Comparing Ohio State vs. Texas at Every Position

Ohio State and Texas’ rosters are both loaded with elite players, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, where the Buckeyes lead the nation in points and yards allowed per game this season while the Longhorns rank fourth and third in those respective categories. There’s also no shortage of star power on the offensive side of the ball. Emerging face of the sport Jeremiah Smith leads an Ohio State offense that’s been extremely explosive in its first two CFP games while Texas’ offense is led by a former No. 1 overall recruit at quarterback (Quinn Ewers) and the Outland Trophy winner at left tackle (Kelvin Banks Jr.)

ESPN NFL draft analyst Matt Miller summed up the talent in the game well on Tuesday, stating that there are a combined 21 players between the two teams he grades to be selected in the first three rounds of the 2025 NFL draft – and that doesn’t even include some of the biggest stars on each team like Smith, Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, Texas linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. and Texas edge rusher Colin Simmons, who aren’t draft-eligible yet.

Ohio State vs. Texas has 21 (!!!) players ranked in my top three rounds.

Ohio State - 11
Texas - 10

— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) January 7, 2025

With that in mind, we’re taking a side-by-side look at how Ohio State and Texas compare with one another at each position group on offense or defense. While a valid argument could be made for both sides as to which team has the better unit at most positions, we make our call for which team has the edge at each position and put together what a composite starting lineup could look like if the two rosters were combined.

Quarterback

We’ll start with the comparison that’ll get the most attention during Friday night’s game. Had Quinn Ewers chosen to stay at Ohio State, he’d likely be the quarterback leading the Buckeyes’ offense right now. Instead, he’s now in his third year as Texas’ quarterback after transferring from Ohio State to Texas in 2021, leading to Kyle McCord replacing C.J. Stroud as Ohio State’s quarterback last season and Will Howard replacing McCord as OSU’s quarterback this season.

Ewers has elite arm talent and will likely be a higher NFL draft pick than Howard because of his upside as a passer, but Howard has been the better quarterback this season. While Howard is on pace to break Ohio State’s completion percentage record with a 72.6 completion rate this season and has thrown for 3,490 yards (9.5 yards per attempt) and 32 touchdowns with only nine interceptions, Ewers’ efficiency has dropped from 2023 to 2024 as he’s completed 66.5% of his passes for 3,189 yards (7.9 yards per attempt) and 29 touchdowns with 11 interceptions. Howard also offers more playmaking ability with his legs than Ewers, as Howard has rushed for 165 net yards and seven touchdowns this season while Ewers has taken a net loss of 64 rushing yards (including 27 sacks to Howard’s 10) with two touchdown runs.

One could argue that Ewers would have been better off staying at Ohio State, where he’d have the luxury of throwing to Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka, but would the Buckeyes be better off if he had stayed? As well as Howard’s played so far in the CFP, throwing for more than 300 yards against both Tennessee and Oregon, I’d ride with the quarterback Ohio State has right now, though there’s certainly an argument to be made for both sides here.

Advantage: Ohio State

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Running Back

Ohio State and Texas both have excellent two-man tandems at running back, but the Buckeyes’ duo has been the more efficient pair between them. TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins have combined for 1,849 yards and 20 touchdowns on 300 carries this season while Texas’ Quintrevion Wisner and Jaydon Blue for 1,732 yards and 13 touchdowns on 339 carries.

Given the choice of just one running back from that quartet, I’d take Henderson, one of the nation’s most explosive playmakers at the position with 1,134 yards from scrimmage on just 152 combined rushes and receptions (7.46 yards per touch) this season. The choice between the other three running backs would be closer, but Judkins is coming off a strong showing against Oregon and there still isn’t any RB tandem in college football that I’d rather have than Henderson and Judkins.

Advantage: Ohio State

Wide Receiver

As has been the case every time we’ve done these comparisons before big games this season, wide receiver is one of the easiest positions to pick which side has the advantage.

Texas has a good receiving corps with plenty of dangerous weapons including Matthew Golden (58 catches, 936 yards, 9 TD), Isaiah Bond (33 catches, 532 yards, 5 TD), Ryan Wingo (28 catches, 450 yards, 2 TD) and DeAndre Moore Jr. (35 catches, 425 yards, 4 TD). 

But none of those players are Jeremiah Smith, who’s already asserted himself as the best receiver in college football as a true freshman, catching 70 passes for 1,224 yards and 14 touchdowns. Emeka Egbuka (70 catches for 896 yards and 10 touchdowns) would be selected second in a draft of receivers between the two teams, and Carnell Tate would probably be the No. 2 if not the No. 1 receiver for Texas rather than the No. 3 receiver at Ohio State.

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Texas’ receiver group will be one of the best and deepest Ohio State has faced this season, but it’s still not on the same level as Brian Hartline’s elite group of stars.

Advantage: Ohio State

Tight End

Gee Scott Jr. and Will Kacmarek have stepped up their games to play key roles for Ohio State in its first two College Football Playoff games, but neither of them is the caliber of receiving weapon at the position that Texas has in Gunnar Helm, who ranks sixth among all FBS tight ends with 744 receiving yards this season, having also scored seven touchdowns on 58 catches. Ohio State’s entire tight end unit, by comparison, has combined for 34 catches for 393 yards and four touchdowns this year.

Advantage: Texas

Offensive Line

Ohio State’s injury-plagued offensive line has risen to the occasion for strong showings in both pass protection and run blocking in the Buckeyes’ first two CFP games, but it’s still a patchwork group whose best healthy player (Donovan Jackson) is playing out of position at left tackle, albeit doing so very impressively.

Texas, on the other hand, has five starting offensive linemen who have all started at least 14 games this season, led by the nation’s best left tackle in Kelvin Banks Jr., who won the Outland Trophy as college football’s top lineman. Hayden Conner, Jake Majors and DJ Campbell form a strong trio of blockers inside. The one major question mark for Texas’ offensive line is the health of right tackle Cameron Williams, who missed the Longhorns’ CFP quarterfinal win over Arizona State with a knee injury, but he participated in practice during Texas’ practice window that was open to media members on Sunday.

Texas’ offensive line is far from unbeatable, as evidenced by the 13 combined sacks it allowed in two games against Georgia and its three games – those two and its most recent game against Arizona State – in which Texas ran for fewer than two yards per carry. When it’s been at its best, however, it’s been one of the best offensive lines in the country, as evidenced by its selection as a Joe Moore Award finalist.

Advantage: Texas

Texas’ offensive line is led by Outland Trophy-winning left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. (Photo: Mark J. Rebilas – Imagn Images)

Defensive End/Edge

Freshman standout Colin Simmons – who infamously won the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award over Jeremiah Smith – leads a dynamic group of edge rushers for Texas that also includes Trey Moore, Barryn Sorrell and Ethan Burke. Together, those four Longhorns have combined for 42 tackles for loss and 22 sacks this season, so Ohio State’s offensive tackles will need to be at their best in the Cotton Bowl regardless of which edge defenders are in the game for Texas.

That said, no pair of edge defenders has been better through two rounds of the CFP than Ohio State’s Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau, who combined for 18 tackles, nine tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks and seven pass breakups in the Tennessee and Oregon games. Texas has gotten more production from its backups on the edge than Ohio State has, but there’s no tandem I’d rather have than JT and Jack with how well they’re playing right now.

Advantage: Ohio State

Defensive Tackle

Both Ohio State and Texas have soon-to-be early-round draft picks at defensive tackle with Tyleik Williams leading Ohio State’s interior defensive line and Alfred Collins leading the middle of the Longhorns’ trenches. They have strong running mates alongside them, too, with Vernon Broughton giving Texas a disruptive presence alongside Collins and Ty Hamilton giving the Buckeyes a stout nose tackle alongside Williams.

Picking which team has the better starting defensive tackles could go either way, but the Longhorns have utilized their depth more at the position, with Jermayne Lole and Bill Norton providing a quality tandem of backups inside. With Ohio State relying heavily on its starting tandem inside and its depth behind the starters remaining a question mark, Texas gets the slight edge for the advantage for the superior overall defensive tackle unit.

Advantage: Texas

Linebacker

While Cody Simon has evolved into an elite linebacker in his final season at Ohio State, Anthony Hill Jr. would be the first linebacker selected in a draft between these two teams. The sophomore middle linebacker has been a major difference-maker for the Longhorns, recording 107 total tackles with 16 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks, four forced fumbles and an interception this season.

Liona Lefau and David Gbenda have also both been productive while sharing playing time for the Longhorns, combining for 119 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, three sacks, two forced fumbles and an interception. Sonny Styles has been the third-most productive linebacker between the two teams individually and Arvell Reese has been impactful as a third linebacker for the Buckeyes, but Texas gets another slight nod here because of Hill leading the way. 

Advantage: Texas

Cornerback

Texas’ Jahdae Barron has been the best cornerback in all of college football this season, earning the Jim Thorpe Award in recognition of his dominant play in the Longhorns’ secondary as he’s allowed just 35 catches for 272 yards and zero touchdowns on 65 targets (per Pro Football Focus) while making 61 tackles, five interceptions and 11 pass breakups. Malik Muhammad and Jaylon Guilbeau have also provided quality coverage in the Longhorns’ secondary, leading the way for Texas to hold its opponents to an FBS-best 5.5 yards per passing attempt this season.

Ohio State has its own excellent trio of starting cornerbacks in Denzel Burke, Davison Igbinosun and Jordan Hancock, leading the way for the Buckeyes to lead the nation with 152.4 passing yards allowed per game. None of them have been quite the consistent game-changer Barron has been, though, giving Texas another slight edge in a close comparison between two excellent position groups.

Advantage: Texas

Jahdae Barron beat out Caleb Downs to win the Jim Thorpe Award as college football’s best defensive back. (Photo: Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

Safety

We finish the position-by-position comparison with what might be the most loaded position group of all in this matchup. Ohio State and Texas have the two best safety tandems in the country, with each of their two starters – Caleb Downs and Lathan Ransom for the Buckeyes, Michael Taaffe and Andrew Mukuba for the Longhorns – ranking among the nation’s 13 highest-graded safeties per PFF.

All four of them are major playmakers for their teams, but only one of them (Downs) was a unanimous All-American this season. Both Ransom and Taaffe earned second-team All-American honors from various media outlets while Mukuba has been a major playmaker for Texas with five interceptions this season, but the all-around excellence of Downs – widely considered to be college football’s best safety and arguably its best defensive player overall – gives the Buckeyes the crown for college football’s top safety pairing.

Advantage: Ohio State

Projected Composite Lineup