Colin Cowherd, Joel Klatt weigh whether Week 1 is bigger for Texas or Ohio State
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Joel Klatt and Colin Cowherd discussed Texas and Ohio State’s huge Week 1 contest on “The Herd”.
It’s a rematch of January’s College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl, and while Ohio State will be looking to start its title defense on the right foot, Texas hopes that Arch Manning can help bring home the program’s first championship since 2005.
Cowherd remarked that Steve Sarkisian “is this year’s Ryan Day”, referencing the fact that Day faced major criticism from Buckeyes fans for failing to win a championship before eventually doing so — despite losing four straight times to Michigan.
“If they lose at Columbus, that next loss with Arch Manning, Sark’s getting heat. And my take is the game is much bigger for Texas than it is for Ohio State,” Cowherd said. “I don’t think Michigan will be as strong without Harbaugh as they were before. I think Oregon now is the program Ohio State will have to annually really look at. So my take is, there’s actually a little pressure on Sark to win this game with Arch Manning.”
Klatt noted that while Texas has come up empty in back-to-back semifinals, that’s far better than where it was during the latter stages of Mack Brown’s tenure and during Charlie Strong and Tom Herman’s stints in Austin, likening it to when Jim Harbaugh restored Michigan to prominence.
“Michigan understood what happened the 10 years prior to the last four years when they were able to beat Ohio State and win a national championship a couple of years ago, so their fan base is not quite as on the edge of their seat as maybe they would have been prior,” he said.
“Texas fans remember what the desert was like … They (were) churning through coaches. And now all of a sudden, they have solid footing. They find themselves where they are a preeminent program, not only in the sport, but in the SEC, they know that Sark can do it.”
The result of the game shouldn’t have much immediate bearing on either team’s Playoff hopes, Klatt added.
“The Playoff is not going to care who wins that game. That’ll be determined through the regular season and conference play and getting into the Playoff. And we’ll look at that game more for seeding purposes than we will access purposes,” he said.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
