Texas erased a 20-point fourth-quarter deficit against the No. 1 team in the country, and the poll voters responded exactly how they should have.
The Longhorns are the new No. 1 in the AP Top 25 after their 24-23 comeback win over Ohio State in Austin. The Buckeyes tumbled out of the top five entirely, landing at No. 6. Georgia, Notre Dame, Indiana and Miami round out the rest of the top five.
The Comeback Was Absurd
Down 20 in the fourth quarter to the defending top-ranked team, at home, with the season effectively on the line. Texas scored the game-winning touchdown from the 1-yard line with 25 seconds remaining after Ryan Day chose not to let them score earlier, a decision Day has since admitted he regrets.
Comebacks like that do more than move a team up a poll. They change how a locker room sees itself for the rest of the year, and they give a young quarterback a reference point he can lean on in November.
The Rest of Week 2 Was Chaos
Texas taking the top spot was not even the only stunner. Michigan, which nearly lost to Western Michigan a week earlier, went out and beat Oklahoma. The Wolverines are back in the rankings at No. 19, which is a wild swing for a team that looked finished seven days prior.
Oregon got upset by Oklahoma State, a team that had just lost to Tulsa. That is the kind of result that scrambles a College Football Playoff resume in September and leaves a program explaining itself for two months.
Miami, meanwhile, hung 77 points on Florida A&M. Darian Mensah completed 14 of 15 passes for 252 yards and three touchdowns, and Malachi Toney caught four balls for 96 yards and a score. The competition was not there, but 14-of-15 is 14-of-15.
Is Texas Actually the Best Team in the Country?
Probably not yet, and that is fine. Polls in September measure resume more than quality, and Texas owns the single best win in the sport right now. That is how it should work.
The Longhorns still have questions. They trailed by 20 to Ohio State for a reason, and the offense went long stretches looking stuck before the fourth quarter. Arch Manning has been good, not transcendent, and the surrounding noise this week did not help.
What Texas has is the hardest thing to develop: proof that the team does not quit when the game gets away from them. Ohio State has more raw talent. Georgia has more consistency. Texas has the win.
What Comes Next
Being No. 1 in September mostly means everybody circles you. The SEC schedule will sort out whether Texas belongs, and the Longhorns will face several teams capable of taking this from them.
For one week, they earned it the hard way.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.