The eyes of us were upon Texas last night, laser-focused on what had been billed as the main event of the early stages of the 2026 college football season. The hype leading up to top-ranked Ohio State’s venture into Longhorn Nation, a rematch of last year’s tense Week 1 matchup that saw the Buckeyes escape with a win was as king-sized as any red-blooded Texan’s Stetson. College Game Day was out in force, a plucky freshman kicked his way into America’s hearts with a $1.2 million payday courtesy of Pat McAfee, Matthew McCongahey and (shout out) Home Depot, and the expectations for Bevo and friends to keep up their end of the bargain were as outsized as those for James Talarico and the fate of democracy.
Alas, for Arch Manning and his Longhorns their first three quarters looked like a steaming pile of Texas steer sh-t. But then, at least according to THE ATHLETIC’s Ralph D. Russo, Sam Khan Jr., Chris Vannini and Cameron Teague Robinson (see–even the coverage is bigger in Texas) the script was flipped:
Manning had his moment, Steve Sarkisian earned that elusive, validating victory against another heavyweight program and Texas beat a top-ranked team at home for the first time in 76 years with a 21-point fourth-quarter rally. Hollywood Smothers dove over the line from a yard out for a touchdown with 25 seconds left and the fourth-ranked Longhorns stunned No. 1 Ohio State 24-23 on Saturday night.
The Buckeyes led 23-3 heading into the fourth quarter, but Manning led three straight long touchdown drives to wipe out the deficit. The final one started with 4:16 left at the Texas 27-yard line after Ohio State missed a 45-yard field goal that would have all but clinched the Buckeyes’ third straight victory over the Longhorns. “That’s when I knew it was our time,” Manning said.
For Texas, which started last season as preseason No. 1 but failed to reach the College Football Playoff after a season-opening loss at Ohio State, the victory marks a new mile-marker in its ascent under Sarkisian.
Meanwhile, while one OSU was revealed as a poser, another pulled off an even more shocking conquest in the anything but appropriately-named Stillwater earlier yesterday. As FOX SPORTS’ R.J. Young mused:
Anyone who tells you they picked Oklahoma State to knock off No. 6 Oregon is either A) lying through their teeth, B) sitting on the winning Powerball numbers or C) a person who picks winners based on uniform color scheme and nothing close to edged, reasoned analysis.
And yet we’re left with one irrevocable fact: Oklahoma State won a football game.
Based on literally everything, the odds were understandably stacked against the Cowboys — four-touchdown underdogs, according to some — and their win snapped several streaks that fans are surely reveling in. Here are three big ones:
- Oklahoma State had lost to its last 21 FBS opponents and its last 12 games in a row until its 39-31 win at Boone Pickens Stadium on Saturday.
- Lanning’s team also held a 35-0 record against unranked opponents, and Oklahoma State was definitely that.
- Oklahoma State is the first team ever to snap a 10-plus-game losing streak with a win vs. an AP Top 10 opponent since at least 1973.
That stunning win more than made up for the embarassment that beset the state’s bellwhether program when they ventured into arguably Ground Zero of college football controversy still earlier Saturday. Young again provided the narrative:
Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood had a week to think about it. A week to hear head coach Kyle Whittingham openly discuss his status as the team’s starting quarterback. A week to sit with an uneven performance against Western Michigan that raised legitimate concerns about whether he was ready to be “the guy.”
Then Underwood went out and answered the call. The second-year Michigan quarterback wasn’t perfect, but he looked like a guy who was up to the challenge, providing the kind of response Whittingham needed to see from his quarterback — and his team as a whole — in a 17-10 win over No. 11 Oklahoma.
Underwood finished with 111 yards through the air, while adding 87 yards on the ground and a rushing score. He showed poise throughout and didn’t show signs of regression, which was a legitimate concern following his uneven Week 1 performance.
But this was clearly the day for the state of Texas and clearly not the day for the state of Oregon. The night’s other intruging matchup almost saw another shocker before chalk prevailed, as THE ASSOCIATED PRESS’ Anne M. Peterson observed:
Will Hammond hit Coy Eakin with a 32-yard touchdown pass with 6:31 left to put Texas Tech in front and the No. 13 Red Raiders went on to a 35-24 comeback victory over resilient Oregon State on Saturday night. J’Koby Williams ran for 116 yards and a touchdown for Texas Tech (2-0), which trailed 24-21 early in the fourth quarter.
After Eakin’s touchdown catch, Oregon State appeared to be marching downfield but Aeryn Hampton’s dropped pass and Braden Atkinson’s subsequent fourth-and-9 pass attempt was unsuccessful. Texas Tech’s defense held the rest of the way and Tommy Castellanos hit Matt Ludwig with an 8-yard scoring pass with 1:03 left for the final margin.
As someone who adores the Beaver State I have only two lukewarm words for all of this. Yee hah.
Courage…