This is an unusual situation in that this will be Texas' second consecutive game against Ohio State. Ohio State had the NC against Notre Dame in between.
The two teams have four prior meetings with each team winning in the other team's stadium in 2005/6 and a split of postseason games with Texas beating Ohio State 24-21 in the 2009 (2008 season) Fiesta Bowl and Ohio State beating Texas in the 2024 CFP Semi-Final at the Cotton Bowl in January. All four games have been relatively big with the 2005 and 2006 games directly impacting BCSNCG participation, the Fiesta Bowl being essentially for #3, and the CFP Semi-final (sorry ND fans) being effectively for the NC. The winners of the 2005 (TX) and 2024 (tOSU) games won that year's NC. Here is a look back at the four previous games in this series:
Saturday, September 10, 2005 #4 Ohio State 22 hosted #2 Texas 25 in Columbus. Both teams had won the previous week against mid-major opponents. Texas' win kept them at #2 and they remained there all year up until ascending to #1 after beating the Trojans in the BCSNCG/Rose Bowl. Texas' three point win in Columbus was easily their closest game of the regular season and it was a doozy of a game. Texas scored the first 10 points then Ohio State stormed back to take a 16-10 lead. Texas kicked a FG as the first half ended to make it 16-13 in favor of Ohio State at the break.
The third quarter turned out to be a FG contest with tOSU winning 2-1. Thus, the Buckeyes were clinging to a 22-16 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Texas scored a TD with just over two-and-a-half minutes remaining to take a one point lead and sacked Ohio State's QB for a safety during Ohio State's desperate final attempt to arrive at the 25-22 final score.
Key plays/series:
After Ohio State kicked a FG with less than a minute remaining in the first half to take a 16-10 lead, Vince Young drove the Longhorns 34 yards in 00:31 to get Texas in range for a FG to cut the lead to 3 rather than 6 at the break. Given how the rest of the game played out, this was HUGE.
The Buckeyes had a six point lead and got a first down at the Texas 29 yard line with about six-and-a-half minutes to play. A FG would have made it a two-score game and likely ended it in favor of the Ohio State. The Bucks ran for no gain on 1st and 10 then threw a pass on second down. The pass was deflected at the line and caught in the backfield by the tOSU RB for a loss of a yard. On 3rd and 11 the Buckeyes attempted a pass to pick up the first down. I think Jim Tressel probably still has nightmares about that series. The 50 yard FG attempt on 4th and 11 barely missed. It was SOCLOSE that if the 2nd down pass had simply fallen incomplete or if Ohio State had run for a yard or two on 3rd down, the FG probably would have been good and Ohio State would have had a 9-point, two-score lead at 25-16 with just five minutes remaining.
Saturday, September 9, 2006 #2 Texas 7 hosted #1 Ohio State 24. Just like in 2005 both teams had defeated mid-major opponents the previous week. This time the game was not just top-4 but a 1vs2 GOTC showdown although Ohio State ended up playing three 1v2 GOTC games that year.
This was by far the least competitive of the four games in this series but even this one was a pretty good game. The key play/series was that after Texas tied the game late in the 2nd quarter with a TD, Troy Smith led Ohio State on a 5 play, 66 yard drive in less than two minutes to give Ohio State a 14-7 lead that they would never relinquish.
Monday, January 5, 2009 #3 Texas 24, #10 Ohio State 21 in the Fiesta Bowl. This was a back-and-forth sturggle until the final seconds. Ohio State led 6-3 at the break but Texas scored two 3rd Quarter TD's to take a 17-6 lead into the 4th quarter. Ohio State kicked a FG early in the 4th Quarter to cut the lead to 8 and 17-9. Then Ohio State scored a TD midway through the 4th quarter to pull within two at 17-15 but couldn't get the 2pt conversion. Ohio State scored another TD and failed on another 2pt conversion to make it 21-17 Buckeyes with 2 minutes to go but Texas scored a TD in the final seconds for the 24-21 win.
Everyone here will remember the CFP semi-final from eight months ago in which a sack/strip/scoop/score by Jack Sawyer turned what looked like it was about to be a 21-21 tie late into a 28-14 Ohio State win.
