Ohio State vs. Texas Preview: Trench Battles, Clean Football Key to Iconic Clash to Open 2025 Season

By Andy Anders on August 29, 2025 at 8:35 am
Luke Montgomery
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The hour is at hand.

the offiicial bank of eleven warriors

#1 Texas
Longhorns
0-0
Ohio Stadium
Columbus, OH
FOXOSU -0.5

Nearly seven months of tension built since Ohio State won the 2024 College Football Playoff national championship will crescendo with the sun at noon tomorrow in Ohio Stadium. No. 1 Texas. No. 2 Ohio State. It’s here.

The Buckeyes left the Longhorns in their wake on the way to college football’s ultimate prize last season, leaving a taste of revenge in the mouths of those who return from that team. But there is a bulk of new faces starting for both Ohio State and Texas after the two teams combined for 26 NFL draft picks this past draft.

Neither side will have any of its goals for the season taken off the table with a loss, as 10-2 would be more than enough to get either into the CFP this year. But the winner will have an inside track, and the results of iconic clashes such as these go beyond immediate impacts to form lifelong memories for fans. It’s the first-ever season-opener between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the Coaches Poll.

Buckeye football is back and in the biggest way ever to start a campaign. Let’s break it down.

The Headlines

Which Star is Made Faster?

Two projected stars take the field at quarterback on Saturday. Arch Manning is the odds-on Heisman Trophy favorite for Texas despite only just this year being named full-time starter. Julian Sayin, like Manning, was the No. 1 quarterback in his recruiting class, though there are only 12 passes in his collegiate record thus far. 

The question of who clicks quicker could come down to the pieces around them. Ohio State is more proven on the offensive side of the football. Jeremiah Smith might be the best player in the country regardless of position at wide receiver, and Carnell Tate and Brandon Inniss join him to form the most complete starting trio out wide in college football. Max Klare is a Mackey Award candidate at tight end. Four of the Buckeyes’ five starting offensive linemen have CFP experience.

Manning’s got talent at receiver in five-star prospect Ryan Wingo, who collected 29 receptions for 472 yards and two touchdowns as a freshman in 2024. DeAndre Moore Jr. is a top-150 prospect in his own right entering his third year. He had 456 receiving yards last year, and Stanford transfer Emmett Mosley V rounds out Manning’s starting receivers. Texas is replacing four starters on its offensive line, however.

Ryan Day and company aren’t putting any expectation on Sayin to outduel Manning. The message since he won the quarterback job over Lincoln Kienholz on Aug. 18 has been simple: Just win.

“Take care of the ball, win the game,” Day said on Tuesday. “If you need to throw it away, throw it away. Don't worry about anything else other than win the game. Win the game, it’s going to be a heck of a night. So that's the most important thing, and that's the job of the quarterback. So that will be my message to him. And then, ultimately, you've got to go trust your training. You can't play it close. When it's time to let it rip, you've got to let this thing rip.”

Whichever quarterback is the most prepared for the big stage, Sayin or Manning, and makes the best decisions with the football, could determine the victor on Saturday.

Proper Coordination

Projected Starters
Ohio State Pos Texas
OFFENSE
JULIAN SAYIN QB ARCH MANNING
JAMES PEOPLES RB QUINTREVION WISNER
JEREMIAH SMITH WR RYAN WINGO
CARNELL TATE WR EMMETT MOSELY V
BRANDON INNISS WR DEANDRE MOORE JR.
MAX KLARE TE JACK ENDRIES
AUSTIN SIEREVELD LT TREVOR GOOSBY
LUKE MONTGOMERY LG NETO UMEOZULU
CARSON HINZMAN C COLE HUTSON
TEGRA TSHABOLA RG DJ CAMPBELL
PHILLIP DANIELS RT BRANDON BAKER
DEFENSE
KENYATTA JACKSON JR. DE COLIN SIMMONS
EDDRICK HOUSTON DT MARAAD WATSON
KAYDEN MCDONALD DT TRAVIS SHAW
CADEN CURRY DE/OLB ETHAN BURKE
SONNY STYLES WLB LIONU LEFAU
ARVELL REESE MLB ANTHONY HILL JR.
LORENZO STYLES JR. NB JELANI MCDONALD
DAVISON IGBINOSUN CB JAYLON GUILBEAU
JERMAINE MATHEWS JR. CB MALIK MUHAMMAD
CALEB DOWNS FS MICHAEL TAAFFE
JAYLEN MCCLAIN SS DEREK WILLIAMS JR.

Two new play-callers on both sides of the football will be broken in for Ohio State in its marquee nonconference matchup.

Brian Hartline is the best wide receiver coach in college football and has been for more than half a decade. Day almost handed him play-calling duties in 2023 before keeping control of the offense for himself, then hiring Chip Kelly to man the offensive ship in 2024. Now in 2025, it’s time for the next step in Hartline’s coaching career.

He's beyond any nerves. And he's confident in the game plan he and the staff have put together.

“I'm excited for it. It's a great opportunity,” Hartline said on Aug. 18. “I love being able to game plan and try to put our guys in the best position to be successful, and I take it very seriously to provide the right calls, right fits, right number counts, like everyone's accounted for. All those things, and hopefully not one thing's overlooked. So, I mean, obviously really excited about it, but I'm kind of way past that. I'm just kind of focused on maximizing the opportunity at the highest level, and making sure I don't let anybody down, especially the players, in any kind of way.”

Benefitting Hartline is the aforementioned weapons at his disposal, plus eight years of experience in the Ryan Day offense, which he’ll have Day to advise him on and hold veto power along the sidelines. 

On the flipside is a new defensive coordinator with plenty of play-calling experience, though it came at the NFL level and the best of it came in the mid-2010s. Matt Patricia makes his debut, replacing Jim Knowles after he departed for Penn State. The Buckeyes return the best defensive player in the country, Caleb Downs, and stars at linebacker and cornerback (Sonny Styles and Davison Igbinosun) with a crop of fantastic, albeit green, talent.

The Buckeyes’ base defense will remain the 4-2-5, but the question is how exactly it will look with Patricia running the structure and incorporating different changeups with Ohio State’s various and talented personnel remains to be seen. And there’s going to be an adjustment period with any new coordinator running the show.

Still, count Downs among those confident in Patricia to maintain the elite status of the Silver Bullets, who finished No. 1 in scoring and No. 1 in total defense last season.

“He’s a teacher, that’s a different thing,” Downs said on his podcast, Downs 2 Business, on Wednesday. “Coach Knowles was a great guy, great person to be around. He was a leader. He was a really good play caller. I would say Coach Patricia hangs his hat on being a teacher, and I feel like I’ve learned a lot of football from him. And I feel like everybody on the defense has done that too, and when you know more football, it allows you to play faster.”

Trench Warfare

When Texas takes the field on offense this Saturday, eight of the nine linemen between the Longhorns and Buckeyes will be new starters.

Ohio State is replacing its entire starting defensive line from 2024, with Kenyatta Jackson Jr. and Caden Curry projected to start at defensive end with Kayden McDonald and Eddrick Houston at defensive tackle. Each of them received significant experience last year, each receiving at least 140 snaps throughout the campaign.

Similarly, the Longhorns might have new starters at four of their five offensive line positions, but new starting center Cole Hutson and left tackle Trevor Goosby both played at least 15 games in 2024. 

Jackson and Curry waited their turns for two years as the backups to Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau, and any pressure they generate on Manning will be key to making him uncomfortable in Columbus. Similarly, a key to the game for the Buckeyes will be stopping the Longhorns’ running game with returning 1,000-yard back Quintrevion Wisner and running mate CJ Baxter. Any offense becomes much easier to defend when forced to become one-dimensional.

Watch Out for These Guys

Texas DE Colin Simmons

The most proven part of Texas’ team is its pass rush, first and foremost due to Simmons, college football’s Freshman of the Year in 2024. He piled up 48 tackles with 13.5 tackles for loss and nine sacks, a team high, plus three forced fumbles after arriving as a five-star prospect. No Ohio State player’s stock has risen more than left tackle Austin Siereveld this offseason, but he’ll have a daunting matchup in his first start at the position.

Texas LB Anthony Hill Jr.

Anthony Hill Jr.
Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.

Hill, the centerpiece of Texas’ front seven, could go head-to-head with Styles for the Butkus Award as the best linebacker in college football in 2025. He enjoyed a monster sophomore year in 2024 with 113 tackles, 17 TFLs, eight sacks, an interception and four forced fumbles. 

Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith

Texas was the only team to contain the then-freshman sensation in the CFP last year, holding him to one catch for 3 yards. Smith averaged 126 receiving yards per game in his other three playoff contests, finishing the year with 76 receptions for 1,315 yards and 15 touchdowns. He’s eager for another shot at the Longhorns after they stifled him in the Cotton Bowl.

“I'm definitely hyped about this one, especially how things went last year, things people were saying about me about that game I had last year,” Smith said earlier this month. “I'm definitely hungry for this one for sure.”

Game Week Talk

“Honestly, I’m just excited that they chose a quarterback. It’s really nothing major behind it, I would say. It’s no target for him or nothing like that. I’m just glad that they have a quarterback that I’m ready to sack.”– Texas DE Colin Simmons on his Instagram post of Julian Sayin

Simmons posted a copy of the graphic Ohio State used to announce Sayin as its starting quarterback to his Instagram story last week, which sparked some conversation. All part of college football in the social media age.

“Ton of respect for Ohio State, ton of respect for Ryan Day and the job he’s done. Obviously, defending national champs. I think Coach Day is like 70-10 since he’s taken over at Ohio State. You think about the quality of players in this game and you look at last year’s game, 26 players got drafted off the two teams into the NFL.”– Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian on Ryan Day and Ohio State

Similar to Day’s near-bromance with Dan Lanning, there’s a lot of mutual respect between Day and Sarkisian. Neither gave the other’s squad much bulletin board material entering their CFP semifinal rematch, but both leaned into the pageantry of what should be a legendary bout.

“I got a chance to actually see Arch last summer and he's big, he's strong, he's really athletic. He's got a very live arm, he can push the ball down the field. He’s a really good player. Obviously, a huge challenge for us, but it'll be good.”– Ohio State DC Matt Patricia on Texas QB Arch Manning

Patricia and Ohio State’s defense are preparing themselves for a fantastically gifted quarterback in Manning. The hope for the Buckeyes is that his coronation is delayed.

Get Smart

  • Ohio State has won 25 straight season openers dating back to 2000.
  • Ohio State and Texas have a 2-2 all-time record against each other. Neither team has won back-to-back games against the other, with Ohio State winning the most recent matchup in last season’s College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl.
  • Texas earned a 25-22 win over Ohio State in its only previous trip to Ohio Stadium in 2005, which was also the first-ever meeting between the Buckeyes and Longhorns.
  • Former Ohio State defensive tackle Hero Kanu now plays for Texas.
  • Ohio State has seven players from the state of Texas: running back James Peoples, offensive linemen Ethan Onianwa and Isaiah Kema, linebackers Payton Pierce and Riley Pettijohn, cornerback Devin Sanchez and kicker Jayden Fielding.
  • Texas does not have any players from the state of Ohio.
  • Based on Coaches Poll rankings, this will be the seventh No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in Ohio State history. The Buckeyes have a 4-2 record in those games. Their only previous game as the No. 2 team playing the No. 1 team in the country was its double-overtime win over Miami in the national championship game for the 2002 season.
  • ESPN’s College GameDay and FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff will be broadcast live from Ohio State’s campus on Saturday morning. College GameDay’s broadcast will start at 9 a.m. from outside St. John Arena while Big Noon Kickoff’s broadcast will start at 9 a.m. from outside the RPAC. Both shows will move inside Ohio Stadium for the final hour.
  • Longtime College GameDay analyst Lee Corso will make his final headgear pick in the same place he made his first headgear pick in 1996, when he donned the Brutus head for the first time before Ohio State’s 38-7 win over Penn State at Ohio Stadium.
  • Ohio State’s 2024 national championship game banner will be unveiled before the game.
  • Archie Griffin will serve as the first-ever pregame Victory Bell ringer before the game.

How it Plays Out

Line: Ohio State -0.5, O/U 47.5

A game of this magnitude with this many new faces can swing in any number of directions. Clean football, avoiding turnovers and penalties, will play a huge role with all the greenery on both sides. A raucous Shoe could assist Ohio State in that area.

Eleven Warriors staff is more split on this one than the typical Buckeye game, with three staffers taking Texas and the other 10 taking Ohio State. All of us foresee a low-scoring, closely-contested battle, with only one score predicting either squad to reach 30 points.

Here’s to a fantastic game of football.

Eleven Warriors Staff Prediction
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