spending an estimated $40 million<\/a>\u00a0to secure talent wonder if they needed to find someone else to make sure they got their money\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n![\"Texas]()
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Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning (16) passes against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the first half at Royal-Memorial Stadium in Austin, Sept. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ricardo B. Brazziell\/Austin American-Statesman![\"Texas]()
<\/p>\n
Texas Longhorns tight end Spencer Shannon (83) fights for yardage against the Ohio State Buckeyes linebacker Payton Pierce (26) at Royal-Memorial Stadium in Austin, Sept. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ricardo B. Brazziell\/Austin American-Statesman![\"Texas]()
<\/p>\n
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, center, celebrates Texas’ win over Ohio State in an NCAA college football game in Austin, Texas, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. (AP Photo\/Eric Gay)<\/p>\n
Eric Gay\/AP Photo\/Eric Gay![\"Texas]()
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Texas wide receiver Emmett Mosley V. (3) is het after making a catch against Ohio State during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Austin, Texas, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. (AP Photo\/Eric Gay)<\/p>\n
Eric Gay\/Associated Press![\"Texas]()
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Texas running back Hollywood Smothers (2) celebrates a touchdown against Ohio State during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Austin, Texas, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. (AP Photo\/Eric Gay)<\/p>\n
Eric Gay\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Instead, they left Royal-Memorial celebrating what was perhaps the most impressive victory of Sarkisian\u2019s UT tenure. It came after almost everything that could have gone wrong went wrong in the first half, from a fumble on the game\u2019s opening offensive play to an interception that bounced off the chest of a wide-open Longhorns receiver and into the arms of an Ohio State defensive back.<\/p>\n
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The Buckeyes, who\u2019d twice won nailbiters against UT \u2014 in the playoff two years ago and in the regular season last year \u2014 looked poise to romp this time. Instead, Manning and the Longhorns started chipping away.<\/p>\n
A touchdown pass to Ryan Wingo cut the deficit to 13 on the second play of the fourth quarter. Then, after UT\u2019s Bo Mascoe put the clamps down on Ohio State dynamo Jeremiah Smith, who\u2019d torched the Longhorns for 164 receiving yards, Sarkisian faced a pivotal decision.<\/p>\n
Facing fourth-and-6 from his own 32, trailing by 10 points with just under 12 minutes remaining, Sarkisian left his offense on the field. It was a gamble.<\/p>\n
A failure to convert essentially would end the game. Everybody knew it.<\/p>\n
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Through the headset in Manning\u2019s helmet, Sarkisian made the play call, then added a reminder.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t forget about Emmett (Mosley) on the through route,\u201d he told his quarterback.<\/p>\n
And sure enough, that\u2019s where Mosley was, right in the center of the field. Manning completed that pass, then a few more, and a UT offensive line that dealt with its own demons after those previous Ohio State defeats started pushing the Buckeyes around.<\/p>\n
Over their last three touchdown drives, the Longhorns ran a staggering 40 plays, covering a combined 236 yards. The last march concluded, appropriately enough, in the trenches at the goal line, where UT had been turned back on a disastrous quarterback sneak attempt in Columbus last year.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThat still haunts me to this day,\u201d Longhorns left tackle Trevor Goosby said. \u201cBeing on the goal line again, things had to be different.\u201d<\/p>\n
They were. This time, running back Hollywood Smothers leaped over the pile for the game-winning touchdown, completing the Longhorns\u2019 biggest comeback since 2007.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At midfield, amid the postgame mayhem, UT\u2019s coach had a message for Ohio State coach Ryan Day.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI hope we see you again,\u201d Sarkisian told him.<\/p>\n
It sure beats seeing ghosts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas quarterback Arch Manning (16) celebrates a play against Ohio State during the first half of an NCAA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-434575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}