Texas gets a surprise offensive line boost as veteran Cole Hutson returns after winning his eligibility battle against the NCAA for the 2026 season.
Texas football just added a 48-game veteran to its offensive line in August — and Steve Sarkisian didn’t have to touch the transfer portal to do it.
Cole Hutson is officially returning to the Texas Longhorns for the 2026 season after reaching an agreement with the NCAA that clears the veteran offensive lineman to play another year.
It’s a stunning reversal for Hutson, whose college career appeared finished when Texas’ 2025 season ended.
Instead, he’s back.
Hutson originally arrived in Austin as part of Sarkisian’s 2022 recruiting class and went on to appear in 48 games for Texas.
After exhausting what the NCAA previously considered his eligibility, Hutson entered the professional football world, went undrafted and received minicamp opportunities with both the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys.
Neither opportunity turned into an NFL roster spot.
That opened the door for one of the strangest college football comebacks of the offseason.
Hutson joined other athletes from the 2022 recruiting class challenging NCAA eligibility rules in federal court.
The group argued it had essentially fallen into a loophole: too late to benefit from the additional eligibility granted during the COVID era, but too early to qualify under the NCAA’s new five-years-in-five model.
A federal judge ultimately sided with the athletes.
“They will suffer irreparable harm without issuance of an injunction,” U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney wrote, adding that “the balance of equities, as well as the public interest, favor them.”
That ruling changed everything for Hutson.
He had previously secured a temporary restraining order and was headed toward another hearing on Aug. 10. With the broader injunction and Hutson’s subsequent agreement with the NCAA, that courtroom date is no longer necessary.
For Sarkisian, the result is simple: Texas gets back an experienced blocker who already knows the offense, the terminology and the expectations.
“Cole is a guy with a lot of experience,” Sarkisian said. “He’s played a lot of football for us.”
Sarkisian also acknowledged Hutson’s unusual path back to Austin after the NFL didn’t materialize.
“He puts himself in a bit of a different situation than maybe most guys that got done playing their fourth year in college,” Sarkisian said.
Now that different situation could become a major advantage.
Texas entered fall camp with championship expectations and questions about how its offensive line would come together. Adding a player with 48 games of Longhorns experience in August isn’t just extra depth.
It’s essentially a veteran acquisition nobody expected Texas to have.
