After Ohio State lost eight NFL draft picks and its coordinator from last year’s national championship defense, it seemed inevitable that the Buckeyes would take a step back on that side of the ball. In Saturday’s season opener against Texas, the Buckeyes already looked like they could have the nation’s best defense once again.
Facing an immediate test against the No. 1-ranked team entering the season, Ohio State’s defense was dominant vs. the Longhorns, holding Texas to just one touchdown. While the Longhorns finished the game with 336 yards, the Buckeye defense consistently made plays when it needed to, making four fourth-down stops to force turnovers on downs, including one inside the 1-yard line and another inside the 10-yard line, to lead Ohio State to a 14-7 win.
Matt Patricia’s influence on the defense as Ohio State’s new defensive coordinator was immediately apparent as the Buckeyes lined up in a wide variety of formations throughout the game. The Buckeyes mixed up both the front and back of their defense constantly, utilizing a variety of four- and three-man fronts on the defensive line while moving safeties Caleb Downs, Jaylen McClain and Lorenzo Styles Jr. all over the field. That mixing created plenty of confusion for ballyhooed Texas quarterback Arch Manning, who completed just 17 of 30 passing attempts for 170 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
“We changed our fronts a lot. We didn't really do that the last few years, switch up a lot of fronts. We changed the looks in the back end as well. So I think the defense is very complex for a quarterback to read, and I think y'all seen that today,” Ohio State cornerback Jermaine Mathews Jr. said after the game.
Replacing eight starters from last year’s defense who were all selected in the first five rounds of the 2025 NFL draft, a bevy of new starters and contributors showed they were ready to make a big impact in bigger roles.
Mathews shined in his first game as a full-time starting cornerback, picking off Manning on a deep ball and nearly creating a second interception when he tipped another Manning pass that Sonny Styles almost caught off the deflection. Arvell Reese looked like a superstar in his first game as Ohio State’s full-time starting Mike linebacker, recording nine tackles with a sack.
McClain and Styles both excelled in their first game as starters in the secondary alongside Mathews, Downs and Davison Igbinosun, who led the Buckeyes with a career-high 10 tackles and made a crucial fourth-down pass breakup in the fourth quarter. Standouts on the defensive line included Kayden McDonald (eight tackles), Caden Curry (six tackles) and C.J. Hicks, whose pressure forced Manning into a short throw on Downs’ game-clinching 4th-and-5 tackle with just 1:27 to play.
“Just so proud of the players. Give all the credit to them. They're the ones that went out there and played really fast, really aggressive,” Patricia said postgame. “All the way across the board, from the front end to the back end, I think those guys just did a tremendous job with the adjustments. We were moving a lot of different parts on them, so it was a really, really great effort by the players.”
Just because Ohio State’s defense was dominant against Texas doesn’t guarantee it will be elite all season. The Buckeyes had the element of surprise on their side entering the season opener, as no one could know exactly what to expect from Patricia schematically, and it remains to be seen whether Manning and the Longhorns will end up being the team many expected them to be entering Saturday.
In a similarly hyped season opener three years ago, Jim Knowles’ defense dominated in his debut as Ohio State’s defensive coordinator, holding Notre Dame to just two scores in a 21-10 win. The Buckeyes ended that season allowing 87 combined points in their final two games of the year against Michigan and Georgia – both losses – so they know they can’t be satisfied after just one game.
“We have to prove ourselves every time we're in that arena. So that's just what you do. When you stop feeling like you have to prove yourself, then you stop improving,” Ryan Day said after the game. “But that's what competitive excellence is. And a great start. I thought the game plan was excellent.”
That said, Ohio State’s defense felt like it had something to prove on Saturday after an offseason of questions about how the Buckeyes would replace Knowles, Jack Sawyer, JT Tuimoloau, Tyleik Williams, Ty Hamilton, Cody Simon, Denzel Burke, Jordan Hancock and Lathan Ransom. And they certainly made a statement with how close they came to shutting out the team that started the year atop the major polls.
“I think we showed the country that we didn't go anywhere. I think we're still the best defense in the country,” Mathews said.
