Not many college athletes stick with it long enough to ever see the field for any significant action, but for Bowie graduate Hunter Hutto, he enjoyed a fun season being a part of a winning Hardin Simmons University football team this fall.
The college sophomore and son of Jerry and Shirley Bellah, Hutto came into college as an undersized offensive lineman after a summer of doing manual labor that unexpectedly trimmed him down to 250 pounds.
“I graduated high school weighing what they wanted me to weigh,” Hutto said. “Over the summer I was working and spent a lot of time in the sun. I cut down about 30 pounds heading into my freshman year and I just couldn’t hold weight. I still have the same problem and I can’t gain weight now.”
His freshman season last year saw him bouncing around to several different positions on the offensive line. He was used to that from his last season in high school though it was because the Jackrabbits suffered a lot of injuries that he helped plug up along the line. Hutto still performed well enough to earn Bowie’s only first team all-district selection as a senior.
After a season on the developmental team his freshman year for the Cowboys, it was in the spring when coaches asked Hutto if he would consider changing positions to tight end. While still a position that does its fair share of blocking, it is also a skill position where he would go out to catch passes.
“I’ve always been real paranoid about fumbling,” Hutto said. “If I got the opportunity in a game and doing something like fumbling and allowing the other team to get a turnover. That is what wins and loses football games just off the bat. That’s definitely something in the back of my head.”
Thankfully, Hutto was mostly asked to block this year, his first on the big stage. He was in on special teams for field goals and on offense he was part of a short yardage formation when the team needed to get that that one tough yard.
“We had a package called rhino,” Hutto said. “That was whenever we had a three tight end personnel and it was kind of bigger dudes when we’re on the goal line. Anything with short yardage I was in. I got to be in when we scored touchdowns.”
Hutto also got to experience being on the winningest team he has ever been on. The Cowboys went 9-1 during the regular season, at one point winning seven straight, while claiming their first outright American Southwest Conference title since 2004.
The ride came to an end in the first round of the playoffs with a loss to Trinity University, but the tone had been set and Hutto was hooked on the experience.
“It was definitely a big change winning all the time because you didn’t know how to feel,” Hutto said. “Especially making the playoffs. We were in the first round and I was like, I’ve never really played football past November. I’m not used to playing in big football games. That was a change that you have to get mentally switched to play football games with big stakes to them.”
The jump up from playing 3A Texas High School football at Bowie to Division III football at Hardin Simmons was an adjustment in every aspect.
“To sum it up, at Bowie going against the practice team, you are going against younger guys every day,” Hutto said. “You turn around and you’re practicing against the older guys my freshman year at Hardin Simmons. That definitely made me a lot better. But this year being on varsity, practicing against the show team. Those guys are good. They’re not there for no reason. If you make the slightest error, those guys are going to find it. A lot of times our players that we practice against are better than the guys we play against in a game.”

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.