Use more play-action pass, especially from under center. There was only one such throw against Ball State. Unleashing more of it against Texas would go a long way in keeping Texas' defensive stars, primarily defensive end Colin Simmons and linebacker Rasheem Biles from playing downhill. — Bill
Another game to watch with Ohio State in mind
Iowa State at Iowa, 7:30, NBC: You don't need to intently watch, since it's on the same time as Ohio State vs. Texas. But maybe take a peek at that box score at some point to see if the Hawkeyes, who split the quarterback snaps between Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski in their opening game and plan to play both again this week, settle on one quarterback. Ohio State travels to Iowa on Oct. 3. Iowa would presumably only be playing one quarterback by that point. — Bill
Stat to know
This is a bit convoluted, but Texas worked hard to come up with the stat, so I’ll share it. Texas researched the stat because of Arch, but Manning is still only second to Julian Sayin. It’s touchdown passing percentage at home — how many of your overall passes thrown in your home stadium went for scores. It’s for active players with at least 200 passes.
Sayin leads at 10.8 percent, while Manning is second at 10 percent. Maddux Madsen of Boise State is third at 9.7 percent. So Manning needs to throw a TD every 10 passes Saturday night to stay on track. — Doug
Texas Athletics Hall of Fame
It’s expansive and includes every sport, is open to the public, and is connected to the stadium. Here’s a little tour — we’d love to see Ohio State build something similar.
Lines
Texas -1.5
Over-under 49.5
Picks
Bill: Ohio State 32, Texas 31
Doug: Texas 35, Ohio State 31
On the season
Bill: 1-0 straight up, 0-1 spread, 1-0 over-under
Doug: 1-0 straight up, 0-1 spread, 1-0 over-under
Your vote
Ohio State will win: 77 percent
Texas will win: 23 percent
Combined score of 50 or more: 66 percent
Combined score of 49 or fewer: 34 percent
Tracking network and kickoff times for the season
Network
BTN: 1
ABC: 1
Announcers
Jeff Levering, Jake Butt: 1
Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit: 1
Kickoff time
12:30: 1
7:30: 1
Also
• Big Ten officials will call the game, after an SEC crew called the game in Columbus last year. That means the Big Ten is also in charge of replays, but access inside the Big Ten replay deliberations won’t be available on the broadcast since ABC isn’t a Big Ten TV partner. The Big Ten is expanding inside access to replay discussions on all other conference games starting this week.
• Jeremiah Smith is 35 catches, 190 yards and seven touchdowns away from Ohio State’s three major receiving records.
• Ohio State has won 25 of its last 26 games when ranked No. 1. The loss was the Big Ten Championship Game to Indiana last year.
• This is the 45th matchup of Top 5 teams in Ohio State history. The Buckeyes are 22-21-1.
Sorry Doug. Taking my first Waymo ride back to the AirBNB from Terry Black’s BBQ. Seems safe to me.