Despite the Oklahoma State’s win, Chuba Hubbard’s Heisman hopes already dashed
By John Buhler
After Oklahoma State avoided the upset vs. Tulsa in their season-opener, Heisman hopeful Chuba Hubbard may have already seen his Heisman hopes dashed.
It took one game, but Chuba Hubbard will not be bringing the Heisman Trophy back to Stillwater.
With a narrow home victory over the in-state rival Tulsa Golden Hurricane of the AAC, the Oklahoma State Cowboys did next to nothing to merit their No. 11 ranking. Starting quarterback Spencer Sanders got hurt before halftime and Hubbard didn’t beat the brakes off the Tulsa defense in the ground game. Oklahoma State survives, but Hubbard’s Heisman bid is over.
Chuba Hubbard can win every other major award, just not the Heisman Trophy.
We all know that Hubbard is the Pokes’ best player. He may play for a near-Big 12 blue-blood, but his talent and reputation far succeeds that of the program he plays for. With Jonathan Taylor now on the Indianapolis Colts, Hubbard might be able to win the Doak Walker Award in 2020, but he didn’t go enough vs. Tulsa in the Cowboys’ lone non-conference game to win the Heisman Trophy.
He had 27 carries for 93 yards and a touchdown, as well as two catches out of the backfield for -7 yards. Again, these numbers are fine and certainly good enough to help Hubbard win the Doak Walker, be all-Big 12 and a potential First-Team All-American. Unfortunately, he needed to post a similar stat line to what he did vs. Tulsa last year when he ran for 256 yards and three touchdowns to boost his candidacy.
As a running back, he’s already facing an uphill battle against the quarterbacks who will have monster production like Spencer Rattler and Sam Ehlinger in the Big 12, but this type of performance isn’t going to catch the attention of the Heisman voters.
This is the latest example of how the Big 12 has not taken care of business in the non-conference this year. Last week saw the Kansas Jayhawks, the Kansas State Wildcats and the Iowa State Cyclones all lose at home to three Sun Belt teams in the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, the Arkansas State Red Wolves and the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, respectively. At least the Pokes won on Saturday.
The good news for Mike Gundy‘s team is they can achieve all their wildest dreams still. If they can navigate the nine-game, round-robin Big 12 schedule to something along the lines of an 8-1 record, the Pokes will get to Arlington. If they knock off the Oklahoma Sooners or the Texas Longhorns to get to 10-1 or 11-0, the Cowboys can make the College Football Playoff.
It’s only September, but we shouldn’t expect Hubbard to be in the mix to win the Heisman Trophy.
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