Ryan Day should have to find his own ride home from Austin. The Ohio State Texas loss should get him fired. The Buckeyes led 23-3 entering the fourth quarter, had No. 4 Texas buried for three quarters and somehow left DKR with a 24-23 loss. AP’s Jim Vertuno reported, citing Sportradar, that Texas’ 20-point rally was the largest fourth-quarter comeback EVER to beat an AP No. 1 team. That’s the kind of record you end up attached to when a statement win turns into everybody staring at the TV asking.. how the hell did you lose THAT?
Julian Sayin threw for 278 yards. Jeremiah Smith caught eight balls for 164 yards and a touchdown. Ohio State had a 20-point cushion with 15 minutes left, so this wasn’t some game where Texas bullied them for four quarters and Ohio State just wasn’t good enough. The Buckeyes spent most of Saturday night showing everybody they were good enough to win in Austin. Then they handed the damn thing back.
The Ohio State Texas loss was a coaching collapse
Ohio State did almost everything required to win this game for three quarters. Then the offense produced one field goal after halftime while Texas scored three touchdowns in the fourth. Ryan Wingo got Texas started early in the quarter, Hollywood Smothers scored again with 7:14 left and suddenly a game Ohio State had controlled all night was hanging by a thread.
The Buckeyes still had a chance to put some distance back between them and Texas. They drove into field-goal range and Connor Hawkins missed from 45 yards. Obviously that kick matters. He makes it and we’re probably talking about Ohio State surviving instead of Ryan Day needing USPS forwarding information. But if a 20-point fourth-quarter lead eventually depends on one college kicker making a 45-yarder on the road, a whole bunch of other shit already went wrong.
Texas got life and Ohio State never took it back. Arch Manning went from struggling for most of the night to completing 11 of his final 15 passes, and Smothers punched in the winner with 25 seconds left. Ohio State went from controlling one of the biggest games of the season to throwing a desperation pass on the final play.
That’s an all-time choke.
Texas answered the question Ohio State created in Week 1
Last week, after Ohio State beat Ball State 56-3, I wrote that Texas would answer the questions the opener couldn’t. Could Sayin and Jeremiah Smith look anything close to that good against an elite defense? Could Ohio State punish Texas when everybody knew where the football wanted to go? Would the offensive line and special teams hold up when ten hidden yards actually mattered?
Well.. Sayin and Smith were good enough. Smith had 164 yards against TEXAS. Sayin threw for 278. Ohio State was sitting on a 23-3 lead against the No. 4 team in the country on its own field. If the question was whether this roster could win in Austin, the scoreboard had already answered it. The coaching staff just had to finish the damn game.
That’s what makes this so much worse than simply dropping an early-season road game to another national-title contender. Ohio State had already done the hard part. The Buckeyes weren’t chasing Texas all night hoping for one miracle drive. Texas was chasing THEM, and somehow the final quarter still turned into survival mode.
The national title cannot be a lifetime hall pass
Yes, Ryan Day won a national championship. It happened, it was awesome, and Ohio State ran through Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame during that playoff run. Day absolutely deserves credit for it, and Ohio State rewarded him afterward with a contract running through 2031 worth $12.5 million annually.
Nobody needs to pretend the man has never accomplished anything in Columbus. He has accomplished a LOT. But look at what’s happened since. Ohio State finished the 2025 season by losing 13-10 to Indiana in the Big Ten Championship Game, then got bounced 24-14 by Miami in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal. The Buckeyes opened this season by obliterating Ball State and then just blew a 20-point fourth-quarter lead at Texas.
That’s 1-3 over the last four games, and the one win is Ball State. Fantastic. Print the 56-3 box score, frame it and hang it next to the $12.5 million contract.
The standard at Ohio State is ridiculous because Ohio State is ridiculous. This program gets Jeremiah Smith. It gets Julian Sayin. It starts seasons ranked No. 1. It recruits like an NFL farm system and expects to play for national championships every year. With all of that comes one very basic requirement.. when you’re up 23-3 in the fourth quarter against Texas, WIN THE FOOTBALL GAME.
Ryan Day didn’t. So yes.. leave him in Austin. Send somebody into his office Monday morning, put his stuff in a USPS box and mail it down there. He can figure out the forwarding address himself.
The national championship was real. This collapse is real too.
