Texas football: Cole Hutson could rejoin Longhorns' offensive line following court ruling
· Yahoo Sports
TAMPA, Fla - This week, former Texas Longhorns offensive lineman Cole Hutson moved closer to a return to the field.
According to multiple reports, Hutson has been granted a temporary restraining order in his battle with the NCAA. The order would allow Hutson to resume football activities in preparation for the 2026 season.
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Texas quarterback Maalik Murphy (6) catches the snap while offensive lineman Cole Hutson (54) protects him in the third quarter of the Longhorns' game against the BYU Cougars at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023. Texas won the game 35-6. (Sara Diggins/American-Statesman)Attempts Thursday by the American-Statesman to reach Hutson's attorney, David Ovard, were not successful. Ovard, though, did tell 247Sports that "the court is granting the temporary restraining order and setting the injunction for a hearing, and we are working on this date."
More: How NCAA's 5-year eligibility rule could affect Texas football, other college programs
At the heart of this legal saga is the NCAA's eligibility model that was reworked earlier this summer. The NCAA now permits five years of eligibility for all of its athletes, but a participant's eligibility clock now begins no later than the academic year following their 19th birthday. This overrode the previous rule of college athletics, which allowed four years of eligibility but did not penalize redshirts, delayed entries and other situations that may warrant a waiver.
Hutson's lawsuit, which was filed late last week in Travis County, challenged the NCAA's decision to exclude athletes who had exhausted their eligibility under the old rules but would still qualify for another year of eligibility in this new landscape. The 22-year-old Hutson did not redshirt during his time at Texas and appeared in 48 games over the past four seasons.
In its petition, Hutson's legal team argued that the NCAA "unfairly and unjustifiably restrains his ability to further develop and unfairly and unjustly restrains his ability to earn scholarship money as a student athlete in pursuit of his Master's Degree, to develop his skills as a player to pursue a profession in the National Football League as a professional football player, and to earn money through the use of his name, image, and likeness ("NIL") connected to his work as a Division I student-athlete."
Hutson is not the first former athlete to challenge the NCAA's restrictions in court. Former UT basketball players Jordan Pope and Chendall Weaver are named in two separate lawsuits against the NCAA, and an Ohio court recently issued a preliminary injunction in another challenge against the NCAA.
Dallas Cowboys outside linebacker Cole Hutson walks off the field after the NFL football team's rookie minicamp Saturday, May 2, 2026, in Frisco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) (Tony Gutierrez/AP)Who is Cole Hutson?
A 6-foot-5, 308-pound Frisco product and the son of a former Arizona State baseball player, Hutson signed with Texas during the 2022 recruiting cycle. Hutson started 13 times as a freshman right guard before he was used as a depth piece during the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Hutson reemerged as a senior starter in 2025 and found playing time as both a center and left guard.
"What I love about Cole Hutson, this guy's blue collar," Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said last season. "I mean, he is a blue-collar guy. He's a tough ass, he's smart. He's had to grind his way through his career."
This past spring, Hutson was not selected in an NFL draft that featured seven rounds and 257 picks. He participated in rookie camps hosted by Dallas and Cleveland, but those tryouts failed to lead to a full-time job.
In Hutson's petition, it is stated that "The University of Texas at Austin has a roster position on the football team for the 2026-2027 football season waiting for Cole Hutson but will be prohibited from allowing Mr. Hutson to fill that position (under the new rule)." Texas didn't counter that claim Thursday, but the subject of Hutson rejoining the Longhorns was something that offensive lineman Trevor Goosby said was the "kind of a question that we'll answer if it actually does happen."
Sarkisian said at SEC media days that he hasn't spoken to Hutson in a few months and that the lineman isn't practicing with the team. The return of Hutson, though, would provide Texas with either needed depth or its fourth returning starter on the offensive line.
"At the end of the day, there's nothing like having an experienced player on your team, in your locker room, in the offensive line room," Sarkisian said. "There's a lot that we have to sort through and unpack. But if we're fortunate enough to have him back, it'd be great."
Courtroom call could again make an impact on the football field
On Thursday, the irony of the legal system potentially giving Texas an on-field advantage was not lost on Sarkisian. In the past, Sarkisian was critical of a court decision that gave former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia a sixth year of eligibility. He also jabbed Texas Tech earlier this year for a ruling that temporarily paved the way for Brendan Sorsby to play after the transfer quarterback was ruled ineligible by the NCAA for gambling violations.
More:What Texas A&M football players, Mike Elko had to say about UT
When asked if he was concerned about the courts having an oversized impact on the state of college football, Sarkisian didn't back off his earlier criticism. But during a lengthy answer, Sarkisian also said that Texas would play by the rules in place.
"I feel like we're in an uneasy situation where we can't govern our own rules," Sarkisian said. "That's not healthy. It's not healthy that we have at minimum 39 different state laws that players in different states can go get injunctions or temporary restraining orders and put in place to get around a rule. But now those are the rules. Those are the rules of engagement, right? I don't blame Cole for doing what he did. I don't blame (Ole Miss quarterback) Trinidad Chambliss for doing what he did. Those are the rules of engagement right now."
Chambliss' legal team and the NCAA had been battling over whether he could play in 2026. A petition from the organization to the Mississippi Supreme Court was denied, clearing the way for the SEC newcomer of the year to play a second season with the Rebels and a fourth overall (he redshirted at Division II Ferris State in 2021 and sat out 2022 with injury).
"I think ultimately that's why we all want some sort of sense of like governance and an ability to apply rules," Sarkisian said. "sI think we're all searching for answers, and we've got really smart people trying to figure this out. I have good faith in knowing that the leadership that we have at the University of Texas will do that, the leadership that we have in the SEC with Commissioner Greg Sankey will do that that will ultimately find what's in the best interest for all of us, and not just football.
"It's every sport. It's women's sports. It's Olympic sports. It's everything involved. I think we need to slow down a little bit (instead of) just trying to find a quick fix and really look at what's going to be the best long term and look at the unintended consequences of the next thing we try to do. We try to act so fast sometimes that we miss the unintended consequences of what you know what comes from things."
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