It's going to take weeks for the Ohio State fanbase to get over this loss. Straight up, the No. 1 Buckeyes blew it on the road against Texas, with Arch Manning now being the hero due to his late-game heroics. However, Ohio State shot itself in the foot and there are several decisions that Ryan Day should no question want back.
At the top of the list has to be not letting Texas score once they got the ball down to the one with a little over a minute left on the clock. Instead, Day tried to trust his defense to get four stops, but Hollywood Smothers scored with 25 seconds left in regulation, with the PAT being good to give the Longhorns the improbable win. Asked about the decision to not let UT score at the end, Day gave a response that won't make too many people happy at all...
Ryan Day said Ohio State considered letting Texas score on second down, but decided they wanted to go play defense and see if they could get off the field.
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) September 13, 2026
“It didn’t work out.”
Ohio State has no excuses after its deflating collapse in the loss to Texas
"It didn't work out."
Seriously? Come on, Coach Day. It was clear as day (no pun intended) that Ohio State was not going to be able to keep the Longhorns out of the end zone. Day having to waste his final timeout hurt enough, but then letting the Longhorns keep taking precious seconds of the clock made things sting even more.
Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith were given basically no chance to pull off a miracle comeback. On first down, Sayin's pass attempt fell to the turf, but holding was called against OSU anyways. Then, his last-second desperation heave was going nowhere, with an interception eventually getting recorded. Ballgame, Texas wins, and Ohio State made terrible history no one is going to forget about.
Teams were 0-223 when trailing by 17-plus points vs. an AP No. 1 team since 2003.
— Chris Hummer (@chris_hummer) September 13, 2026
Texas just went up 24-23 with 25 seconds left after trailing by 20 earlier this half.
All of this likely would have been avoided had Connor Hawkins hit his field-goal try in the fourth quarter - anyone else get a terrible feeling that Texas was going to pull things off after he shanked his kick? This is a movie Ohio State fans have seen far too many times, but all in all, it's always going to be on the head coach when a collapse like this goes down.
Ohio State was up 20-3 at halftime and in cruise control. Then, the defense took a nap, with Matt Patricia blowing it as well with some of his play-calling. OSU supporters who made the long trek to Austin deserved so much more, as the Buckeyes are now living a nightmare. More specifically, Day cost his offense a chance to win things at the end of the fourth quarter. Just let the opposition score next time in this situation, man.
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