Ohio State won’t be lining up on the gridiron this week, but on this day 14 years ago, the top-ranked Jim Tressel-led Buckeyes made a statement win against the nation’s No. 2.

In the first regular-season matchup between the country’s top two teams in a decade, it was the BCS Championship Game-bound Buckeyes that cemented their status atop the national polls with a 24-7 win at Texas on Sept. 9, 2006.

Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith, who went on to win the Heisman Trophy, led the Scarlet and Gray squad into Austin, Texas, in Week Two and out-dueled Longhorn quarterback Colt McCoy with two scores and 269 yards through the air.

The win avenged a three-point loss suffered by the Buckeyes in the same matchup the year prior, as Vince Young and the eventual national champion Longhorns eked out a 25-22 win in Columbus, Ohio, in 2005.

Tied 7-7 with less than two minutes remaining in the first half, Smith found speedy deep-threat Ted Ginn Jr. for a 29-yard scoring strike that gave the Buckeyes a lead they would not squander.

It was the third of Ginn’s nine eventual touchdowns on the season, but his stablemate Anthony Gonzalez had an even more impressive performance for the Ohio State offense.

Gonzalez had a career-best 142 yards on eight catches, including a 14-yard touchdown in the first quarter that put Ohio State on the board first.

It took just two second-half scores for the Buckeyes to close things out after halftime, with Ohio State running back Antonio Pittman putting a bow on the night by punching in a two-yard score in the fourth quarter.

The Ohio State defense, led by linebacker James Lauriniaitis, snapped a Longhorn streak of 12-straight games with at least 40 points, as well as 21 consecutive wins.

Laurinaitis intercepted a third-quarter pass from McCoy to stall any hope of momentum for a Texas pass attack that netted just 160 yards on the day. Before the pick, Laurinaitis forced a fumble with the Longhorns at the Ohio State two-yard-line in the first quarter, with the Buckeyes recovered and returned 48 yards in the other direction.

It was the first of three times in which Ohio State was matched up with the nation’s No. 2 team during the course of the 2006 season, including a three-point win against Michigan in the “Game of the Century” to close out an undefeated regular season.

However, the Buckeyes ran into an Urban Meyer-led Florida team in the national championship game, and despite Ginn returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown, Ohio State was dispatched with by a wide 41-14 margin.

That final result may be what is remembered most about the Buckeyes’ 2006 season, but their Week Two win against the defending national champs in Austin is no small footnote in an otherwise standout season in Ohio State history.