All eyes will be on Texas and Ohio State to kick off the 2025 college football season. The Longhorns and Buckeyes enter this year expected to be two of the country’s top teams, coming in at No. 1 and No. 3 in the preseason AP poll, respectively. It’s also a rematch of a 2024 College […]
All eyes will be on Texas and Ohio State to kick off the 2025 college football season. The Longhorns and Buckeyes enter this year expected to be two of the country’s top teams, coming in at No. 1 and No. 3 in the preseason AP poll, respectively.
It’s also a rematch of a 2024 College Football Playoff semifinal game, which Ohio State won before going on to claim the national championship. But as college football analyst Josh Pate pointed out, these teams look a lot different than they did a year ago.
Both the Buckeyes and Longhorns have new players across their roster, albeit highly rated ones. Pate spoke on his latest episode of Josh Pate’s College Football Show about how that will impact Saturday’s matchup.
“I know a lot of times in preview magazine culture, you can sort of get lost in the sauce, so to speak, and you can think all returning starters are created equal and all new starters are created equal,” he said. “All I can tell you is, watch warm ups. I know most of you don’t have access to practice, but if you could go watch these teams practice, you’d look at Texas’ guys, you’d look at Ohio State’s guys, and you’d say, ‘Who’s that?’ And they’d say, ‘Oh, that’s a new starter.’ And the reason you asked who’s that is because he looks like a second, third-year NFL guy. They’re everywhere.
“So not all new starters are created equal, which means a game like this with this blend of raw talent and this blend of uncertainty means you could have any outcome imaginable. It could be 21-19 either way. It could be 38-20 either way. There is probably no result outside of like, 50-10, that would shock me in this game.”
One of the key areas where Texas feels like it improved in the offseason is on the interior defensive line. The Longhorns added transfers Cole Brevard, Maraad Watson and others who are expected to step in and make an impact right away.
However, Pate acknowledged that area is still an unknown despite the talent on paper. He argued that Ohio State should challenge Texas early by looking to establish the run, while also acknowledging the Buckeyes have new faces in the backfield as well.
“I think Ohio State needs to find out, though,” he said. “There’s gonna be a lot of talk about Arch Manning here. A lot of talk about Jeremiah Smith, Caleb Downs. There should be. But fundamentally, the key to this game is Ohio State’s gotta find out. What they gotta find out is, did Texas really rebuild the interior of that defensive line like everyone says they did? Because you can talk in spring. You can talk in fall camp. But what happens if you run it between the tackles and you’re running it for six-and-a-half, seven yards per carry in the first quarter and midway through the second quarter?
“You start to realize, ‘Wow, the easiest way to ease Julian Sayin into a season is second-and-three after second-and-three after second-and-three.’ That’s really favorable to ease a new quarterback into a season. Now, I say that and you need to understand, yes, we’ve got two Ohio State tailbacks that departed to the NFL as well. So (James) Peoples and (CJ) Donaldson, we don’t know what we’re gonna get from them. I can tell you that staff thinks a lot of them. But Florida State thought a lot of its players last year and they were dead in the water. I don’t think that’s gonna be Ohio State this year, but the point is, you don’t know. You don’t know until live bullets start flying and it’s those guys’ turn. Well, it’s their turn now. Just like on the other side of the ball. It’s Texas’ interior defensive line, it’s their turn now.”
Both Texas and Ohio State will also have new quarterbacks and a host of new weapons at receiver. That will likely steal most of the headlines going into the game with Arch Manning and Julian Sayin both entering the year with high expectations.
“It’ll be the question on most people’s minds. It’s the quarterback question,” Pate said. But the way I think about the quarterback matchup here is I think about the QB1/WR1 pairings. So I’ve got Julian Sayin and I’ve got Jeremiah Smith, who’s the best player in America to me. I got Arch Manning and I got Ryan Wingo, who doesn’t take a backseat to many besides this dude at Ohio State. Is there a huge gap between those? If that’s a wash, shouldn’t I expect Ohio State to own this side of the matchup card?
“Because I look at Ohio State beyond Jeremiah Smith, and I’ve got Tate, I’ve got Ennis and I’ve got Klare, the tight end transfer from Purdue. They’ve got pass catchers there that you won’t even hear about this Saturday that would start many places that are expected to compete for playoff spots. …But this is Texas. It’s Steve Sarkisian. So they grow those guys on trees there to the point where one way this game could get crooked in a way that I don’t expect it is — Arch has already got 275 passing yards late in the third quarter and I’ve got three or four different guys with 60-plus on the board. That’s the kind of thing that could happen. It’s a variable.”
One thing that won’t change, however is the head coaches on both sides of the ball. Steve Sarkisian returns to lead Texas while Ryan Day is on the sidelines for Ohio State.
However, the Buckeyes will have new coordinators on both sides of the ball. Pate believes that could ultimately be the difference, predicting Texas to win.
“For all the respect I have for Matt Patricia, he hasn’t done this,” he said. “For all the respect I have for Brian Hartline, he hasn’t done this. Texas has got one of the best staffs in the country and they’ve got continuity on that staff and I trust them to go on the road here. I actually don’t have a ton of trust in anything in this game, but I’m gonna lean Texas to win the game outright Saturday. I think Sark needs the game more, by the way. I just envision a world where Texas goes in there and wins. That’s all right. Ohio State just won a national title. Lick your wounds, regroup. You may see them again down the road.
“…Nothing would be ruined for Texas either, but here’s the difference, If they go in and lose this game, they’ve still got the rest of their season to play but it becomes this little bullet in the chamber and it’s still in the holster. You’re not ready to fire on anyone yet, but you start to get yourself ready to say, if he loses another game in the regular season, ‘now hold on a second. You got beat by (Kalen) DeBoer in the playoff and then you had two shots against Kirby (Smart) last year and you went 0-2 there. We lost to Ryan Day in the playoff last year and now we got another shot at him. That should’ve been the revenge game. They’ve got everything new up there, new coaches, and we couldn’t get the job done against them? We’re having trouble against big-time coaches.’ They start questioning Steve Sarkisian. I think Sark needs the game more.”
Category: General Sports
