For three quarters, Texas looked finished.
Ohio State led 23–3 entering the fourth quarter Saturday night in Austin. The nation’s No. 1 team had controlled the game, quieted the crowd and left the fourth-ranked Longhorns needing three touchdowns just to escape.
Texas scored all three.
Hollywood Smothers’ 1-yard touchdown run with 25 seconds remaining completed a stunning 24–23 victory—an ending that the Associated Press, citing Sportradar, identified as the largest winning fourth-quarter comeback ever mounted against an AP No. 1 team.
Twenty points disappeared in less than 15 minutes
The turnaround began immediately after the fourth quarter started. Arch Manning finished a 15-play, 76-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Wingo, cutting Ohio State’s advantage to 23–10 with 14:19 remaining.
Texas forced another stop and went 80 yards for its second touchdown of the quarter. Smothers scored from 1 yard with 7:14 left, reducing the gap to six.
Ohio State then had an opportunity to make the comeback much harder. Kicker Connor Hawkins, who had already made three field goals, attempted a 45-yarder with 4:16 remaining. He missed.
That gave Manning and Texas the opening they needed.
The final drive went 73 yards
Starting at their own 27-yard line, the Longhorns covered 73 yards in 12 plays. Manning converted a pivotal fourth-and-6 from the Texas 32 by finding Emmett Mosley V, extending a drive that otherwise would have ended with Ohio State taking possession and the clock running down.
Texas eventually reached the Buckeyes’ 1-yard line. Smothers was stopped twice, and officials reviewed a second-down play after the ball came loose near the goal line. Texas retained possession.
On third down, Smothers surged across the line for his second 1-yard touchdown of the quarter. The extra point put Texas in front for the first time, 24–23, with 25 seconds on the clock.
Ohio State’s final possession ended when Graceson Littleton intercepted Julian Sayin as time expired. The ESPN scoring summary confirms that Texas won the fourth quarter 21–0 after being held to three points through the first three periods.
Manning recovered from a brutal opening
The night did not begin like a signature Arch Manning performance. Texas struggled with missed throws, dropped passes and turnovers while Ohio State built a 20–3 halftime lead and added another field goal in the third quarter.
But Manning’s final period was defined by sustained drives rather than one spectacular play. He moved the chains with his arm and legs, delivered the touchdown pass to Wingo and kept the winning possession alive under fourth-down pressure.
The University of Texas game center lists the decisive result and the leading performances, including Smothers’ 74 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Ohio State quarterback Sayin threw for 278 yards, while star receiver Jeremiah Smith recorded eight catches for 164 yards and a touchdown.
Ohio State controlled the game—and still lost
The Buckeyes scored 10 points in each of the first two quarters and added a field goal in the third. Their defense kept Texas out of the end zone until the final period.
But Ohio State’s offense did not score in the fourth, and the missed field goal denied the Buckeyes a chance to push the lead to nine. Texas answered with three long touchdown drives and consumed the moments that mattered most.
The result drops Ohio State to 1–1 and moves Texas to 2–0. It also gives coach Steve Sarkisian one of the defining victories of his Texas tenure and places the Longhorns squarely in the conversation for the next No. 1 ranking.
What comes next
Texas hosts UTSA on September 19. Ohio State returns home to face Kent State the same day.
A rematch later in the season is possible, but Saturday’s result already has its place in college-football history: Texas began the fourth quarter down 20 points to the top-ranked team in the country—and left the field one point ahead.
The comeback and other major Top 25 results were also reported in Reuters’ national college-football roundup.
