2005 Texas Vs. Ohio State Football Game - Prior To The Game

Prior To The Game

After they each won their home opener, Texas and Ohio State came into the game still ranked No. 2 and No. 4, respectively. According to observers such as USA Today, the match-up between the Longhorns and the OSU Buckeyes was one of the most-anticipated games of the 2005 season. Teams have become increasingly conservative in scheduling non-conference opponents of a high caliber, so a meeting of the number 2 and number 4 teams in the country is unusual this early in the season. Due to the high level of anticipation, ESPN chose the game for the location of its weekly College GameDay broadcast.

This meeting was also the first-ever match-up between the two storied programs; the two teams had combined to play 1,594 games before meeting. For Texas, it also meant playing a second Big Ten Conference powerhouse soon after winning the first-ever matchup between Texas and the University of Michigan at the end of the 2004 season.

The Buckeyes entered the game with an all-time record of 766–298–53 including an Ohio Stadium mark of 356–101–20. During the 115 years the school has played football, the Buckeyes had won seven national championships, the most recent being in 2002 when they finished with a perfect 14–0 record. Texas came into the game with an all-time record of 788–310–33 since 1893. The Longhorns victory total and victory percentage are both the third highest in the NCAA annals. The Longhorns had won three national championships, most recently in 1970. OSU ranked sixth all-time winning percentage and was tied with Alabama for fifth in terms of total victories.

Before the game, it had been uncertain who would play at quarterback for Ohio State. Justin Zwick had started for OSU in the 2004 season but three straight loses and an injury to Zwick gave Troy Smith a chance to start. However, an NCAA investigation found Smith took $500 from an Ohio State booster in violation of NCAA rules. Although he could have been dismissed from the team, ultimately he had to repay the money and was forced to sit out OSU's 2004 bowl game and the first game of 2005. Ohio State coach Jim Tressel announced ahead of time that both Zwick and Smith would play in the game.

The game was played at Ohio State University in Ohio Stadium, also known as "The Horseshoe" or "the Shoe". This stadium is notoriously tough for visiting teams, as its large capacity and structural design create a tremendous amount of crowd noise that can make it difficult for the visiting team to call audibles at the line of scrimmage. The Buckeyes had an active 36 consecutive game non-conference winning streak in the stadium. The game's attendance was 105,565, which set the all-time attendance record for Ohio Stadium. The game was televised nationally on ABC and drew 9.9 million viewers.