On Friday, the Texas Longhorns are going to face off against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the College Football Playoff semifinals.
Last week, Ohio State sailed past top-ranked Oregon while Texas just eked by Arizona State in a game that went into double overtime. This is one of the big reasons why headed into this week, the Buckeyes are favored to come out on top in the Cotton Bowl.
Austin American-Statesman reporter Danny Davis covers college football and joined the Standard to discuss the Longhorns’s chances. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Oregon was unbeaten, but they didn’t have the same challenging schedule as some teams. Do you think it’s fair that Ohio State is so favored in this game?
Danny Davis: I mean, I’m not a Vegas oddsmaker. I don’t know all the stuff that goes into that. But obviously Ohio State, just the way they played this playoff, I mean, I think it’s fair that they’re favorites.
I don’t know if they deserve to be five and a half-point favorites, but I mean, they’ve been playing really well and Texas has had some struggles. So I can see why there’s some doubts about the Longhorns.
But, you know, if you’ve watched the Texas game or when you watch some of these other upsets, I mean, it doesn’t really matter what Vegas says. It matters what happens on the field. So Texas has its chance to prove itself and Ohio State will have the chance to prove it deserves to be favored like that.
And hopefully, if you put money on this game, you picked correctly.
Well, the other factor here is, as you mentioned, sort of the home field advantage. The game is going to be played in Arlington. You’re in the Dallas area right now. I know you said you see snow out your window now. Any idea whether this is a factor game organizers are paying attention to?
I mean, the Cotton Bowl on Tuesday, I believe it was, released a statement saying that the game’s going to happen – that they’re consulting with your local authorities about making sure the roads are clear and that it’s safe for people to drive, but they’re not planning on canceling the game.
But granted, if it continues snowing and all of a sudden there’s three feet of snow outside and people can’t drive and, most importantly, the teams can’t get to the stadium, maybe there’ll be a postponement. But they’re expecting to play and we’ll just sort of see what happens.
Well, we talked just a little bit about Texas versus Arizona State. But let’s take a look further back at this season for Texas.
Only other loss was, I guess they would say, twice to Georgia, which isn’t any longer a factor. What do you see in this Texas team as they’re heading into this semifinal?
I mean, they’re a Texas team that has had some really big highs this season – obviously beating Michigan, killing OU. You know, that Arizona State game was probably closer than people wanted it to.
I think everything’s going right for Texas and everyone’s playing up to their standard. I don’t think many teams can beat them, but unfortunately, that consistency has not been consistent for this Texas team. So they can definitely lose to anyone.
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I mean, do you think this is a tougher matchup for Texas than maybe it would be if they were on the other side of the bracket and had Notre Dame or Penn State and more running teams?
I think at this point, all four teams that are still alive can win a national championship. I don’t think any team is significantly better than the other.
Obviously teams have better strengths than others. But I mean, I think if you had a team that was really good at running the ball, they’d figure out a way to scheme to get some yards.
The defensive coordinator, Pete Kwiatkowski, was talking yesterday at the media availability about why in the last two playoff games, Texas has given up its most passing yards this season. And you know, the stats are worse than the regular season. He just straight up told the reporter “we’re playing better teams.”
Like these teams are playing are better than we’ve seen this season and regardless who they are playing, it’ll be a close game. It’ll be a challenge. And I don’t think whatever side of the bracket they’re on, they would have had to go through Ohio State at some point anyway. So might as well do it in the semifinals.
Well, maybe the fact that they’ve been playing better teams, but we haven’t seen as much Arch Manning as we did earlier in the season where he would come on. And of course there was the injury and starting quarterback Quinn Ewers.
What are your thoughts on whether he could see the field at all this week?
You know, if Arch sees the field, one of three things happened: either something went very, very wrong for Texas. Either something went very, very right and it’s a 30-point blowout and they’re just giving Arch a little playing time.
Or probably the best option is, you know, they have a couple of these short yardage situations which they ran him against A&M and a little bit in the second Georgia game. And he comes in, you know, to give them a running option in some short yardage situation.
But, I mean, this is Quinn’s team. Arch is not going to play significant minutes unless there’s an injury or Quinn just doesn’t have it, which is not a situation that Texas wants to be in. But, you know, this is Quinn’s team and Arch’s time is next season.
Well, I know you said aren’t placing the odds. But if you were a betting man, what do you think? Who’s going to win this game?
I mean, I picked Texas, but I also picked Oregon when the entire thing happened so my picks aren’t worth anything.
