Jeff Howe

I thought Robertson was better at center last year. But Hutson could benefit from an upgrade at left guard if he goes back to center.

Texas isn’t breaking any rules and hasn’t broken any rules. Cole Hutson is trying to see if the legal precedent set by the injunction granted to the basketball players applies to him. To me, there’s a difference between not liking certain circumstances/conditions and believing something nefarious is happening. If you want to blame anyone, blame the NCAA for dragging their feet for years instead of being proactive. That organization could’ve avoided a lot of the headaches everyone is dealing if leadership had done something other than bury their heads in the sand.

The concerns are valid, particularly because nobody, not even the coaches, knows whether Seymore will be an option or an answer. Hutson would increase the margin for error, which is a plus.

95%? I’d say it seems likely. I don’t think he would’ve filed the suit if he and his representation didn’t feel good about the chances of the injunction being granted.

I would expect that to be the case, yes, but don’t know for sure if it will happen.

I thought long and hard about that Sark quote after everything unfolded with Cole Hutson's situation this morning. When it comes to eligibility, I can't say that I 100 percent approve of student-athletes closing in on their mid-20s getting more eligibility, but, as is the case with a lot of things the NCAA has done in the last few years, leaving room for interpretation or being loose with the rules it applies means it has done this to itself. If there's one thing the NCAA dislikes more than giving the players a piece of the pie, it's litigation. That's why I don't think there's going to be a ton of resistance if these injunctions in particular are granted.

If Cole Hutson, who is suing the NCAA to gain an additional season of eligibility, becomes a member of the 2026 roster, his return will check two important boxes for Texas. A team that could play upwards of 17 games needs as much quality depth as possible. With 48 games played and 23 career starts under his belt, Hutson's return would immediately provide the Longhorns with experienced depth at all three interior line spots. Even if he needs time to adjust to being back in a team setting after missing spring practice, Hutson would be a tremendous insurance policy if there’s an injury to one of the current projected starters on the interior (Connor Robertson at center, Brandon Baker at right guard and Laurence Seymore at left guard) or if a performance issue forces Steve Sarkisian and Kyle Flood to make a change. Just as important as Hutson’s experience is what he brings to the table from a culture standpoint. In the transfer portal/NIL era of college athletics, it helps to have a player on your team like Hutson. He's proven himself to be a good locker room presence, is someone folks in the building like having around and he cares about wearing the Texas uniform. Hutson can make positive contributions to a squad expected to compete for a national championship, even if he’s made his last start as a Longhorn. *** While Hutson would be an option at center upon returning to the team, the offense was better last season with Robertson at center and Hutson at left guard. Still, Hutson’s experience makes him a better option in a pinch than Jackson Christian, Dylan Sikorski or any other option the staff looked at during spring practice (ideally, Christian, Sikorski and the other young linemen in Flood's room would continue to develop with Hutson in place as a stop-gap measure to avoid forcing them into action before they're ready). The No. 2 center on the depth chart is a spot nobody spends much time thinking about until that player is pressed into action. If Hutson’s return sees him called upon to fill in for Robertson, his experience combined with what would figure to be an upgrade at left guard (Seymore over Nick Brooks or Connor Stroh) would make the conditions ripe for a more productive run than the one he had in his five starts at center in 2025. *** What does Hutson’s potential return say about the state of the left guard spot with less than three weeks to go until the start of preseason practice? I don’t think the staff would welcome Hutson back because they’re disappointed with Seymore, Sikorski, Jaydon Chatman or anyone else competing to occupy the starting spot Hutson held for the last five games of the season. This is a case of Sarkisian doing what he didn’t do heading into 2025, when he left too many things to chance, resulting in an offensive line that operated with little to no margin for error. Since Seymore didn’t go through spring practice and arrived on campus in June, it’ll be a few weeks into camp before the staff has a reasonable feel for what the Western Kentucky transfer brings to the table. Even if an eligible Hutson couldn’t overtake Seymore or Chatman for the starting job, him providing a push that results in a true winner emerging from the impending camp battle is much better than if the coaches felt like they were rolling the dice on a starter heading into the Sept. 5 season opener against Texas State. Whether Hutson gains eligibility and picks up where he left off or not, making Seymore work to win the job is what will be best for the Texas offensive line in 2026. *** Before anyone cries foul or tries to find fault in what Texas is doing when examining Hutson’s situation, it’s worth going back to something Sarkisian said at his Touchdown Club of Houston press conference in May. When explaining comments he made in an interview with USA Today’s Matt Hayes, including saying that “all you have to do is take basket weaving, and you can get an Ole Miss degree” to describe potential hurdles when recruiting a transfer, Sarkisian voiced his frustration with college football’s governance and oversight, or lack thereof: “We're not governed by one thing and that's one of the major issues. That's why we're striving so hard for federal intervention that we're struggling to get, so that we can police these things that we have in place. Because if not, any time somebody does something that is against the rules, and against the rules for a group that we all signed up to be part of. We all sign up to be a part of the NCAA and we agree to these rules. We make the rules. But then, when we break a rule, we want to run to a judge in our hometown and get an injunction against that rule to get that player eligible. That doesn't make sense to me. We aren't policing our own rules. Why do we need federal intervention? For that very reason. Now, we're struggling to get that done. That's why there's been all of this talk of potential breaking away. Could college football break away from the NCAA? It's not to break away to get away from everybody. It's to break away so that we can actually govern the rules that we're putting in place.” The difference between Hutson seeking a fifth year of eligibility and the saga that ended with Texas Tech and Brendan Sorsby parting ways is that Hutson and Texas didn’t break a rule. With a judge already granting an injunction for a group of men’s and women’s college basketball players who sought additional eligibility based on the NCAA’s application of its age-based eligibility model beginning with the 2026-27 academic year, this is Hutson shooting his shot to see if he can get one more season on the Forty Acres. For those who can’t understand the difference between a player in the midst of pursuing a postgraduate degree asking a judge if the NCAA’s "arbitrary application of this bylaw,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed Friday in Travis County, means he can play one more season (for what it’s worth, Hutson played nine games in 2023 after starting all 13 for Texas as true freshman, but an offseason shoulder surgery opened the door for DJ Campbell to enter the starting lineup and limited Hutson to a career-low 144 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus) and a player suspended by the NCAA trying to find a loophole to avoid punishment, no explanation will suffice. To Sarkisian’s point, it’s currently open to interpretation what the rules are and how they should be enforced. At the very least, if Hutson can get closer to completing his MBA and spend one more fall while helping the football team, it should be considered a win-win for all parties involved. View full news story

A lot of that goes back to trust. Ultimately, whether he was right or wrong for it, I don’t think Sark trusted PK to play the style of defense he wants. I think he trusts Muschamp.

Most play-callers prefer one or the other. I've heard some guys say they have to be in the booth to separate themselves from the emotion of the game and/or to get the full-field view. I've heard other coaches say they need to be on the sideline because feeling everything that close to the action helps them get into a better flow. Different strokes for different folks, at the end of the day.

I know we covered this last fall and again in the spring, but it's worth getting into because it's so important to Sark continuing to call plays. If he's going to do it, he's got to have a pair of eyes upstairs that he trusts and that will give him the information he needs to make the right calls. Milwee going back to the press box wasn't solely responsible for the offense turning things around late last season. Still, it helped a ton and will hopefully help the offense avoid a slow start this season.

The Texas offense was bad through the first seven games of the 2025 season. After plodding their way to season-low marks for total yards (179), yards per play (3.3) and first downs (eight) in a 16-13 overtime road win over Kentucky, the Longhorns fielded one of the least productive offenses in the SEC. The following is what Texas was averaging in a few key statistical categories and where the offense ranked nationally and in the conference (FBS ranking/SEC ranking): Points Per Game — 26.7 (79th/11th) Total Yards Per Game — 368.1 (82nd/11th) Yards Per Play — 5.64 (74th/11th) Rushing Yards Per Game — 149.4 (74th/11th) Yards Per Rushing Attempt — 4.1 (84th/9th) Passing Yards Per Game — 218.7 (78th/13th) Third Down Conversions — 38.1% (89th/13th) The Longhorns righted the ship in a 45-38 overtime road win over Mississippi State the week after escaping Lexington. Behind Arch Manning’s then-career-high 346 passing yards, Texas rallied from a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter, with Matthew Caldwell’s touchdown pass to Emmett Mosley V in overtime aiding the program’s biggest comeback win in 18 years. The victory in Starkville helped Manning start anew. His rise coincided with Cole Hutson’s return from injury and subsequent move to left guard for the Vanderbilt game, which helped the Longhorns find an offensive line combination that worked. Those two factors played a significant role in the offense turning things around. A third factor that doesn’t get talked about as much, however, but was just as important in sorting things out was Steve Sarkisian’s decision to move AJ Milwee from the sideline to the press box on game day. Milwee, who came to Texas with Sarkisian from Alabama, started his time on the Forty Acres working from the press box. At some point, Sarkisian felt Quinn Ewers needed someone with him on the sideline, which required Milwee to move downstairs. Milwee told On Texas Football during the program’s spring media availability for the offensive coaching staff that the 2023 season is when he and Sarkisian felt coaching from the sideline would best benefit Ewers and, in turn, the offense. The offense struggling, combined with the NCAA lifting restrictions on countable coaches allowing Mike Bimonte to be involved on game day, made the conditions ripe to move Milwee back to the booth. Sarkisian didn’t give up calling plays. He hasn't indicated that he plans to relinquish that role any time soon. So, if he’s not going to turn offensive play-calling over to someone else, then Sarkisian having a pair of eyes in the press box operating as an extension of himself might be the next best thing. “When you add Mike — and we’re all in the same room — I think, from Coach Sark’s perspective, it’s like, ‘OK, AJ has been with me now — we’re going on Year 8 together,’” Milwee said. “It allowed me — different from the first time I was up there — I knew what I was looking for and I knew what he was asking for, and I think that made it easy. It made it easy for me to communicate to him what he was looking for and whether it was plays we need to get back to or a certain grouping of plays we need to get to next, it was more or less to help him, when he came back over from the defensive side of the ball, ‘Hey, what do you want here?’ Whether it was Mike and I talking or Coach (Kyle) Flood and I talking — ‘Hey, we’d like these runs and this grouping of plays coming up,’ we can go to that. It gave (Sarkisian) confidence to get into the flow of, ‘Hey, let’s go with these plays. They’re good. Everything looks good on the iPad from what we’re getting.’ I think it was an easy transition, understanding what he’s looking for.” Except for the running game, which mustered only 23 yards on 17 official rushing attempts against Georgia (even though the Longhorns ran for a combined 453 yards and averaged 6.7 yards per carry in wins over Texas A&M and Michigan), the Texas offense showed marked improvement over the last six games of the season with Milwee in the press box. Points Per Game — 34.8 Total Yards Per Game — 412.2 Yards Per Play — 6.32 Rushing Yards Per Game — 124.2 Yards Per Rushing Attempt — 4.33 Passing Yards Per Game — 288 Third Down Conversions — 40.5% Whether it’s evaluating his coaching staff or deciding which players on offense need the ball in critical situations, trust is hugely important to Sarkisian. It’s clear he trusts Milwee, not just for what he’s telling him, but the way he’s relaying information, which is critical for a play-calling head coach who wants to limit distractions in his ear and digest important information as quickly as possible. It’s a role and responsibility Milwee doesn’t take lightly. “There’s a guy I worked with before and he used to always say that it’s the economy of words,” Milwee said. “I don’t need to give a dissertation. Get to the point. Give him what he needs to know and then he’s going to go from there. He’s the best play-caller in the country. Give him the few things he needs to know and he’s going to make the adjustments and the calls the way he knows how to. Just give him the information he needs and he’ll go apply it.” View full news story

Russell Gaskamp

The jump shot never really came along the way everyone hoped.

Updated the original post, confirming Leffew's return, Brennan heading to Texas and the uncertainty regarding Mendoza.

Confirmed on our end that Payton Brennan won’t be signing a pro contract and is expected to join the program.

Leffew’s return confirmed on our end.

The draft is done. Mendoza, Leffew and Brennan all go undrafted.

To the 19th round we go…

It’s possible Mendoza and/or Leffew could sign with a team after the draft if they’re not selected, but I don’t know if that’s something either of them will explore.

Mendoza and Leffew still on the board into the 17th round.

Until I hear otherwise, I'm not expecting him to come back.

FWIW, we're through the first 10 rounds of the draft and Payton Brennan hasn't been selected:

The 10th round is complete and Ethan Mendoza is still on the board.