Texas erased a 20-point deficit in the fourth quarter and beat Ohio State 24-23, finishing the kind of comeback that changes a season's first Saturday in a single drive. The winning score came with 25 seconds left, after Arch Manning helped push the Longhorns 73 yards and Hollywood Smothers finished it with a one-yard touchdown.
That finish landed in the exact game people were searching for when they typed Texas 2026 Schedule, because this was not a routine opener or a tidy win. Texas trailed 23-3 to start the fourth quarter, then scored 21 unanswered points to pull it out, and the result broke a run that had stood for every No. 1 team that had carried a 20-point lead into the fourth. The last four minutes turned on one miss and one march. With 4:16 to play, Ohio State's Connor Hawkins pushed a 45-yard field goal wide left, giving Texas life while it still trailed by six.
Manning did the rest on the final possession. He completed 4 of 5 passes on the drive, and Texas used that efficiency to turn a dead game into a one-point lead. The comeback was Texas' largest win from behind since 2007, a marker that shows how rare the finish was even before the numbers are stacked together. Ohio State had the ball again with 25 seconds left and no timeouts, but did nothing with it.
The odd part is how clean the winning sequence looks after the chaos. Texas did not need a lucky bounce or a busted coverage on the last play. It needed one long drive, one accurate quarterback, and one short touchdown run from Smothers after Ohio State had already built a cushion that should have held. That is what makes the result hard to dismiss: the Buckeyes led 23-3 early in the fourth quarter and still walked off with a loss.
The week did not stop there. Iowa later beat Iowa State 16-13 in Iowa City on Caden Buhr's go-ahead 42-yard field goal with 15 seconds left, Illinois State upset Northern Illinois 28-24, and Oregon State was still chasing No. 13 Texas Tech after a trick-play touchdown and a missed extra point made it 14-13. Ohio and Jacksonville State also went to four overtimes before Ohio won 29-27. By the time Sunday rankings arrive, Texas' comeback will already be the result that reshapes the conversation around the Texas 2026 Schedule and the season ahead.
