COLUMBUS, Ohio — When I went down to the field for the final six minutes of Ohio State’s 14-7 win against Texas, I could barely hear myself talk, let alone the person next to me. Last year’s home College Football Playoff game against Tennessee was the loudest I’d ever heard a stadium, but Saturday at Ohio Stadium felt about the same.
Ohio State fans have been frustrated with Fox for years over the fact that the Buckeyes have been the priority choice for its “Big Noon Saturday” games. That was the case again when it was announced that the third-ranked Buckeyes would play No. 1 Texas at noon to open the season. Ohio State is also expected to play Penn State at noon on Nov. 1 and will end the year in the traditional noon slot at Michigan, putting at least three of Ohio State’s four games against preseason ranked opponents in the early time slot.
There are legitimate reasons to be frustrated by that, including the impact it can have on recruiting and prospects coming to visit. But take it from somebody who finished the day on the field on Saturday afternoon: The stadium was still rocking.
Ohio State is experimenting with some gameday changes, one of which is the expanded student section. The band was originally in front of the student section, but it moved to the north end zone, giving the students the entire south end zone. It made a noticeable difference.
I’m not saying that noon kickoffs are better than night games. There’s just a different vibe that comes when the lights are on. But Saturday was a reminder that Ohio Stadium has an elite atmosphere, no matter what time the game begins.
“When we came out for warm-ups, there weren’t many empty seats. For a noon kickoff, to have that many people in the stadium was amazing,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said of the crowd of 107,524. “For an atmosphere like that Week 1, it was great for our team and I think made a huge difference in the fourth quarter.”
Here are eight other Buckeyes takeaways from the game:
Sayin did what Ohio State needed
The numbers won’t jump off the page, but quarterback Julian Sayin’s first start was a good one. Ohio State didn’t want to put a lot of pressure on Sayin in this game, so he threw the ball just 20 times. Still, when Day and first-time play caller Brian Hartline wanted him to throw, he did well.
Sayin completed 13 of 20 passes for 126 yards and a touchdown. I thought he was better than Texas quarterback Arch Manning, who threw for 170 yards, a touchdown and one interception.
Sayin, a five-star recruit too, was unlucky that his team struggled with drops early on. Tight end Max Klare dropped a fourth-down pass and Jeremiah Smith, who dropped one pass all of last season, had two in the first two drives. They both settled in, and so did Sayin.
Even when Texas got pressure on him, Sayin found ways to get the ball out, extend plays and give his receivers a chance to make a play. A Texas defense with one of the best edge rushers in the country in Colin Simmons didn’t record a sack. That’s in part because of the offensive line, but Sayin did a nice job scrambling away from pressure, as well.
He made good decisions, which was the most important thing for him in his starting debut. Unlike Manning, who threw an interception that led to an Ohio State touchdown, Sayin took care of the ball and was pretty accurate when asked to throw it.
Ohio State didn’t need Sayin to be a superstar to win. It was still a good showing, and with time to settle in against Grambling and Ohio the next two games, he should give the coaching staff confidence he can handle more the next time the Buckeyes play in a ranked matchup.
People are going to love what Sayin can do in a month or two.
A special start for Mathews
Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt hosted a show in Columbus on Friday and had former safety Lathan Ransom as a guest. Ransom said he attended a practice in the spring, watched cornerback Jermaine Mathews Jr. and told co-defensive coordinator Tim Walton, “This might be one of the best corners I’ve seen since I’ve been here.”
Mathews lived up to that hype and started his sophomore year off with a bang, intercepting Manning, deflecting another pass that was then nearly intercepted by Sonny Styles and tallying three tackles. Everything people rave about when they see Mathews showed up on Saturday — first and foremost his ball-hawk ability.
His interception came off a bad ball from Manning, as he was late on a post against man coverage, but Mathews did a nice job turning his head and breaking on the ball faster than receiver Ryan Wingo could. That play changed the game, as Ohio State scored what turned out to be the winning points on the following drive.
Picked off 🙌@OhioStateFB’s Jermaine Mathews Jr. read this one.
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/kaS5o4KcaP
— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) August 30, 2025
The Cincinnati native is one of the most competitive players on the field and does not shrink in the moment. Trash talk often follows, which seems like it helps him: The more he can be his outgoing self, the better he plays. Ohio State has no interest in taking that edge from him.
Ohio State lost Denzel Burke on the outside and replaced him with another potential lockdown corner in Mathews, who is more versatile. Burke was an outside corner his entire career. There were times on Saturday when defensive coordinator Matt Patricia moved Mathews inside and gave five-star freshman Devin Sanchez some playing time on the outside.
Ohio State can do a lot of different things because of safety Caleb Downs’ versatility. Mathews allows even more flexibility. And with numerous NFL scouts and general managers in attendance, Mathews surely put himself firmly on the minds of those at the next level.
He wasn’t alone, either. Davison Igbinosun had 10 tackles and a crucial pass breakup in the end zone, and he didn’t get called for a penalty — a major win after last season’s pass interference problems.
Reese is turning into a superstar
NFL scouts had to also be drooling over Arvell Reese after his performance.
The third-year linebacker already looks like he was created in a lab at 6 feet 4 and 243 pounds, and he impressed everybody with his versatility in tallying nine tackles and a sack.
It can’t be understated how important a guy like Patricia, with his NFL background, is for Reese, because he’s getting a look at what he can expect at the next level. Reese is too talented and physically gifted to be a box linebacker all game. Patricia knows that and utilized him in a variety of ways.
He started at linebacker but played interior defensive line in the “Rushman” package, blitzed up the middle, delayed blitzed, played in coverage and was a key player in the run game. He teams with Sonny Styles to form one of the most talented and athletic linebacking duos in the country.
Ohio State needs more from running game
There are a ton of positives to take from an opening win over the preseason No. 1 team, but it wasn’t all good on Saturday. The biggest problem was the running game.
With Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson gone, Ohio State ran the ball 34 times for 77 yards, averaging 2.3 yards per carry. The Buckeyes leaned on their run game in hopes of taking pressure off of Sayin but couldn’t get anything from it consistently. West Virginia transfer CJ Donaldson showed some promise, tallying 67 yards on 19 carries, and was a big part of the Buckeyes’ first touchdown drive in the first half. James Peoples carried the ball 10 times for 20 yards and struggled to get to the second level with a long run of 6 yards.
Some of the struggles had to do with Texas and its stout defensive line. Between the line and the talented linebacker corps led by Anthony Hill Jr., the Longhorns made things difficult for the Buckeyes. And when Ohio State needed its run game the most in the fourth quarter, it tallied 17 yards on 10 carries, giving Texas a chance to stage a comeback.
It’s still early and I think Ohio State will get things fixed, but that’s going to remain a concern for a while.
Next two weeks are crucial for the offense
It’s hard to be too critical of the offense, but totaling just 203 yards is a bit worrisome, even with a quarterback making his first start against an elite defense.
Ohio State has been held under 250 total yards just twice since 2017; the other time was the Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri when Ohio State didn’t have a quarterback or offensive line. The Buckeyes totaled 203 yards in that game, as well.
In this case, Ohio State played extremely conservative football, leaning on a defense that was stifling Manning and the Texas offense. That was Ohio State’s game plan — it’s not like Hartline went rogue in his play-calling debut and decided to get conservative on his own, which is why I’m not ready to be overly critical of him here.
Day said all week the Buckeyes just needed to do enough to win the game. That’s what they did.
Ohio State now has two nonconference games in which it will be a heavy favorite against Grambling and Ohio to iron out its identity on offense and let Sayin throw the ball around. I expect the playbook will open up a lot more next week and it’ll be the first time we see what this offense is intended to be.
Things do need to get cleaned up everywhere, from the running game to the acclaimed playmakers on the outside needing to catch the ball. Three drops, two by Smith, is a rare sight.
But by the time Ohio State makes the trip to Washington on Sept. 27, we should see a much different offense and we’ll have a bigger sample size to know what this offense will look like under Hartline.
Keep an eye on tight end usage
The Buckeyes played five tight ends on Saturday, all in a variety of roles: Purdue transfer Klare, true freshman Nate Roberts, Jelani Thurman, Bennett Christian and Will Kacmarek. As we look for the running game to expand, the continued use of them in motion almost as pulling guards will be interesting. More than that, I think we saw the beginnings of how versatile this tight end group can be.
Klare will get a lot of the love because of his pass-catching ability, but on Carnell Tate’s touchdown, Kacmarek was asked to block Simmons one-on-one and held up. Roberts was asked to play fullback on Donaldson’s touchdown and followed Christian, who came in motion as an extra lead blocker, springing Donaldson into the end zone.
Expect to see a lot more of this group going forward after Saturday’s strong showing.
Was the defense underestimated?
It was early in preseason camp when I began to think that this defense was going to be better than people expected. As camp went on, I began to hear more and more about the high potential.
Sometimes it can be hard to decipher what’s coach speak and what’s real, but by the end of camp I thought, “OK, this defense is going to be really good.”
The defensive line did a really good job against Texas. Caden Curry was everywhere, and he reminds me of Jack Sawyer because of his relentless motor. Beau Atkinson, Kayden McDonald, Tyleik Williams, Kenyatta Jackson and C.J. Hicks were very disruptive on Saturday too. They didn’t get a ton of immediate pressure, but they moved well, stopped the run and kept Manning in the pocket.
The linebackers are stars, and the secondary could be the best in the nation. Downs is the best defender, period, and Patricia is using him to his full versatile potential. Igbinosun and Mathews were great, and safety Jaylen McClain played well too with eight tackles and no big plays allowed. I was really impressed with Lorenzo Styles Jr., who replaced Jordan Hancock in the slot. Styles played some safety, as well, just like Hancock. I look at Styles as one of the X-factors of this defense. If he continues to improve and can limit explosive plays, he’s going to give Patricia so much more freedom with Downs.
I’m not ready to call this the best defense in the country — what LSU did to Clemson on Saturday night was extremely impressive — but the defense can shoulder the load for a Playoff contender as the offense finds its footing.
Speaking of the Playoff: According to The Athletic’s projections model, the Buckeyes’ national-best odds to make the bracket improved from 82 percent to 91 percent after Saturday. That’s 15 percentage points higher than second-best Penn State.
Remember when Day couldn’t win the big one?
Ohio State has won seven consecutive games against AP top-10 teams since losing to Oregon last October. It beat No. 3 Penn State in State College last November, then beat No. 5 Indiana at home before its Playoff run against No. 7 Tennessee, No. 1 Oregon, No. 4 Texas and finally No. 3 Notre Dame in the title game. The Buckeyes have now started this season with a win over No. 1 Texas.
What a turnaround this has been for Day, who has flipped the narrative that he can’t win the “big game.” Day has a 17-8 record against AP top-10 teams as head coach.
I understand he still needs to beat Michigan, but this was a coach who was criticized nationally after every loss because he couldn’t get it done in the biggest moments. Now, not only did he go on the title run, but he then regrouped with a roster that lost 14 NFL Draft picks, including eight defensive starters, and beat top-ranked Texas at home.
As impressive as the national championship was, that team was the most talented team in the country last season. To put this team together, after the attrition it saw in the offseason, and be ready for a Texas team many thought would win the national championship was impressive.
It’s impossible to argue that Day isn’t one of the best coaches in the country. In fact, if the list of coaches ahead of him was only Georgia’s Kirby Smart, I don’t think I’d disagree.
(Top photo: Joseph Maiorana / Imagn Images)
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