Texas beats No. 1 Ohio State 24-23 after a 20-point fourth quarter

No. 4 Texas beat No. 1 Ohio State 24-23 on Saturday night in Austin after trailing 23-3 heading into the fourth quarter. Hollywood Smothers ran in from the 1-yard line with 25 seconds left. Gianni Spetic hit the extra point. Sportradar said the 20-point final-period rally was the largest fourth-quarter comeback to win against an AP No. 1 team.

Arch Manning finished 23 of 37 for 196 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He had 60 passing yards at half-time. In the fourth quarter he completed 8 of 11 for 79 yards. On the last drive he was 4 of 5 for 48 yards over 12 plays and 73 yards after Connor Hawkins missed a 45-yard field goal with 4:16 remaining.

The first Texas score of the rally was Manning's touchdown pass to Ryan Wingo early in the fourth. Smothers, who ran for 74 yards, then scored from a yard out with 7:14 left to make it 23-17. Ohio State drove into field-goal range. Hawkins, who had already made three kicks, missed from 45. Manning told reporters he knew it was Texas's time when the kick went wide.

On the winning series he hit Emmett Mosley V for 17 yards in the flat, added short completions to Mosley and to Winston, then found Mosley on a 19-yard slant. Smothers finished it. Steve Sarkisian, the Texas head coach, said Manning's grit started the comeback. Manning called the start of the game weird and said the locker room could have let the night go.

Ohio State is 1-1. Texas is 2-0 and will play Texas-San Antonio next Saturday. The Longhorns had not beaten a top-ranked team at home in 76 years. They had not produced a fourth quarter like this against a No. 1 in the poll era.

The numbers that will travel into the playoff debate are not Manning's raw line. One hundred and ninety-six yards and a pick do not win a Heisman argument on their own. The number that will travel is 20, the points Texas scored after the Buckeyes had the game in hand, and 25, the seconds that remained when Smothers crossed the line.

Hawkins's miss is the other number. A make from 45 would have put Ohio State up two scores with four minutes left. The miss left a tired defence on the field against a quarterback who had just found a rhythm. Texas converted two of three fourth downs in the rally. One of them was a fourth-and-6 cross-body throw to Mosley that set up Smothers's first touchdown.

College football seasons turn on September nights that look settled at the end of the third quarter. This one looked settled at 23-3. The Buckeyes had controlled the line and the clock. Then three Texas possessions in a row went the length of the field, and a field-goal attempt that should have ended the argument did not.

Sarkisian has now beaten a No. 1 at home. Manning has a tape he can point to when the next deficit appears. Ohio State has a missed kick and a fourth-quarter defence that could not get off the field. Those three facts will sit in the rankings conversation on Sunday and in the playoff files in December.

The open question is whether Texas can play a full game at the level of those last 15 minutes. Saturday did not answer that. It only proved that when the game reached the last quarter, Manning and Smothers still had a way to finish it.