Setback might await OSU in Texas

Once and only once in the 35 seasons I have written about Ohio State football did I predict Ohio State to win a game and also predict it would lose that same game. My double prediction game was the 2002 national championship game against Miami. Early in the week of the championship game a reporter from the Miami Herald asked sportswriters from the Ohio papers covering the game for a prediction for a story he was writing. Miami was riding a 34-game winning streak and was the defending national champion. Without hesitating I picked the Hurricanes. Three days later, based on OSU's defense, I said it had a chance and predicted a close win for the Buckeyes in my prediction column in The Lima News. That week came to mind this week as I changed my mind several times about who I thought would win Saturday's game between No. 1 Ohio State and No. 4 Texas. I might change it a couple more times by the time my prediction is published. The odds makers have had the Longhorns as a 1.5 points favorite all week and it really does feel that close. Five things to watch which could play big roles in the outcome of Saturday's game: • Who wins the line of scrimmage. Ohio State's offensive and defensive lines did that in the 12 games it won last season and didn't do it in the two it lost to Indiana and Miami. Texas did it in the 10 games it won but didn't in the three games it lost a year ago to OSU, Florida and Georgia. Tuesday at his weekly press conference Ryan Day didn't rule out the possibility of more offensive line changes in addition to recent ones making Ian Moore the starting left tackle and moving Austin Siereveld to right guard. • The quarterbacks. Julian Sayin and Arch Manning were just beginning their starting careers when Ohio State beat Texas 14-7 last season in the opener for both teams. Now they're two of the top quarterbacks in college football and almost certainly headed for the NFL next season. Sayin and OSU got the win last season when he was 13 of 20 for 126 yards and one touchdown pass. Manning, who had been hyped as the Heisman Trophy favorite, was 17 of 30 for 170 yards and one touchdown pass. On Joel Klatt's show this week, Urban Meyer said Manning's struggles against OSU last season weren't all his fault. Meyer said after watching film of that game he thought Texas' receivers did not do a good job of getting open. • Home field advantage. A crowd of 102,000 people, most of them Texas fans, will fill Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium for Saturday night's game. Fans don't create momentum but they can accelerate it. On the other hand, Texas won at Ohio State in 2005 and OSU won at Texas in 2006. • Whose offensive play makers make plays. Two of the least productive games statistically in Jeremiah Smith's career have come against Texas – 1 catch for 3 yards in a 2024 playoff semifinal and 6 catches for 43 yards last season. Ohio State needs to find ways to get the ball to him more against the Longhorns and get consistent production from players like Devin McCuin, Brandon Inniss, Chris Henry Jr., Legend Bey and others. • Who can run the ball. Ohio State saw things it liked and things it did not like in its running game in a 56-3 win over Ball State last week. Bo Jackson's 65-yard touchdown run was something OSU's coaches have wanted to see for a long time. But averaging only 2.1 yards per carry on running plays in the first half against a team picked to finish eleventh in the Mid-American Conference was something considerably less encouraging. Texas has upgraded its running game by signing two starter-caliber running backs, Hollywood Smothers (North Carolina) and Raleek Brown (Arizona State). The predictiton: Texas 27, Ohio State 24