AUSTIN, Texas — The Steve Sarkisian discourse was about to hit a fever pitch.In another game against one of those few programs Texas views as an equal, Sarkisian’s Longhorns were on their way to showing that they were very much not a match.On another huge stage, Sarkisian was getting exposed as the offensive whiz whose offense can’t pick up a yard when it needs it most. Down by 20 late in the third quarter against an Ohio State team that had held the Longhorns to 21 points in nearly 10 quarters over the last three seasons, Sarkisian kept pressing the gas.With a practically perfect final 20 minutes of football that will go down in Longhorns lore, Sarkisian brushed aside doubters and skeptics and delivered Texas a cathartic and validating victory Saturday night. An awkward postgame interview should not overshadow that.Arch Manning and the No. 4 Longhorns scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns to rally and beat No. 1 Ohio State 24-23, a stunning turn of events made possible by a lesson Sarkisian learned from Pete Carroll and an unflappable confidence in his team.“Is this the biggest win? I don’t know. We’ve had some great ones. We’ve had some really big moments, but this one is special,” Sarkisian said. “You know, when you beat the No. 1 team in the country in the fashion that we did, to come back the way that we did, to represent Longhorn Nation, to represent the name on our chest, Texas, I think it means a lot.”Texas completes comeback over Ohio StateChris VanniniThe Longhorns limped into halftime after a disastrous final minute of the second quarter had put them in a 20-3 hole.Sarkisian implored his team to stick together, to keep up the “Texas Fight,” as the UT rallying cry goes.“You know, we talk a lot about this in here as a team that life is 10 percent what happens to you, 90 percent how you react to it, and we just hammered them on, everybody focus on the 90 percent. Leave the 10 percent in the first half,” Sarkisian said. “Let’s focus on the 90 percent, what we’re going to do about it in the second half, and I thought we played a phenomenal second half of football.”Anybody who has spent time around Carroll, especially during his days leading USC to two national championships, would know where the 52-year-old Sarkisian got that from. Sark was in his mid-20s when he joined Carroll’s staff and was offensive coordinator for USC by his early 30s.Those Trojans regularly shrugged off slow starts only to roll in the second half behind stars such as Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush.Carroll’s mantra was when bad things happen, all that matters is the response. And oh boy, did things go wrong for Texas in the first half. The Longhorns turned it over twice in their first five plays, and then Sarkisian’s aggressiveness backfired with a little less than a minute to go before halftime.Texas failed to convert a fourth-and-1 from the Ohio State 41 with 54 seconds left in the half when an end around to Ryan Wingo was blown up for a 10-yard loss by Ohio State’s Jermaine Mathews Jr. No doubt Sarkisian calling a wide running play in a short-yardage situation against the Buckeyes and having it result in a negative play gave Longhorns fans nightmarish flashbacks to Ohio State’s semifinal victory over Texas in the 2024 College Football Playoff.A few plays after the failed fourth down, Julian Sayin found Jeremiah Smith for an Ohio State touchdown, and the mood at halftime in Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium was moribund.The fourth-down-to-touchdown swing looked as if it was going to be the decisive moment of the game, and Sarkisian would have been hearing about it for days.“I still will. Our fans won’t let me forget that. Nor will these guys that cover me every day,” Sarkisian said, drawing a few laughs.He can joke about it now, but when Ohio State went up 23-3 in the third quarter, a third straight loss to the Buckeyes felt inevitable. Throw it on top of Sarkisian’s 0-3 record against Georgia since Texas moved into the SEC, and it gets easy for some to dismiss the good work he has done in elevating the program since he arrived in 2021.After Saturday night, less so.“I think it says a lot about Coach Sark and what he’s built here, and I think when you don’t play well and you still go to win, there’s a lot to learn from and it’s confidence moving,” said Manning, the only person in Austin who faces more scrutiny than Sarkisian.While a failed fourth down put Texas in a hole, it didn’t deter Sarkisian from staying aggressive in the second half — though at that point he might not have had a choice. A fourth-and-9 conversion late in the third quarter by Manning to Emaree Winston was the key play on a 15-play, 91-yard touchdown drive that made it 23-10 early in the fourth quarter. Manning’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Wingo gave Texas a glimmer of hope.“I’m aggressive by nature,” Sarkisian said. “I think there’s a sense of confidence from the players to know, hey, if I believe in them to execute a play, I’m going to call the play. I believe in our players.”On Texas’ next drive, the Longhorns faced a fourth-and-6 from their own 32 with 11:32 left in the game. Miss this one, and Ohio State would be on the verge of finishing the blowout.“They didn’t hire me to keep it close,” Sarkisian said. “They hired me to win.”Manning converted with a 12-yard strike to Emmett Mosley V, and another methodical drive ended with a short touchdown run by Hollywood Smothers.The final drive took 12 plays and covered 73 yards. Again it was Smothers for the touchdown, this time going over the top from a yard out with 25 seconds left.Red-zone struggles have nagged Sarkisian’s Texas offenses for years, but the Longhorns scored on all four trips inside Ohio State’s 20 on Saturday night. Their three fourth-quarter touchdowns all came from inside the 5.“You know, it’s been a little bit of a thorn in our side … that was gratifying, because we’ve worked really hard at the run game, we worked really hard at having those attitude, physical-type plays and the mentality, and I thought it showed tonight,” said Sarkisian, who is now 37-8 since 2023 at Texas.Sarkisian was quick to point out that as thrilling and meaningful as it was to lead Texas to its first victory against a No. 1 team at home in 76 years, it only counts for one. Texas’ SEC schedule has plenty of potential hurdles still to clear.A couple of hours after the game, Sarkisian spent about 10 minutes with his wife, Loreal, looking out over a practically empty stadium from the second deck behind the end zone.The coach who has brought Texas back, basking in his latest and maybe greatest triumph, could take pride and comfort in knowing that at least for a few days, he won’t be a hot topic.