It was the biggest comeback for Texas in nearly 20 years, since coming back from down 21 against Oklahoma State in 2007. And it was the first time a team ranked #1 in the AP Poll had blown a 20-point fourth quarter lead since at least 2004. (I think that’s just when the stat cuts off: #1 USC went undefeated in 2004, without ever blowing a 20-point lead.)

Ohio State fans are going to slash the tires on Ryan Day’s car. (They hate that man.) The Buckeyes let Texas get up off the mat with weak bend-don’t-break defense, dropping most of their defenders into soft zones. That didn’t bother Texas, who took what Ohio State gave them on those long, methodical touchdown drives.

Ohio State faced perhaps the most obvious “let the offense score” scenario ever. Texas had first-and-goal at the 1 with about 75 seconds left. I think a lot of times, when people suggest letting the offense score, they’re just experiencing Madden brain — but in this case, it’s clear OSU made the wrong choice. To win on defense, the Buckeyes needed to make four consecutive stops at the line of scrimmage — very, very difficult! If they’d let Texas score, they could’ve won by driving about 40 yards in a minute with a timeout — totally doable!

Kicking for Ohio State might be a bigger Achilles’ heel than it was for Saban-era Alabama. Ohio State has lost nine games over the last four seasons. Remarkably, four have been games in which Ohio State missed a field goal and lost by three points or fewer. It lost the 2022 Peach Bowl when Noah Ruggles missed a last-second field goal as the clock hit midnight on New Year’s Eve; it lost 13-10 to Michigan in 2024 in a game when Jayden Fielding missed a field goal before halftime; it lost 13-10 to Indiana last year in a game when Fielding missed a game-tying chip shot with under three minutes remaining; and it lost Saturday night when Baylor transfer Connor Hawkins missed a kick with four minutes remaining that would have given OSU a two-score lead.

(Ohio State also missed field goals in last year’s 24-14 loss to Miami and its 30-24 loss to Michigan in 2023. Neither miss covered the margin of defeat, but the late-game situations could have looked a lot different if those kicks had gone through the uprights.)

Time for one of my trademark Lukewarm Takes: While Texas’ dramatic turnaround is a spectacular story, I don’t feel like the team actually flipped a switch — it was already playing pretty well in the first half, and just had some bad luck. In the first quarter, Manning threw one of the flukiest interceptions imaginable when the ball bounced out of Cam Coleman’s hands and directly to an Ohio State defender. That bounce turned a 50-yard pickup into a turnover. A few drives later, Manning threw another deep pass that hit Ryan Wingo in the hands in the end zone, but Wingo dropped it. The score could’ve been 23-17 instead of 23-3.

But when Texas needed the comeback, everything clicked. Manning was nails on back-to-back-to-back touchdown drives against one of the nation’s best defenses, picking up first downs with his feet, and converting on third and fourth downs time and again. Manning hasn’t always lived up to the ridiculous hype surrounding him, but he did last night.

The greatest treatise on conference scheduling in college football was delivered by John F. Kennedy during a speech at Rice Stadium in 1962, explaining why America was launching into the Space Race (emphasis mine): “Why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon ... and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

Kennedy was perhaps unfair to compare Rice playing Texas to the moon landing: It’s much harder for Rice to beat Texas than it is to fly to the moon. In the six-plus decades since Kennedy’s speech, crewed moon landings have succeeded in six of seven attempts; Rice is 2-45-1 against Texas in 48 games since that speech, with 16 consecutive losses since 1994.

He didn’t exactly consider things from the Longhorns’ side. Why do they play Rice? And why do they play Ohio State?

Because of nights like this, when a star QB leads an iconic comeback in front of 100,000 fans in his home stadium. Scheduling big games is worth the risk for a moment that will hook your fanbase for decades to come — moments you simply can’t generate playing Fartsville Tech. Hopefully, the biggest teams in college football will keep scheduling games like this — not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard.

Oklahoma State’s win made some bad-team-beating-a-good-team history. It was the first time in college football history that a team has snapped a 10-game losing streak by beating a top 10 opponent.

Of course, they had to dunk the goalposts into a pond on campus. Goalposts yearn for the water.

Things had gotten really, really, really bleak in Stillwater. The Cowboys went 1-11 last year, only beating FCS UT-Martin. They’ve gone winless in Big 12 play in back-to-back seasons. Their last win against a power conference team had been more than two years ago, in Week 2 of the 2024 season against Arkansas.

And then they hired Eric Morris.

Morris was the head coach at North Texas, which went 12-2 last year and probably would’ve played in the College Football Playoff if it had won the conference championship game against Tulane. The Mean Green led the nation in raw offensive stats (45.1 points per game) and advanced analytics (#1 in offensive SP+). Mestemaker led the nation in passing yardage; running back Caleb Hawkins led the nation in rushing touchdowns. Both followed Morris to Stillwater.

Morris’ record of QB scouting and development is unparalleled. Mestemaker was a 0-star recruit who did not actually play quarterback for his high school football team. Morris also found Cam Ward, also a 0-star recruit in high school before Morris recruited him to Incarnate Word. Morris was also high on Baker Mayfield (although he couldn’t actually get him to commit to Washington State) and worked with Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech. That’s three #1 picks, some of whom were basically unwanted as prospects. I’m so in on Morris, I actually made a video about his history of development when he got hired by Oklahoma State.

(In case you’re wondering … I’m taking a break from making videos because I think we’re really cooking something here with this newsletter. Maybe I’ll get back to it someday.)

Right now, Oregon’s Dante Moore is widely projected as the top pick in the 2027 NFL Draft. But Mestemaker is also getting draft hype. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s Morris’ fourth #1 overall pick.

The Oklahoma States of the world will never have as much money as the Oregons of the world. But what do you use that money for? Quarterbacks! And Oklahoma State has a guy who can spin those out of cobwebs and sawdust.

“Initially, I thought it was ridiculous,” said head coach Joe Moorhead. But by the time he got to his post-game press conference Saturday, he called it “a complete and utter stroke of genius.”

Akron repeatedly stated that the contest was truly random, and was being run by the school’s department of accounting. But I was a little bit nervous when they released a list of finalists for the guest OC role, which featured two people who clearly were not regular Akron season ticket holders: Barstool Big Cat, and Bordeaux, a college football YouTuber. Thankfully, the random draw selected a legit Akron season ticket holder.

The Zips didn’t just let Marty call whatever he wanted. (They had to protect against flea flicker/flea flicker/fake punt sequences.) Moorhead and his coaching staff met with Marty and explained to him what they’re trying to accomplish. Here’s a clip of Moorhead taking time out of his game prep to give Marty a crash course in coaching:

Marty’s big strategic decision appears to have been going no-huddle right out of the gate. Smart, honestly. You want to maximize possessions against a weaker opponent. However, the plan kinda backfired when Akron false-started after scrambling to the line on third-and-1.

Even as someone tuning into Akron-Robert Morris specifically to grade the playcalling of the random guy calling the first drive … I was a little bit surprised by how much Akron leaned into it. Whims led the Zips onto the field before the game, received a game ball in the locker room afterwards, and joined Moorhead for the post-game press conference.

Akron also apparently reached some sort of deal with Arby’s to sponsor Whims’ guest coaching appearance. He coached in Arby’s gear, and Arby’s fries and snacks were present during Whims’ meeting with Moorhead and post-game presser.

After Marty’s drive, Akron went touchdown-touchdown-touchdown on its next three possessions. OK, maybe Marty was holding back the team a little bit.

It’s hard to get people to pay attention to Akron football. Source: I went to an Akron game against its biggest rival, Kent State. The stands looked like this:

(I was in the Goodyear Blimp. Long story.)

Schools like Akron have it tough. They often take paychecks to play teams they’ll never beat — last year, they got $1.45 million to play Nebraska and lost, 68-0. They play games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in November. Those games get a few hundred thousand viewers who wouldn’t otherwise watch Akron in the midst of a full slate of Big Ten games on a college football Saturday. But nobody wants to spend three hours on cold metal bleachers at night in the winter in Ohio.

Compared to doing that stuff? This OC-for-a-day contest was incredible. Schools like Akron often have to do humiliating stuff to get money or attract attention. This contest generated money and attention … and cast Akron football in a positive light. It let everybody see how much preparation coach Moorhead and his staff do, and how successful the team’s offense can be.

It also shows that sometimes, no matter what you do, no matter how good your plan is, no matter how hard you prepare, something randomly goes wrong and you accomplish nothing. Eat Arby’s.