Utah · L 13-21
19 carries, 52 yards, 1 TD
The other 7 games average 66 yards. This one was 14 below.
Dashed line: 100 yards.
Hughes against Houston’s best seasons, game by game
Backs who run like Hughes, and how their seasons went
Hughes against this year’s top backs, game by game
The road ahead: 517 yards, 65 a game, 4 regular-season games left.
As of
The Hughes story everyone was relitigating before the season wasn't a stat line, it was a cautionary tale with a sequel. He left Tulane as a two-time All-AAC back who'd posted around 2,800 rushing yards and 22-plus touchdowns in two seasons, including a 1,401-yard, 17-score 2024, and the portal treated him like a blue-chip. Oregon got the splash; nobody got the production. Buried behind Dierre Hill Jr., Jayden Limar, Noah Whittington and Jordon Davison, Hughes managed 17 carries for 70 yards (4.1 a pop) across four games before asking to redshirt — a medical-hardship door left open by a 2022 injury. Beat writers filed him under "prized transfer fails to make immediate impact," rival message boards passed him around as a what-if-the-fit-is-wrong warning.
The sequel is the part Houston fans actually want to talk about. In January he committed to the Cougars, reuniting with Willie Fritz — the coach who turned him into a freshman All-American at Tulane. Fritz and his staff have been blunt about the diagnosis: this is a back who gets better with 10-plus carries, exactly the volume Oregon never gave him. He left spring as Houston's top halfback on a roster CFN and Athlon are openly floating as a Big 12 dark horse, a dozen starters back, Conner Weigman steering the offense.
The perception-vs-reality tension is the whole card. Is Oregon the truth, or was it just the wrong room? The boards are betting on the latter — "return to form," "breakout player of the Big 12" is the phrase that keeps showing up. The question that decides his 2026: give the workhorse his workload, and Resolves 2027-01-20.PENDING?
Update (Nov. 2, 2026): Through eight games Hughes has 117 carries for 517 yards (4.4 a carry) and four rushing touchdowns, plus nine catches for 78 yards. His best game was the opener, 98 yards on 17 carries, and he has not run for more than 78 since. He would need about 880 more yards to reach the 1,400 the question above asks about.
A falsifiable call from this player's outlook. Not yet gradeable.
the back who ran for 1,400 in the AAC does it again as a feature back in the Big 12
Graded as: at least 1,400 rushing YDS in 2026.
Resolves 2027-01-20.
PENDINGSources
Play style
Hughes is a downhill, contact-balance back built for volume, not a boom-or-bust home-run hitter — his game is the 12th carry, not the first. (Oregon gave him almost no sample: 17 carries, 70 yards, a 4.1 average and a 19-yard long in 2025, so there are no play-by-play percentiles to lean on here, only the Tulane tape underneath.) That tape is a workhorse: back-to-back 250-plus-carry seasons, 1,401 yards and 17 scores in 2024, the kind of grinding between-the-tackles runner who wears a front seven down and gets stronger as the count climbs. He's a willing, capable receiver out of the backfield too — 30 catches and a pair of receiving touchdowns across his Tulane years — which is why Houston's staff talks about getting him the ball "in several ways." The scouting read is simple: a three-down, lead-the-league-in-touches back who needs the touches to be himself.
Boom vs consistent · carry-yardage shape
Steady, not spectacular
Just 14.3% of his season rushing yards came on his 5 best carries — remarkably even — and he's stuffed on 9.4% of his carries. 10 carries for 27 yds vs UCF; 17 for 98 vs Oregon State.
Counted from the play-by-play, so a carry or two can differ from the box score.
Short-yardage / goal-line · enumeration
Who gets the tough yard
15 of 17 on 3rd/4th-and-2-or-less (88.2%). 15 of the team's 30 inside-the-5 carries (50.0%).
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
No bar in a game where the team had under 100 rushing yards: a share of that little says nothing.
Share of the team's total this season.
Each line is one carry: taller means more yards, and a line pointing down lost yards. Black lines are touchdowns. The play text only says left, middle or right, so inside each lane the carries are lined up shortest to longest, not placed. Of his carries with a spot in the play text: left 23, middle 86, right 8.
Fans first named Makhi Hughes at Texas Tech.
Aura™ · Him Watch
Aura compares how much fans talk about this player with how well this player plays, each ranked among RBs.
+44aura tax
23rd percentile our rushing-value metric (weighted expected points added) ranked among 104 RBs
— the talk ranks higher than the play.Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
Last game (Wk 8): 52 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD, 1 catch.
Game log · Week-by-week
2026 season · 8 games
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Wk | Opp | CAR | YDS | AVG | TD | LONG | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 33-20vs Oregon State | 17 | 98 | 5.8 | 1 | 18 | Season-high 98 yds |
| Wk 2 | W 77-6vs Southern | 8 | 44 | 5.5 | 1 | 11 | |
| Wk 3 | L 26-28@ No. 13 Texas Tech | 15 | 71 | 4.7 | 0 | 15 | |
| Wk 4 | W 42-28@ Georgia Southern | 16 | 70 | 4.4 | 0 | 15 | |
| Wk 5 | W 27-17vs UCF | 10 | 27 | 2.7 | 0 | 5 | |
| Wk 6 | W 35-16@ Kansas State | 14 | 78 | 5.6 | 1 | 13 | |
| Wk 7 | W 35-32vs No. 18 Oklahoma State | 18 | 77 | 4.3 | 0 | 9 | |
| Wk 8 | L 13-21@ No. 10 Utah | 19 | 52 | 2.7 | 1 | 11 | |
| Total | 117 | 517 | 4.4 | 4 | 18 |
Oct. 24 · L 13-21 at Utah, play by play
19 carries for 52 yards and a touchdown.
4-yard run on 3rd and 1. First quarter, tied 0-0. Converted.
3-yard run on 3rd and 2. Second quarter, tied 0-0. Converted.
11-yard run. Third quarter, up 3-0.
3-yard run on 3rd and 2. Third quarter, up 3-0. Converted.
18 carries for 77 yards.
3-yard run on 3rd and 1. First quarter, down 3-0. Converted.
9-yard run. First quarter, down 3-0.
No gain on 3rd and 2. Second quarter, up 7-3.
Each carry is a stem from the line, in the lane the play text names, sorted shortest to longest. The play text only says left, middle or right, so inside a lane marks are sorted, not placed.
14 carries for 78 yards and a touchdown.
13-yard touchdown run. Second quarter, made it 21-3.
Each carry is a stem from the line, in the lane the play text names, sorted shortest to longest. The play text only says left, middle or right, so inside a lane marks are sorted, not placed.
10 carries for 27 yards.
10-yard catch on 3rd and 1. First quarter, down 7-0. Converted.
Incomplete on 3rd and 17. First quarter, down 7-0.
2-yard run on 3rd and 1. Second quarter, down 7-0. Converted.
4-yard run on 3rd and 1. Second quarter, down 7-0. Converted.
Each carry is a stem from the line, in the lane the play text names, sorted shortest to longest. The play text only says left, middle or right, so inside a lane marks are sorted, not placed.
16 carries for 70 yards.
2-yard run on 3rd and 1. First quarter, up 7-0. Converted.
15-yard run. Third quarter, up 28-14.
Each carry is a stem from the line, in the lane the play text names, sorted shortest to longest. The play text only says left, middle or right, so inside a lane marks are sorted, not placed.
15 carries for 71 yards.
2-yard run on 3rd and 1. First quarter, tied 0-0. Converted.
21-yard catch on 3rd and 2. First quarter, tied 0-0. Converted.
15-yard run on 3rd and 6. Third quarter, down 21-17. Converted.
1-yard loss on 3rd and 1. Third quarter, down 21-17.
Each carry is a stem from the line, in the lane the play text names, sorted shortest to longest. The play text only says left, middle or right, so inside a lane marks are sorted, not placed.
8 carries for 44 yards and a touchdown.
5-yard run on 3rd and 1. First quarter, tied 0-0. Converted.
11-yard run. First quarter, tied 0-0.
Each carry is a stem from the line, in the lane the play text names, sorted shortest to longest. The play text only says left, middle or right, so inside a lane marks are sorted, not placed.
17 carries for 98 yards and a touchdown, his most this season.
7-yard run on 3rd and 1. First quarter, tied 0-0. Converted.
18-yard run. First quarter, tied 0-0.
6-yard run on 3rd and 2. Second quarter, up 9-7. Converted.
5-yard run on 3rd and 1. Second quarter, up 9-7. Converted.
Each carry is a stem from the line, in the lane the play text names, sorted shortest to longest. The play text only says left, middle or right, so inside a lane marks are sorted, not placed.
Week 1 · 2026
W 33-20
vs Oregon State
98 rush yds (17 car) · 1 TD
With C. Weigman — 305 yds · 1 TD · 1 INT · 30 rush yds (9 car) · 1 TD · L. Dougherty — 42.3 yards per punt · 3 punts · 2 inside the 20
The plays that mattered most
72nd in rushing yards, among all 1,551 FBS players with a rushing row this season, any position
Conference ranks count every player in the conference with a row in that stat, any position. Career ranks count current FBS players, from the games in our log.
Ratings of the games shown run from -5 to +18 points against an average team (SP+ rating of each opponent).
Rush profile · Shape, efficiency, and ball security
How he gets his yards, and how often it works
Success rate
55%117 carriesFumble rate
0.9%1 of 117 carries · 1 lostStuffed
0 or fewer ydsGrind
1–3 ydsChunk
4–9 ydsExplosive
10+ yds4.4 yds/carry on 117 carries · 9% explosive (10+ yds) · 55% success rate.
Situational · Carry shape (PBP, full season)
Yardage DNA
Stuffed (≤0)
Grind (1–3)
Chunk (4–9)
Explosive (10+)
Splits · Per-game
2026 season · 8 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | YPC | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home4g | 61.5 | 4.6 | 0.5 |
| Road4g | 67.8 | 4.3 | 0.5 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | YPC | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-77g | 66.4 | 4.7 | 0.4 |
| Weeks 8+1g | 52.0 | 2.7 | 1.0 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Willie Fritz
Pass share
43.3%
241 pass / 315 run
Plays / game
69.5
8 games
Team sack rate
3.4%
265 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-leaning.
Player standing · 2026
117 carries and 9 catches in 8 games, more touches a game than most FBS running backs who play every week.
Recognition
Production · CFB Zeitgeist Score
Three-star recruit. Now #130 at the position.
The No. 1,156 recruit in the country is carrying the ball in the Big 12.
2026 is in progress.
Honored in a first season.
The snaps went the other way.
Trophy case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
ALL-AAC · 1ST TEAM
All-AAC 1st team (2024)
Coaching lineage · 2022–2026
3 coachesPlayed for 3 head coaches at 3 schools: Willie Fritz, Jon Sumrall and Dan Lanning.
Next stop · Transfer
Transferred to Houston
