COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ryan Day simulated the first Saturday afternoon of the 2025 season inside his head every day for three straight months. He played out every scenario and so did the fans at Ohio State and Texas.
The overarching narratives weren’t lost on either program ahead of the biggest season opener in college football history, and even as the No. 3 Buckeyes jumped out to a double-digit lead and held back a furious comeback attempt by the No. 1 Longhorns to claim a 14-7 win on a sun-kissed day inside Ohio Stadium, the long-held beliefs still bubbled under the surface.
Ohio State fans, still basking in the glow of a national championship won in January, braced for disaster with Matt Patricia, the pencil-toting NFL castoff who hadn’t prowled a college sideline in two decades, suddenly handed the keys to the nation’s most talented defense.
Texas fans came to Columbus expecting quarterback Arch Manning to announce himself as college football’s next monarch, the heir apparent delivering his coronation on enemy turf.
Neither happened Saturday.
Manning struggled with his timing, misfiring passes and sailing throws over the heads of two receivers in the first half. In the third quarter, Manning blinked. A late throw hung in the air like a punt, and Ohio State’s Jermaine Matthews Jr. pounced the kind of back-breaking interception that flips not just a drive but an entire game. Ohio State scored on the ensuing possession to stake a 14-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Patricia’s defense looked the part of the No. 1 unit a year ago under Jim Knowles, who bolted for Big Ten rival Penn State in the offseason, despite losing eight players to the NFL Draft. They stopped Texas three times on fourth downs, including a goal-line stuff of Manning inside the 1-yard line, and held strong again as Texas crossed midfield with an opportunity to tie the game in the final two minutes.
“That’s the thing about football,” Day said. “I share that with the guys. All the work that you put in, in the dark, doesn’t come to light until his first game. And that’s sometimes a sobering thing about football. You put all this work in just to give you a chance. And then you have X number of plays to go make it happen.
“But that’s what competitive excellence is.”
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Everyone, including Texas, knows who will dominate the headlines. Manning’s performance will be dissected like the movements of a newly discovered alien life form.
“For Arch, the expectations were out of control on the outside,” Texas’ Steve Sarkisian said. “But I’d say, let’s finish the book before we judge it. This is one chapter and we got a long season to go play.”
Indeed, Manning will likely improve after this mostly disastrous day in Columbus.
“I sure hope so. I do think so,” Manning said. “I beat myself today, we beat ourselves and I think we’re going to look back (at the end of the season) and say, ‘Wow, we improved a lot.'”
The former No. 1 prospect passed for only 38 yards through three quarters before stuffing the stat sheet with 138 yards in the fourth frame, which included a touchdown pass in the final four minutes to give the Longhorns life.
“Ultimately, not good enough,” Manning said. “… That starts with me, and I have to play better for us to win. I can’t wait until the second half to kind of get things going.”
He’s right. Manning needed 20 minutes of game time before completing a pass to a receiver. He looked uncomfortable most of the afternoon as Ohio State’s elite secondary disguised coverages and locked down receivers, a development that required Sarkisian to sit beside his quarterback in the locker room at halftime to provide pointers on how to better identify the Buckeyes’ looks.
“He took that information and applied it in the second half,” Sarkisian said. “That’s encouraging he was able to adjust at halftime to do those things. All in all, the growth throughout the game for Arch was really encouraging for me. We’re going to be fine. We’ve got work to do as a team and as an offense, but ultimately I’m getting on the plane knowing we’re going to be a good football team.”
For three and a half quarters, Manning looked every bit the rookie: rattled, rushed and swallowed whole by 107,524 scarlet-clad voices that turned the Horseshoe into a nightmare.
Still, making a conclusion on Manning’s career after his first road start is not wise, but that won’t stop the rabid fans, particularly Texas’ rivals, from declaring the Manning Legend dead.
Not every performance needs a declarative hot take.
Texas’ game plan was not perfect, either. Sarkisian admitted he should have called more designed run plays for Manning, who excelled off the bench as a runner and passer last season, earlier in the game.
“I was going to try to do some things I felt he was really comfortable with in practice, with the unknowing of how they were going to play us,” Sarkisian said. “I don’t feel bad necessarily about the plan. I probably would have incorporated him running the ball more earlier in the game and maybe that would have settled him down more, but the things we had up we felt good about.”
As Day said, you just don’t know until you know. After Week 1, we all know better about our preconceived notions.
Saturday’s result doesn’t mean either fan base’s preseason notions will be proven wrong at the end of the year. What was clear Saturday inside The Horseshoe was that this defensive dogfight required critical conversions in stressful situations. First-time Ohio State starter Julian Sayin did just that and Manning did not respond until the fourth quarter.
Patricia’s defense stopped Texas three times on fourth down, including a goal-line stop of Manning on a “tush push” attempt inside the 1. Sayin stepped up, too, connecting with wideout Carnell Tate for a 40-yard pass to grab a 14-0 lead; the ball was underthrown and Tate deserves more credit for the incredible snag. Sayin threw for 126 yards and one touchdown, an unremarkable stat line, but became the first, first-time starting quarterback to knock off a No. 1 team since Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh (yes, you read that right, Buckeyes) knocked off No. 1 Miami in 1984.
Ohio State scraped together just 203 yards, the program’s leanest output in a victory since 2009. It was enough to snap Texas’ 11-game road winning streak and the 35-game stranglehold preseason No. 1 teams had in season openers dating back to 1990.
What America witnessed in Columbus was an unsexy but thrilling performance from two elite teams that may very well meet again later this year in the College Football Playoff. Both defenses were superb, particularly in the secondary, and two new starting quarterbacks had more hiccups than highlights.
For now, Manning goes home a loser.
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At least for one more Saturday, Patricia can stroll the streets of Columbus knowing he’ll get more backslaps than kicks to the rear. That’s life in the big time.
“I mean, honestly, I’m northeast Italian, so I’m kind of always a little bit skeptical, but everyone’s just so welcoming and kind,” Patricia joked after his debut calling plays for the Buckeyes’ defense. “… I’m trying to hopefully do a good job of impacting young men and mentoring and teaching and coaching a game that I love, so that’s really what I’m trying to do. So, hopefully, I got a little bit of that done today.”
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