Oklahoma State Football: LD Brown would be wise to return in 2021

While he hasn’t made a decision yet, LD Brown would be wise to make the decision to return to Oklahoma State football in 2021.

Oklahoma State is entering an uncertain time. Chuba Hubbard is moving on, leaving a major void in the backfield for the first time in a few seasons.

Getting Chuba back for a redshirt junior year was already a huge win for Mike Gundy and he knew that 2020 would probably be his last season in Stillwater so his decision to move on was not surprising. He was ready and his stock took a little bit of a hit this season because of his numbers dipping a little, but he’s going to make one NFL team very happy that they snagged him on Day 2.

Back to Oklahoma State’s issue, though. Right now, they don’t have a clear starting running back.

Typically, that would be given to Chuba’s backup from the past couple of seasons, but LD Brown hasn’t announced whether he’s coming back for another season yet. There have been rumors that he’s leaning towards coming back, but nothing official yet.

But LD would be making the best decision if he chose to come back for a fifth year. He didn’t get to make a name for himself as much as he would have liked behind Chuba for a few years and now that the path is cleared for him to start, he could finally be that workhorse back.

Look, I get it, the shelf life for running backs in the NFL is incredibly short. Brown probably wants to test the waters and see if he can’t surprise people and make a roster and climb a depth chart, but he could be a Day 2-caliber pick next year if he decided to come back and start for an entire season in Stillwater.

Brown has some impressive numbers through four years as a backup. He has over 1,000 yards and eight touchdowns and he’s never averaged less than 5.3 yards per carry in a season.

Oklahoma State has to hope for a return of LD in 2021 because with him in the backfield getting the amount of carries that Chuba did, there would be little, if any, drop-off in the run game.