The Ohio State Buckeyes kicked off their 2025 season with a huge non-conference matchup against the Texas Longhorns Saturday in a rematch of the 2024 Collage Football Playoff semifinal.the Longhorns entered the game ranked atop the polls, adn with the Buckeyes ranked third.
It was the marquee matchup of the weekend, with two inexperienced but highly touted quarterbacks leading their team into the game. the defenses were the story, especially Ohio State’s, which took its bend-but-don’t-break approach to new extremes, stopping multiple fourth downs and leading the team to victory.
Despite the high of beating the nation’s No. 1 team, there were plenty of aggravating moments in the game, and that’s why we’re here – to accentuate the negative, even when things go pretty much according to plan.
Here are some of the things that had me reacting like a mid-1980s kid tasting New Coke for the first time.
In the year of our Lord 2025, there is no reason a game between teams from two conferences should include an officiating crew from either conference.
The entire nation is playing non-conference games. While this may be standard practice, the idea should not be to negate a team’s home-field advantage. That’s part of sports.
Most of these kinds of games are home-and-home matchups across two seasons. The correct move is to avoid any appearance of bias by bringing in officials from a conference without a dog in the fight.
There were some (not many, but some) questionable calls in the game – most notably an obvious pass interference committed against Jeremiah Smith and a different request of the ground helping a player make a catch between the two teams. There was also obvious pass interference on Carnell Tate’s touchdown catch, and although I was watching it on TV andIt was likely to protect Sayin and limit mistakes, the approach was reminiscent of some of the uncharacteristically conservative play calling that has been costly in The Game in the Day era.
There were few shots down the field, and while field position there’s no doubt whatsoever played a role in that, it became clear early on that the running game is a work in progress. C.J. Donaldson looked good at finding whatever yards were there to be had,but James Peoples did not hit holes quickly and confidently – when there were holes.
The offensive line played OK, but there were no real gash plays in the run game.Other teams will see that on film, so the staff will have to work on that part of the offense.
It’s OK for me to cop to having some bias here. After all, this is an Ohio State blog. But it seemed that Texas got much more leniency at the end of runs than the Buckeyes.
There was one play in particular when Arch Manning was forced out of bounds seemingly short of the sticks but was given a generous spot, and it was never reviewed. Other times,the ball seemed to be spotted at the end of where a Longhorns runner or receiver skidded to a stop rather than where the ball was when they were ruled down.
It was ultimately not a factor, but it was a bit infuriating three or four times in the game.
The offense started at its own 20 with 7:56 to play and a 14-0 lead after good coverage by Davison Igbinosun helped stop a fourth-down play. Two runs from Donaldson gave the Bucks a rapid first down. But with Ohio State trying to run clock in the game’s later stages, Luke Montgomery committed a holding penalty, putting the buckeyes behind the chains on a play that netted Peoples just three yards.