Four years ago, a standout lineman from Frisco, Texas, enrolled early at the University of Texas to feature in the 2022 offseason. He had a lingering shoulder issue from high school that later required surgery; however, it didn’t stop him from playing the full 2022 season. As a freshman, he played 13 games for the Longhorns and was part of the offensive line that won the Doak Walker Award. His importance never waned in Steve Sarkisian’s eyes.
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Cole Hutson played all three subsequent seasons at Texas. He could have redshirted in 2025 due to an injury, but, having already played 5 games, that was not an option. After the 2025 season, many athletes received a fifth year of college eligibility under the NCAA’s new five-for-five eligibility rule. But Hutson didn’t receive the benefit extended to other members of his 2022 class. This was just because he didn’t redshirt in his freshman year.
After an Ohio court granted a preliminary injunction to 24 men’s and women’s basketball players, including them under the new rule, Hutson also sued the NCAA. Now, a Texas court has granted him a temporary injunction against the governing body. He will be eligible to play college in 2026 while his lawsuit moves through the court system.
Interestingly, Hutson went undrafted in the 2026 NFL draft but had recently gotten a rookie minicamp invite from the Dallas Cowboys. The minicamps took place over two weekends in early May. Reportedly, Hutson had participated in it, although he was still waiting for a decision from the court. Not just that, even head coach Steve Sarkisian was aware of his lawsuit and seemed eager to accommodate him on his roster. In a statement after the 2026 NFL draft, Sarkisian opened up about Hutson’s lawsuit.
“I think with Cole’s situation, obviously, we’re monitoring it, and I don’t know where it’s going to go. You know, I think we’ve all seen over the past few years there’s been a lot of lawsuits that have been filed and piggybacking off of other lawsuits, so on and so forth,” Sarkisian said as per Inside Texas’ Evan Vieth. “Cole’s a guy with a lot of experience playing a lot of football for us.
“And he’s a guy that unfortunately didn’t get drafted, and so he puts himself in a bit of a different situation than maybe most guys that got done playing their fourth year in college. So we’ll see what that looks like and see where it goes.”
The new NCAA five-for-five rule replaces the old eligibility rule, which allowed athletes to play four full years of college ball over five years. Ideally, players redshirted and preserved their four years, but now things have changed. In the new rule, players will now get a full five years of college seasons starting from their high school graduation date or their 19th birthday, whichever is earlier.
Cole Hutson can become a central piece in Texas’s offensive line in 2026
Hutson has primarily played as a guard at Texas, although Sarkisian occasionally deployed him at center, too. At left guard, though, the head coach has added Laurence Seymore from Western Kentucky, so the other positions would be, of course, center and right guard. Brandon Baker and Connor Robertson are currently the expected starters at those positions. However, Sarkisian would immediately play Hutson ahead of them because of his extensive experience.
In his sophomore season, he featured in nine games for Texas, and his unit was a Joe Moore Award semifinalist. Not just that, he helped RBs like Brooks and CJ Baxter show elite rushing ability as Brooks notched 1,158 rushing yards. Finally, the 2024 season was probably his best as he played in all 16 games, blocking for Quinn Ewers. Owing to his performances, Texas reached the playoff semifinals, averaging 158.8 rushing yards per game.
