By The Numbers: Texas And The Cotton Bowl

Another big game means another edition of By the Numbers.

Over the last couple of days and leading up to kickoff, I have thrown a lot of numbers at you either in Tale of the Tape or the In Order to Win series.

Sometimes when you go digging for numbers, you find an interesting snippet and just don’t know where to put it within the confines of a story.

That is the case with the By the Numbers series, as I have a few numbers, some that may not come as a surprise and others that may create more questions.

We know that Ohio State and Texas have met three times over the course of history, with the first taking place in 2005. We also know that Ohio State and Texas will start a home-and-home series starting the 2025 season.

It is safe to say that this game has bigger implications than any of the previous meetings, with a spot in the championship game on the line while the loser of this game has months and months to get ready for the other team with no more games to play, outside of a spring game.

Let’s get to the numbers.

0.5 – While it is a small number on its own, it is significant in context. What is the context? Ohio State is allowing 0.5 less yards per carry with its run defense. How many drives have we seen come up a half yard short over the course of a season? It’s a lot, let me tell you. Ohio State is allowing just 2.7 YPC to 3.2 by the Horns. Texas has had 518 rushing attempts against it in one more game than the Buckeyes and their 476 attempts faced. Ohio State is No. 5 against the run where Texas is No. 13 against the run. Arizona State would have liked to have a half yard at a point or two in its game against the Horns. Will this make a difference in this game? Only time will tell.

1 – That is the number of previous appearances for the Texas Longhorns in the College Football Playoff since its inception for the start of the 2014 season. Texas came into this 12-team run with an 0-1 record, a loss to Washington in 2023. Wins against Clemson and Arizona State have improved the Texas record significantly. This is Ohio State’s 6^th trip to the CFP with a national title in 2014 and a championship game appearance in 2020. Ohio State is 5-4 going into the Texas game at the Cotton Bowl.

2.2 and 2.4 – How close are these teams? These numbers should show you how close they are in terms of scoring. Ohio State holds and edge both in points scored per game and points allowed per game, but it is small. Ohio State’s edge is just 2.2 on the offensive side and 2.4 on the defensive side. Now, with unequal non-conference games, with one team playing in a championship game and the other not, with differences in conferences all together, there is no real way of quantifying anything with these numbers, but before anyone goes and tells you that there are dramatic differences with these teams from a blind numerical standpoint, remember these numbers.

7.7 – This is the average margin of victory between these two teams in the three games played before. Two of the three games were decided by a field goal while the outlier was the 2025 game, played in Austin (Texas). Ohio State went on to win that one 24-7, and that is the only game between these two teams that has been played in the Lone Star State. I only include this to show that blowouts are not the norm, but then again, Ohio State was 0-1 against Tennessee before a couple of weeks ago and Ohio State was on a two-game losing streak to Oregon before a couple of weeks ago.

23 – This marks Texas’ 23^rd appearance in the Cotton Bowl, most of that largely due to inclusion in the Southwest Conference and the Big 12. Texas is just 11-10-1 in its first 22 trips to the game. Texas has not played in this game in over 20 years, the last trip was January of 2003, a 35-20 win over LSU. Ohio State has appeared in this game twice more recently than Texas. The Buckeyes are making their 4^th trip to this game and Ohio State is 2-1 and won the first CFP championship in AT&T Stadium, but that game does not fall under the Cotton Bowl umbrella.

30 – Texas holds an advantage of 30 penalties called on its opponents over Ohio State. Yes, we know that nobody gets called for offensive holding against Ohio State in spite of the fact that there are obvious holds against Ohio State. We are not here to feed that narrative. Okay, maybe a little. Texas opponents have been flagged for 81 accepted penalties, while Ohio State opponents have been flagged for 51 accepted penalties. Not sure if Texas had an opponent ejected for spitting on a player, but that one was an easy call. Almost as easy as…

43 – This is the total number of points that Ohio State has outscored Texas by overall in just raw scoring. This is all games, all quarters, all overtimes. Yes, Texas has played one more game, so that does add to the math between the two teams in the scoring average. Texas is most dangerous in the 2^nd quarter, where it scored 175 points (and allowed 51 points) while Ohio State also has put up the most points in the 2^nd quarter, scoring 170 points (and allowing 71). Ohio State’s most dangerous quarter has been the third, where Ohio State is outscoring foes by 140 points. The second quarter for Texas holds the same designation with a 124-point discrepancy.

2009 – We are just do a little history lesson for our final entry. 2009 was the first year that the Big 12 held its conference championship game in AT&T Stadium, the home of the modern Cotton Bowl (not the actual Cotton Bowl facility). The game was between Texas and Nebraska and the Horns won that game 13-12. The irony is now that neither team is part of the Big 12 with Texas off to the SEC and Nebraska to the Big Ten.

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