AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Hero Kanu has seen both sides of the Texas-Ohio State rivalry, in shades of scarlet and burnt orange.
Kanu was a Buckeye defensive tackle when Ohio State beat Texas in a 2024 season College Football Playoff semifinal on the way to the national championship.
Then he was a Longhorn when the Buckeyes beat Texas again in the 2025 season opener. That loss proved critical when the preseason No. 1 ultimately missed the playoffs.
So here he is again, awaiting another Texas-Ohio State matchup on Saturday night when the Buckeyes become the first No. 1 team to visit Austin since Alabama in 2022. Texas is No. 5.
“I’m not going to make this game personal,” Kanu said Monday. But he quickly acknowledged how big the game is for college football.
A Longhorns-Buckeyes matchup may seem routine of late, but it has been rare in the sport’s history. Ohio State has been playing college football since 1890, and Texas since 1893. Saturday will mark just the sixth meeting across that gulf of time.
“I think this is the game everybody is the country is looking forward to,” Kanu said. “This is a playoff-caliber type game.”
And one that Ohio State was better prepared to handle the last two years.
“They owned the moment better than we did last year,” Kanu said.
The big moments of both recent games certainly swung Ohio State’s way.
In 2024, Texas was driving for a tying touchdown late in the fourth quarter when Jack Sawyer sacked Quinn Ewers, scooped the fumble and ran 83 yards for the game-clinching TD. The play set off wild celebrations as Kanu and his teammates cheered Sawyer all the way down the sideline.
Last season’s matchup in Columbus left Kanu with nothing to cheer about. The Buckeyes won 14-7 and pushed the Longhorns around most of the day. Texas quarterback Arch Manning’s Heisman Trophy campaign all but ended, and Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin’s was just starting.
Kanu said he still has friends at Ohio State. But he made it clear there won’t be any friendly chatter this week.
“We don’t talk this week,” Kanu said. “We can chat after this week.”
Last season’s matchup hurt Texas more than just a battered ego. It was the first of three losses that ultimately kept Texas out of the playoffs despite a strong finish.
A win in Columbus last year could have changed a lot for Texas. Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian said he won’t try to project the impact of this week on the December playoffs.
“I don’t need to spend so much energy and time on ‘what does this game mean?’ As a competitor, we get to play the No. 1 team in the country, a team we’ve had two battles with the last two years,” Sarkisian said.
“We’ve got 10 other games to go play,” to determine the season’s ultimate destination, Sarkisian said.
