Oklahoma State Football: Return of Chuba Hubbard could yield Big 12 title

In more surprising news, Chuba Hubbard announced that he will return to Oklahoma State football in 2020, passing up the NFL draft.

First it was Tylan Wallace announcing his return for another season with Oklahoma State and now it’s Chuba Hubbard following suit.

https://twitter.com/Hubbard_RMN/status/1216858030614159361?s=20

The Canadian-born running back had one of the best seasons in Oklahoma State history, obviously not quite on Barry Sanders’ level, rushing for 2,094 yards and 21 touchdowns on 6.4 yards per carry. Almost everyone outside of Stillwater just assumed he would enter the NFL draft and be chosen in the first couple of round.

We were all wrong.

As seen above, he posted a video on Twitter Monday night, announcing he’d be back for his redshirt junior season. As a freshman last year, he rushed for 740 yards and seven touchdowns on 6.0 yards per touch but those numbers sky-rocketed in 2019. He became the nation’s leading rusher and was third in rushing scores. He was an absolute menace to defenses and it doesn’t look like he’s ready to pass up a chance at a Big 12 title.

And for Oklahoma State, that seems almost likely at this point.

Oklahoma will still be Oklahoma as Spencer Rattler will do just fine at quarterback, replacing Jalen Hurts, but they have some key players to account for in terms of replacements such as CeeDee Lamb. Baylor just lost Matt Rhule to the Carolina Panthers, Texas should be better but there’s still a lot of work to do in Austin and Iowa State, Kansas State and West Virginia may all be on the rise, but not quite there yet.

That leaves Oklahoma State as arguably the most impressive roster outside of Oklahoma with Wallace, Spencer Sanders and now Hubbard returning.

This will likely be the best offense in the conference and that’s not a big three you want to be messing with. Anything short of a Big 12 title in 2020 would be a disappointment for Mike Gundy.