Saturday\u2019s Red-White Game<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 with \u201ca little chip on their shoulder\u201d as they prepare for the 2026 season, running backs coach Jordy Joseph said.<\/p>\nSanford is coming off ACL surgery for the second time in three years. In his only healthy season, Sanford led the Cougars in rushing in 2024.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe\u2019s hungry again,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cI see a little more of that fire in him. He\u2019s like that underdog mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n
Entering his third season, Butler is coming off his most extensive workload, finishing third on team with 301 rushing yards. He obviously wants more.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s hungry to be the guy,\u201d Joseph said.<\/p>\n
The newest addition to the backfield, Hughes, is ready to hit the reset button. After producing nearly 3,000 yards in two seasons at Tulane, including one year under current UH coach Willie Fritz, Hughes never found a role at Oregon and played just four games last season.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe\u2019s like, ‘I want to prove myself,’\u201d Joseph said.<\/p>\n
All three are expected to contribute to varying roles in the backfield as UH replaces Dean Connors, an all-purpose back who had a team-high 977 yards in his only season with the Cougars. Connors had\u00a0200 rushing attempts, more than triple any other running back on the roster.<\/p>\n
As a team, UH ranked fifth in rushing in the Big 12, averaging 178.1 yards per game. Quarterback Conner Weigman contributed to UH\u2019s success with 700 yards and team-high 11 touchdowns.<\/p>\n
Hughes has the most experience and will end the spring atop the depth chart. In his final two seasons at Tulane, Hughes rushed for 1,378 yards and seven touchdowns in 2023 and 1,401 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2024.<\/p>\n
At the time Hughes signed this offseason, Fritz described Hughes as \u201ca badass.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe\u2019s tough,\u201d Fritz said.<\/p>\n
Hughes was one of the top running backs in the transfer portal after the 2024 season, eventually signing with Oregon. He saw limited action in four games before asking to redshirt the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor him, it\u2019s been good because I see he has a natural joy and love for the game of football,\u201d Joseph said of the four months since Hughes’ arrival.<\/p>\n
Sanford was primed to pair with Connors in the backfield before he tore a ligament in his left knee just a week before the season opener. He suffered a torn ACL in his right knee in preseason camp in 2023.<\/p>\n
By late December, Sanford had made enough progress in his recovery that Fritz said he could have played in the Texas Bowl. There are no restrictions as Sanford went through UH\u2019s 15 spring practices.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0\u201cAll the reins are off,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cThe biggest thing is getting back into game speed. That comes with more and more reps and contact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly eight months post-surgery, Sanford said he\u2019s ready to pick up where he left off the last time he played in a game.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust to be being back doing what I love to do\u2026 being away from it really helps me understand how much I really do appreciate it,\u201d said Sanford, who led the Cougars with 444 rushing yards as a redshirt freshman. \u201cLike people always say, you never really know how good you have something until it\u2019s taken away from you. I have the chance again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike the first knee injury, Sanford said he knows what to expect after going through a second rehab process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time, I admit I was a little nervous coming back,\u201d Sanford said. \u201cThis time the training wheels are off, I\u2019m older now. You don\u2019t really have time to be scared or not have any faith in yourself. You have to be able to trust the process and everybody around you.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile, Butler is ready for an expanded role. As a freshman in 2024, Butler had 16 rushing attempts (his nearly 5 yards after contact was third among Power Four freshman). He had 68 carries last season, seeing an increased role late in games against UCF and Baylor.<\/p>\n
The Cougars are also expected to look at John Hebert, a four-star signee from Strake Jesuit who piled up more than 8,000 rushing yards in his prep career, and JayShon Ridgle, a junior who has bounced between the wide receiver and running back rooms. Ridgle, who is up to 215 pounds, is a downhill runner clocked at 22 miles per hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an intriguing one,\u201d Joseph said of Ridgle. \u201cHe\u2019s a wild card.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston running back Houston running back Re’Shaun Sanford II (26) runs the ball as BYU cornerback Evan Johnson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-254949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-headlines","10":"tag-houston-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}