Texas coach Steve Sarkisian sounds off on NFL players coming back to college football

A court injunction against the NCAA has made it so that many players of the 2022 class now have eligibility for one more year of college football. One of those players was a former member of Texas football. Cole Hutson, an offensive lineman from the 2025 squad, has rejoined the Longhorns.

Hutson is just one of many players who have returned to their former school or attempted to enter the transfer portal in an effort to play another year of college football after not making an NFL roster. Now, head coach Steve Sarkisian is speaking out about the entire situation, per Eric Henry of Horns247.

“I don’t even know. You know, this stuff is, we are like changing every day right now. It feels like almost every three hours there’s a new message from Commissioner [Greg] Sankey about something or something that somebody’s reporting in the media that this is what might occur or what’s occurring. I think it’s important for us here, especially, like we have a really good team, and focusing on our team to me is paramount and the most important thing right now. Anything auxiliary outside of that, I’m not in so much of a rush to say, ‘Oh, let’s go do that now’ and ‘Let’s go do that now.” Sarkisian said.

The Texas head coach also admitted that if another opprotunity came up, he is not sure what he would do.

“Like, I like our team. If and/or when, if there’s something that popped up to where we could upgrade it, great. But we don’t even know. Like today, you can take them. Tomorrow, you can’t. I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I don’t even know if it’s good or not. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know if it’s good because, like, for us, I know we’ve got a locker room full of guys who have been working together, and their connectivity is so good for the last eight months, is it worth rocking that boat? You know, by bringing somebody in that isn’t familiar with your program.”

While he is not sure if a certain player could make a difference, there are scenarios where he would bring in a guy who spent time in the NFL.

What about Cole Hutson? 

The Longhorns welcomed back Hutson with open arms. Hutson was not drafted in the 2026 NFL Draft, but participated in mini-camps with the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys.

“Cole [Hutson] was a little different. He’s been with our program for four years. He knows who we are. He knows Coach [Kyle] Flood. He knows those guys in that room. To bring in a true outsider and to think like all of a sudden he’s going to be our quarterback? Like, I don’t know how to do that. Like, I wouldn’t know how to do that. And I get every situation is a little bit different. And maybe there’s better coaches out there than us, you know. But I just think it’s a delicate situation. The powers that be are ultimately going to get to a final decision. And then when the final decision’s made, then we’re going to have choices to make, or maybe we will have no choices to make. I don’t know. You know, we’ll have to find out.”

Regardless of Sarks’ reasoning, the NCAA has a problem brewing. Some teams open their schedules this upcoming weekend on August 29. Meanwhile, the NFL’s final cut day is on August 30. The rest of the FBS ranks then open up their seasons the next weekend. This could lead to a surge of court rulings and former NFL players being eligible to play.

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