Rasheem Biles has turned Texas' Week 2 meeting with Ohio State into something more personal. The Pickerington, Ohio native said after fall practice on Thursday that he was not trying to be in Columbus and was never trying to be a Buckeye, even as many experts expected him to land there when he entered the NCAA transfer portal.
That matters because Biles is not talking about a routine opponent. He is a former Ohio-area recruit who signed with Texas in January after three seasons at Pitt, and now he will face Ohio State in Austin with his own recruiting history hanging over the matchup.
Biles made the point plainly. He said Ohio State did not want him out of high school, adding that there was no reason to chase that path now. The line cuts against the way the transfer market was viewed from the outside, where Ohio State was widely seen as the likely destination once he hit the portal.
His path helps explain why. Coming out of Pickerington Central High School in 2023, Biles was a three-star prospect who was not heavily recruited by Power Four schools. Pitt and West Virginia were the only schools to offer him a scholarship, and he chose Pitt, where he turned into a two-time All-ACC selection with 185 tackles, 31.5 tackles for loss, 10 sacks, three interceptions, 13 passes broken up, three forced fumbles, four defensive touchdowns and three blocked kicks.
That production is part of why Texas wanted him in the first place. Biles arrived at 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds and has already drawn strong praise from Steve Sarkisian, who called him a problem and said he can hurt opponents as a pass rusher and on special teams. He is also a Butkus Award candidate, a nod reserved for the top college linebacker in the country, and that status adds to the stakes around his first major game in a Texas uniform.
Still, the sharpest edge here is not about the award or even the transfer. It is the mismatch between outside expectation and Biles' own account of how little Ohio State mattered to him. For a player from the Columbus area, the game would have been easy to frame as a homecoming. Biles has made clear he sees it differently.
Texas now gets Ohio State in Week 2 at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, and Biles says he is pumped for it. The unanswered piece is how much, if at all, Ohio State tried to pull him back once he entered the portal. What is already clear is that the linebacker who arrived in Austin in January will not treat this one like just another game.
