Jeff Howe

Muschamp: “You create havoc when you get hands on the ball.”

Muschamp: “You win in bump-and-run on the line of scrimmage.”

Muschamp’s clinic tape of defensive backs high pointing the football on the jugs machine includes Jermaine Bishop working with the secondary.

Muschamp admits something I’ve long expected: He loves defensive backs who played quarterback in high school. That position requires leadership, communication and decision making.

Those who’ve been clamoring for tighter, more aggressive coverage from the Texas defensive backs, Muschamp is bringing that approach to the table.

When Muschamp was at Auburn in 2015 under Gus Malzahn, every defensive back that came through the program spent time in the NFL.

Muschamp on scheme: “I’ve already got my fall install done.”

Standing room only for Will Muschamp.

We’re not allowed to record during the lectures.

Will Muschamp’s chalk talk was scheduled to start at 1. They’re having technical difficulties. The Texas State staff is here listening. I’ve also seen at least one Texas A&M staff member in here.

Kinne said Brad Jackson told him throughout the season and throughout the portal window that he wasn't going anywhere. Jackson is one of the top non-P4 quarterbacks in the country.

On moving to the Pac-12, Kinne said he's looking forward to getting better means of transportation than what Texas State had in the Sun Belt. He said in his first year at Texas State, the Bobcats bussed to Lafayette and had to fly to Memphis and bus Jonesboro to play Arkansas State.

They've moved the press conference schedule around a little bit, so we're trying to gather our bearings. Texas State's GJ Kinne is at the podium right now. Texas opens the season against Texas State on Sept. 5.

He was against the suggestion that JUCO years shouldn’t count toward someone’s eligibility, which is what Pavia was arguing. That’s part of the reason the NCAA implemented the age-based model.

Yes.

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.