Many Longhorn athletes are one hit wonders!
MUSICAL ONE-HIT WONDERS:
By Larry Carlson https://texaslsn.org
Way, way into adult-hood, I was still the guy among the guys I grew up with, who could ID all the “one-hit wonder” songs and artists through the decades. Yet another of the questionable “skills” I was blessed with. Knowing all the Texas high school football nicknames, from the Robstown Cotton Pickers to the Hamlin Pied Pipers. Nothing to actually bring to harvest a thin dime. Just trivial pursuits to occupy brain files.
These days, my amigos don’t even have to dial my cell phone number to settle an argument or soothe a now-forgetful mind. Nowadays, they can just ask Siri or consult Wikipedia.
But there’s a new meaning to the term, “one hit wonder.” No longer does this just refer to (I’ll give you some easy ones) Norman Greenbaum’s masterful “Spirit In The Sky”
or Steam’s “Na Na Hey Hey, Kiss Him Goodbye” that became an overused taunt and stadium anthem.
Or William DeVaughn’s soothing “Be Thankful For What You Got.”
Or blue-eyed soulster Pete Wingfield’s “Eighteen With A Bullet.” Or Godley & Creme’s oh-so-haunting “Cry.”
Nope, the one-hit wonders of today do not climb the Billboard charts. They dwell at the top of college football’s depth charts. And payrolls.
THE ONE-HIT WONDERS:
Musical Chairs In College Football
By Larry Carlson https://texaslsn.org
Billy Dale calls them one and done football mercenaries. No Loyalty to our great University- just a stepping stone to money, money, money
It is much more common for players to jump schools and play the NIL game show than it is to stay put somewhere, work to develop as a player and actually make progress toward earning a degree.
It’s not like we weren’t warned. A couple of years ago, quarterback JT Daniels, once of five-star potential fame, became the first man to start at QB for four colleges. The sojourn began at USC, then JT took a midnight train to Georgia. Next, country roads took him home to West Virginia. He ended the odyssey at Rice, of all places.
The Texas Longhorns’ despised rivals from the Indian Territory have been transfer-friendly for sometime, especially at the quarterback position, despite having never flagged down JT Daniels on his two-lane blacktop tour. Whether it’s been for a stop of several years or just a one semester whistle stop, OU has put some serious tread on transfers and portal maximization. Baker Mayfield. Skyler Murray. Jalen Hurts. Spencer Rattler. Dillon Gabriel. John Mateer.
Heck, tight end Austin Stogner lined up for a few years with the Sooners, moved on to play at South Carolina, then did a 180 back to Norman a season later. In good graces.
Ya think Steve Sarkisian will bring back Parker Livingstone in January 2027?
Nah, I don’t either.
The haters out there might smirk at Texas Tech’s 2025 season that ended with a quarterfinal shutout loss to Oregon. You could say that the Sand Aggies’ Big XII champs were not built for success, just paid for. Correct on both counts.
But it’s a new day, Baby. Tech billionaire — and Chairman of the Board of Regents — Cody Campbell can and will be able to field teams that live not for the future but for the day.
Because Campbell and the Red Raiders speak today’s language very fluently. Money.
Money, money, money, money, mo-ney. Cue the O’Jays, though they were not a band of one-hit wonders.Back to football, though. And cashing in on,the real Mean Green, not UNT.
You can show all the bright lights of Austin, Los Angeles and Miami to a17-year-old high school dude or a hulking 20-year-old man-child in the portal. You can tour them past or the trophy cases in Tuscaloosa, Columbus and Ann Arbor. And then you can compare them, derisively, to the landscapes and finery of Lubbock or Bloomington, Indiana. Good luck on closing the deal, though.
Because we all learned at least one catch-phrase from “Jerry Maguire,” 30 years ago.
“Show me the money!”
Everybody seems to know who Cody Campbell is. Money talks and the frugal walk. Don’t be surprised if entertainment media Taylor Sheridan is pondering the plausibility of a new South Plains series combining the elements of oil, Texas Tech football and Buddy Holly’s music that was born in Lubbock.
Up in the Midwest, it’s worth noting that one particularly wealthy Indiana alumnus has begun to strongly, strongly fund football the past two years. His name is Mark Cuban and he says he’s all in. Your move, Ohio State and Michigan. Oregon’s not the only team with a deep-pocketed sugar daddy.
College football is in a deep, deep state of transition. Everybody’s got a FOR SALE sign out. And if you’re a savvy head coach, you’re going for — and giving out — the gold. Or Golden, as Texas successfully did in 2024 when UT signed WR Matthew Golden away from the Houston Cougars. Golden utilized his world class speed to lead Texas in catches with 49 in ‘2024, then sped off to the NFL as Green Bay’s first round pick.
The Longhorns’ defensive “one hit” wonder for the 2024 national semifinalists was Andrew Mukuba, a former LBJ High standout who trekked home from Clemson to star for a salty secondary. The man who was born and raised in Zimbabwe continued his nomadic ways and found a 2025 home in Philadelphia. The Eagles’ second round pick enjoyed a standout rookie season until he was sidelined by a late-November ankle injury against Dallas.
The Longhorns got an early dose of transfer excellence about a dozen years ago when they lured kicker Anthony Fera (raised in the Houston area) back from Penn State. Fera was named All-America in 2013, hitting 20 of 22 field goals for Mack Brown’s final UT squad. There have been other successes on the Forty Acres.
Just last season, Mason Shipley moved up I-35 from San Marcos where he had been a Groza Award finalist while kicking at Texas State. He was 15-for-15 from between 0 and 49 yards.
Seven years earlier, Westlake alumnus Calvin Anderson got a degree at Rice, then — as a grad transfer — anchored a solid O-line for the Horns’ team that won ten games in ’18, beating Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. That UT edition’s leading rusher? Tre Watson, a grad transfer from Cal. He ran for almost 800 yards behind Anderson and company.
Arguably the biggest one-year “influencer” at Texas thus far, Adonai Mitchell, was Quinn Ewers’ go-to receiver in the ’23 run that ended with a semifinal loss to Washington. Mitchell, previously a star for Kirby Smart at Georgia, helped lead the Longhorns to a Big XII title in their last year in the league, snagging 55 catches all over the field and scoring eleven touchdowns. He was the rare receiver with size, speed, all the moves plus the most reliable hands around. Mitchell’s lone season as a Longhorn produced a filthy highlight reel that will be hard to match. He was a second round pick of the Colts and now has the tough task of toiling for the Jets. But he possesses the potential to earn NFL stardom.
Meanwhile, legions of Texas fanatics gave gushing thanks on Sunday (Jan. 11) when news broke that UT opened the vault and paid the asking price, reportedly more than $2 million, of former Auburn WR Cam Coleman. He was the Horns’ most coveted portal prize in the new year. Days earlier, Sark and his staff landed two linebackers and two running backs. Coleman will spend time and money for one season in Austin, then it’s on to the NFL. The others? Who knows?
But know this. Unless and until the NCAA adopts and embraces unprecedented basic common sense — like one transfer per player and no intraconference transfers — the madness, the highest bidder and ye of zero loyalty — shall rule. With more musical chairs and more music metaphors and apologies to T. Swift…there will be no more “greatest hits” compilations of longtime greats at one stop. Not only Elvis has left the building. So has what we have cherished about players carving their names, long term, into the collective lore of fan bases and record books.
Say adios to the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Eagles. Say hello to the session players, hired to hit the high notes and harmonize with strangers for a minute or two. Cue up the old K-TEL records vinyl collection. It’s time for the Human Beinz, Zager & Evans, Level 42, a-ha, Chumbawamba, Tommy Tutone and Los Del Rio and their Macarena.
The one-hit wonder is the new hit music, like it or not.
That doesn’t mean it all sounds bad. It doesn’t. Might as well turn it up and cruise.
“I been drivin’ all night, my hand’s wet on the wheel…”
You remember that one, don’t you?
(TLSN’s Larry Carlson is a member of The Football Writers Association of America. He teaches sports media at Texas State University and lives in San Antonio. He really, really, really loves “Tighter, Tighter” by Alive ‘N’ Kickin’ and Blu De Tiger’s “Figure It Out.” Write him at lc13@txstate.edu)
Most of the photos below are players who were one-and-done at Texas and represent the new classification of mercenary Longhorns .
Tre Watson 
Matthew Golden 
Jerry Maguire – show me the money 
Calvin Anderson 
Anthony Fera 
Andrew Mukuba 
Adonai Mitchell
