Texas vs. Ohio State Football 2026: Kickoff Time, TV Channel & Preview

Texas has lost to Ohio State three times in a row across two calendar years, and the last two hurt. The Buckeyes ended the Longhorns' 2024 season in the Cotton Bowl semifinal, then beat them again in the 2025 opener and effectively knocked them out of playoff contention before September was over.

Steve Sarkisian's team spent all offseason hearing about it. Now Ohio State walks into a night game in Austin with 100,000 people who have been waiting a year for exactly this. First visit? The DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium guide covers parking, bag policy and where to sit.

For Ohio State, the stakes are different but no smaller. The Buckeyes went 12-0 last regular season, then lost the Big Ten title game to Indiana and lost again to Miami in the playoff quarterfinal. They spent nine months answering questions about scoring 24 points in those two games combined. A road win in Austin would settle a lot of that noise early.

Both teams are national title contenders. Both have a Heisman-caliber quarterback. Only one is walking out 1-0 against a top-five opponent.

Last year's opener was the most-watched Week 1 game in college football history. The CFP semifinal eight months earlier pulled more than 20 million viewers. This series moves the needle in a way almost nothing else on the regular-season calendar does.

Sarkisian is in year six, and this is the most complete roster he has had. ESPN's Bill Connelly ranked Texas sixth nationally in returning production.

Quarterback: Arch Manning is back for his second full season as a starter and enters the year a Heisman favorite. The tape that matters is the back half of 2025: 1,714 yards, 14 touchdowns and two interceptions over the final six games. He was a different player in November than he was in August, which is the entire question heading into this game.

Offense: Cam Coleman transferred in from Auburn and gives Manning a true No. 1 outside. Hollywood Smothers (NC State) and Raleek Brown (Arizona State) joined the backfield. Texas will need explosive plays here, because Ohio State does not give up long, patient drives.

Defense: Will Muschamp replaced Pete Kwiatkowski as coordinator. Colin Simmons is back after leading the SEC in sacks, and safety Jelani McDonald led the team in both tackles and interceptions last season. This is Muschamp's second real test in the new job, one week after the Texas State opener.

Ryan Day is 79-12 at Ohio State and has not won fewer than 11 games in a full season since taking over in 2019. The Buckeyes are the AP preseason No. 1.

Quarterback: Julian Sayin was a Heisman finalist in 2025, throwing for 3,610 yards, 32 touchdowns and eight interceptions while leading the country in completion percentage at 77%. He is a first-team preseason All-American and a third-year player now.

Jeremiah Smith: The best player in college football, and he has said this is his final college season. Smith has 2,558 receiving yards and 27 touchdowns in his first two years, the most by any Big Ten receiver ever over that span. He finished fourth nationally with 1,243 receiving yards last season.

Running game: Sophomore Bo Jackson ran for 1,090 yards as a freshman and is the pick of many to break out. New offensive coordinator Arthur Smith replaced Brian Hartline, and part of the mandate is more production on the ground.

Defense: Matt Patricia's unit allowed 9.3 points per game and four yards per play in his first year in Columbus, and held every regular-season opponent to 16 points or fewer, something no team had done since 1975. The catch is turnover. Ohio State lost Caleb Downs, Sonny Styles, Arvell Reese, Davison Igbinosun and Kayden McDonald, along with receiver Carnell Tate, the No. 4 pick in the 2026 draft.

This is the most expensive ticket on the Texas home schedule and one of the priciest regular-season tickets in the country. Prices climbed through the summer and typically spike again in the final 72 hours. Buy through the university's official ticket partner or a verified resale marketplace, and be careful with anything advertised well below market.

Texas hosts UTSA on September 19, then opens SEC play at Tennessee on September 26. The Longhorns' schedule includes seven teams ranked in the AP preseason poll, which is arguably the hardest slate in the country.

Ohio State returns home for Kent State on September 19 and Illinois on September 26, with the season's other marquee dates at Indiana on October 17, at USC on October 31, Oregon at home on November 7 and Michigan in Columbus on November 28.