The Book of Manning: Arch rewrites his Texas legacy with epic comeback against Ohio State

AUSTIN, Texas -- They booed Arch Manning off his home field again. 

He lifted them up anyway.

Same stadium, same month, not quite the same quarterback. A year ago it was UTEP and 10 straight incompletions. Saturday it was No. 1 Ohio State, a 23-3 deficit and two turnovers -- none his fault -- in the first five plays.

So, he remixed his resurgent fourth-quarter performance from a year ago in Columbus, but this time with a much different outcome: a comeback win for the ages. Texas 24, Ohio State 23 will be remembered as the largest comeback against a No. 1 team since 1988, and the strangest kind of deja vu for the most scrutinized quarterback in the sport.

"I did not want to come in here after a loss at home to Ohio State again and have some sort of bad -- y'all telling me we're not good, all this stuff," Manning said. "I could not let that happen."

A fourth quarter for the ages

In stark contrast to the previous year's fourth-quarter comeback attempt at Ohio State that fell just short, he led the Longhorns to three consecutive touchdown drives of 12 plays or more, capped by the winning score with only 25 seconds left, to write a new chapter in the Book of Manning.

If it sounds familiar, it should. It nearly happened a year ago when No. 1 Texas fell 14-7 at No. 3 Ohio State. On Saturday, Manning threw for only 60 yards in the first half, including minus-4 in the first quarter. A year ago, he had only 26 passing yards at halftime.

He was prolific in the fourth quarter a year ago and downright unstoppable in the final 15 minutes Saturday. He completed 11 of his final 15 passes for 128 yards and one touchdown. He was clutch when it mattered most. Eight of those completions resulted in a first down or score, including two fourth-down conversions. That included a 12-yarder to Emmett Mosley V on a fourth-and-6 from his own 32-yard line to extend the Horns' second touchdown drive. Hollywood Smothers capped it with a 1-yard touchdown run to pull the Horns within six points with 7:14 remaining. 

Ohio State kicker Connor Hawkins had a chance to end it from 45 yards with 4:16 to play, but he hooked it wide left, and Manning took the ball at his own 27 needing a touchdown.

It took 12 plays and 73 yards. Manning completed four of five throws on the drive for 48 yards, the last a 19-yarder to Mosley at the Ohio State 1 with 1:23 left. Two plays later, Smothers scored again. 

Manning was a different man Saturday. He ran all over the field, the weight of the world off his shoulders, yelling and celebrating after Ohio State's last heave was intercepted.

"Arch knew it. He was in the locker room saying we're going to win this game," Smothers said. "His leadership at halftime is what separates him, honestly. Everything was going downhill but he kept us together, leading and kept encouraging us that we were going to find a way to win."

Ohio State's defense was simply gassed in the 92-degree Texas heat and couldn't get off the field in the final 17 minutes. Texas ran an incredible 40 plays on its final three possessions, spanning 91, 72, and 73 yards. Texas chewed up 150 yards and held the ball for more than 10 minutes in the fourth quarter.

After halftime, Manning was 16 of 23 for 135 yards and a touchdown, and 8 of 11 for 83 in the fourth quarter alone.

The adversity that prepared Manning for this moment

Before the epic fourth quarter, Texas fans booed the offense coming off the field, just as they did a year ago during the Longhorns' rocky September. Twelve months ago, in a losing locker room inside Ohio Stadium, Sarkisian asked people to wait for exactly this moment.

"For Arch, the expectations were out of control on the outside," he said that day in Columbus. "But I'd say, let's finish the book before we judge it. This is one chapter and we got a long season to go play."

Reflecting on those comments following Saturday night's victory, Sarkisian praised his quarterback's toughness and grit in overcoming what he described as a "hard month" the previous September.

"I think him getting through that adversity last year helped him get through the adversity of tonight," said Sarkisian, who referenced the boos. "... I don't know if he could have done that if it hadn't been for the adversity that he had to go through last year.

"When you talk about growth in a human being, that's the stuff as a coach that makes you proud -- when you watch players come into your program and grow and become men. Arch played like a man tonight, and that was really cool to see."

A comeback nearly four decades in the making

Not many had seen a performance like the one Saturday night inside Darrell K Royal Stadium. Since 2003, teams trailing an AP No. 1 by 17 points or more were 0-223. No team had come back from 20 down to beat a No. 1 since Washington State did it to Troy Aikman and UCLA in 1988. 

And Ohio State had won 115 straight games when leading by 20.

It is the fourth-largest comeback in Texas history, and largest since 2007. The engineers of the three bigger comebacks were quarterbacks whose name and retired number are etched inside the stadium's concrete: Vince Young and Colt McCoy. 

More incredible, perhaps, is that Texas and Manning rallied and made history despite digging one of the deepest holes of his career. His first pass on a screen to Raleek Brown was fumbled away at the Texas 18. His fourth pass was a deep ball to prized transfer receiver Cam Coleman, who dove, bobbled it as he came down to the turf, and watched it ricochet into the air and into Jaylen McClain's hands at the Ohio State 12. 

Two turnovers in five plays, and neither of them was really his fault, though if either throw had been more on-target the end result may have been different. 

'Screw it, let's go back to letting it rip'

None of that mattered. By halftime, the argument that has followed the former No. 1 high school prospect since the day he signed was being typed in a thousand places at once. The scribes in the press box were already tapping their keyboards, writing off Texas and chalking it up to another disappointing performance by the Manning with a Heisman-worthy name and Heisman-less stats.

"We kept reminding him there's no 21-point touchdown pass," Sarkisian said. "We've got to go try to get seven points, but how do you do that? You have to execute one play at a time."

The fluky turnovers "got into his psyche a little bit in the first half," Sarkisian surmised. Manning, he said, was seeing ghosts, but then he got back into his rhythm. When the fourth quarter started, he gave his quarterback a cushion.

"Hey, we're in four-down territory this drive until I tell you we're not," Sarkisian said. "When you can play with the mindset of knowing we've got four downs instead of three, you can be a little bit more cautious as you matriculate the ball down the field"

By that point in the game, Manning had stopped overanalyzing his throws. He took what Ohio State gave him, used his legs to navigate in and out of the pocket and was more decisive with his decisions. 

"I just thought it was with him kinda saying screw it, let's go back to letting it rip and I'm going to trust these guys to go make plays," Sarkisian said.

That is the same phrase Sarkisian used in August to describe what changed in Manning last October, when he threw 15 touchdowns against two interceptions over the final seven games of a season nobody was watching anymore. Manning has now jumped into the realm of the great quarterbacks playing today. He's 4-1 in his last five games against top 10 teams, completing 65.1% of his passes for an average of 224 yards to go along with eight touchdowns and two turnovers.

Manning finished the night 23 of 37 for 196 yards with a touchdown and an interception, a line nobody will put on a plaque, but he's now 10-0 as a starter at Royal-Memorial and proved against the No. 1 team in the land that he's now a quarterback you can depend on -- and not boo -- in critical moments against the top teams in the country.

"You dream of playing in games like this, hosting the No. 1 team in the country at home," Manning said. "I mean, how about that? Getting a win by one point. Let's go, baby."