Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has no patience for players who try to leave the NFL and come back to college football after already taking part in preseason action.
This week, Sarkisian said the practice crosses a line.
"These players on all of our rosters have been working for nine months for this moment on Saturday, which will then lead into the next five to six months," Sarkisian said this week. "The fact that somebody is going to take somebody off of an NFL roster and tell somebody who has been doing it for nine months to kick rocks, that doesn't sit well with me. That morally is wrong."
His comments land in the middle of a growing fight across college football. Multiple players have shown interest in returning to school after signing with NFL teams and even appearing in preseason games. Two of the most notable are Ole Miss tight end Dae'Quan Wright and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris, who are trying to follow coach Lane Kiffin to LSU after starting last season in Oxford.
That wave has already pushed the Power Four leagues to act. Each conference has passed rules designed to block players from returning to college, with LSU abstaining from the SEC vote. The new rules are already under legal fire, with a court challenge set for Thursday, just 48 hours before LSU opens its season against Clemson.
Texas, though, is hardly a neutral observer in all this.
The Longhorns were one of the early teams to test the eligibility waters this offseason through offensive lineman Cole Hutson. Hutson became one of the first major college players to sue for a fifth year of eligibility after the NCAA adopted its five-for-five model, which gives every active player five years of on-field eligibility. The NCAA did not grandfather in members of the Class of 2022, including Hutson, who had technically used up his eligibility after last season.
Hutson’s college résumé is a long one: 48 games over four years for Texas, with 10 starts at center and left guard in 2025. After going undrafted in the 2026 NFL Draft, he went through rookie minicamps with both the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys but did not land a permanent deal.
Weeks after five-for-five passed, and with Texas dealing with injury and depth issues up front, Hutson filed suit for another year. He received a temporary restraining order and joined the growing group of college athletes returning through the courts.
His case does not fit the exact situation covered by the SEC’s new rule. While players usually get stipends for minicamps, Hutson never signed a contract with an NFL team because no contract was offered.
Still, the larger point remains awkward for anyone drawing a hard moral line. Hutson’s return to the field also runs straight into the NCAA’s basic eligibility rules. He is only playing because of a temporary restraining order, the same route Wright and Harris are pursuing.
The broader mess has left Class of 2022 players stuck in constant uncertainty as the rules keep shifting. At one point, the entire class had been given a blanket waiver to return to school, only for that to be overturned later. One coach told CBS Sports that advisors had suggested the smartest path in any eligibility fight was to file a lawsuit and see what happens.
It is easy to look at players who were cut loose by NFL teams and shrug at the idea of them coming back to college. It is also, frankly, a strange and a little embarrassing look for a player to walk away from pro football and head back to campus. But NIL money has changed the calculus, giving college programs far more ability to pay fringe pro talent, and the win-now pressure on coaches has made any talk of “morally” building a roster feel out of step.
Not every coach has taken Sarkisian’s tone. Ohio State’s Ryan Day was far more pragmatic last week, saying teams have to at least examine the possibilities if there is an edge to be gained.
"Do I like anything about it? Absolutely not, but we gotta do what's right for Ohio State," Day said.
"So it's sort of a day-to-day thing right now. Like anything, we're just gonna try to adapt."
Maryland coach Mike Locksley also said his staff looked into the possibility of bringing players back from the pros, similar to what Kiffin did.
"I know a lot of guys are acting holier than thou, and they're usually guys that don't have room at the bottom of their [roster] to bring in guys," Locksley said.
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