After narrowly escaping Arizona State in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, Texas football continues its march toward the program’s first championship game since 2010 in a semifinal against Ohio State Friday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Seeded fifth, the Longhorns are underdogs against the No. 8 Buckeyes, which marks the first time since a September 2023 trip to Alabama that the Longhorns aren’t the favorite. Texas boasts a veteran squad competing in its second consecutive CFP that’s led by a three-year starting quarterback in Quinn Ewers. But a well-rounded Ohio State squad anchored by the nation’s No. 1 defense has picked up steam in the postseason while walloping Tennessee and top-seede Oregon.
The winner of this game will advance to the CFP final at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta Jan. 20 against either Notre Dame or Penn State.
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Ohio State dissects the Texas defense on its opening drive, a 10-play, 64-yard march that’s capped by a 9-yard TD run from Quinshon Judkins. The Buckeyes made that look easy, with QB Will Howard going 4-of-6 for 44 yards. Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski has some early work to do.
Texas falls short on the first big decision of the game. On a fourth-and-3 from the Ohio State 36-yard line, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers throws the ball short of DeAndre Moore Jr., who was well-covered on the play. Bert Auburn or Will Stone? We saw neither Texas kicker on what would have been a 53-yard field-goal attempt.
In a sit-down interview between Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Ewers said that he does not expect to play college football next season. Ewers, a three-year starter for the Longhorns, does have a year of collegiate eligibility left but has indicated since last spring that the 2024 campaign would likely be his final collegiate season.
Until the broadcast of the interview with Thamel Saturday, Ewers had not made any definite statement on his future. Sophomore Arch Manning, a backup the past two seasons, is expected to assume the starting role next season for Texas.
Could Texas use Will Stone at kicker in place of Bert Auburn? It’s definitely a possibility based on Texas coach Steve Sarkisian’s comments earlier in the week as well as some media reports stating Stone will get the start.
“We’ll monitor that thing through pregame and make a decision and go,” Sarkisian told reporters during media availability Thursday.
Texas kicker Bert Auburn is the school’s all-time leader in made field goals and he has been responsible for a team-high 112 points this season. Auburn, though, is just 16-for-25 on his field goals this season, and that 64% success rate ranks 105th nationally. Auburn has missed four field goals in his last three games, and two of those misses occurred in the final two minutes of the Peach Bowl’s fourth quarter on Jan. 1 while Texas was attempting to break.
If Texas does bench Auburn, Stone would be his logical replacement. An Austin native and a Texas junior, Stone has never attempted a field goal on the collegiate level. But Stone has handled kickoff duties for Texas for the past three seasons and is on scholarship. Stone made a 54-yard field goal during his senior season at Regents High in 2021.
Texas’ game vs. Ohio State in a CFP semifinal will be broadcast on ESPN. Streaming options for the game include ESPN+ and Fubo, which is offering a free trial for its streaming service.
More:Texas vs Ohio State: Longtime Longhorn QB Quinn Ewers reflects on his time as a Buckeye
Thomas Jones, Texas beat writer
Ohio State 27, Texas 25
TEXAS GETS THE BOOT
The Longhorns will have home-field advantage, but the shaky special teams will prove the difference in a game that features as many as two dozen players that could go in the 2025 NFL draft. Don’t be surprised if some fourth-down calls by Sarkisian in critical moments of the game reflect his concern in the kicking game.
Cedric Golden, Columnist
Texas 34, Ohio State 30
QUINN MIGHTY AGAIN FOR TEXAS
Quinn Ewers saved the season against Arizona State and if Texas can get a semblance of a run game going against the No. 5 rushing defense in the country, it will open up this offense for Ewers to make the play-action game click. It’s a fourth-quarter game and the Horns will pull it off.
Danny Davis, Texas beat writer
Texas
SPECIAL WIN FOR TEXAS
Both Texas and Ohio State have great defenses and offensive standouts, so this is a coin flip for me. The Longhorns will shock the world and Vegas oddsmakers. Not by winning (a No. 5 seed beating a No. 8 seed is not an upset), but by making a play on special teams to secure a trip to the national championship game.
David Eckert, Texas insider
Ohio State 31, Texas 24
BALANCING ACT ENOUGH FOR OHIO STATE
Ohio State is the more balanced team in this matchup, and that’ll be the reason the Buckeyes leave Arlington with a victory. Texas has leaned on its dominant defense to compensate for an underperforming and mistake-prone offense and misfiring special teams unit, but that hasn’t been enough in the only two games the Longhorns have played against a team with comparable athleticism and size.
Game lines and odds from BetMGM as of Friday:
Texas: RB CJ Baxter (out), RB Christian Clark (out), RB Velton Gardner (out), DB Derek Williams Jr. (out), QB Trey Owens (out), OL Cam Williams (questionable), WR Isaiah Bond (probable).
Ohio State: OL Zen Michalski (out), WR Reis Stocksdale (out), RB Rashid SeSay (out), OL Seth McLaughlin, OL Josh Simmons (out), TE Jace Middleton (questionable), WR Nolan Baudo (questionable).
This game will be played indoors, though North Texas is expecting near-freezing temperatures.
