No. 1 Texas football fell short to the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes 14-7 in its season opener of the 2025 college football season.
The offense was a problem for the Longhorns up until the last 3 minutes of the game, when sophomore quarterback Arch Manning connected with freshman receiver Parker Livingstone on a 32-yard pass to provide the Longhorns with their only score of the game.
Along with the touchdown, Livingstone had another catch for 15 yards, totaling two grabs on four targets for 47 yards.
“Parker Livingstone was what I was expecting,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “He’s had a great spring, a great camp (and) showed up today. So that was really encouraging.”
Manning, however, did not perform well and was hard on himself in the post-game press conference.
“I just gotta play better, gotta execute,” Manning said. “Gotta get the receivers the ball more, let them make plays.”
Manning threw 30 balls with 17 completions for 170 yards, a touchdown and an interception. His offense struggled early, and it wasn’t until the second half that Texas had a 10-plus play drive.
In the first half alone, Texas punted on four out of its five drives. But the second half had a completely different script.
After Ohio State went 3-and-out to open the third quarter, Manning marched the offense down the field from the Longhorns’ 29 to the Buckeyes’ one-yard line. Not a single play out of the 15 snaps went further than 15 yards, but Texas methodically put itself as close to the endzone as it could be.
A play that worked for Manning last season was the quarterback sneak, so when Sarkisian called it for his offense on fourth and goal, he was confident in his guys. Sarkisian thought he had the size advantage and chose not to make substitutions, but Texas was ultimately stopped short.
“If I could do it all over again, we’d probably sub,” Sarkisian said.
After back-to-back punts for Ohio State and Texas, more lightning struck for the scarlet and white.
Making his debut for the Buckeyes, freshman quarterback Julian Sayin came up big late in the third quarter, throwing a 40-yard bomb to junior receiver Carnell Tate to widen the lead to 14-0. He ended the game with 126 yards on 13 completions and zero turnovers.
“He did a great job doing his thing,” Texas junior linebacker Anthony Hill Jr said. “I mean, he played pretty, played a really well game, made the right checks.”
Texas is starting the season 0–1 for the first time in the Sarkisian era. But now, the team looks forward to next Saturday at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium for the first time this season, hosting San Jose State.
