Unstoppable Force Chuba Hubbard Coming to Morgantown Saturday

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – One of the best football players in the nation will be in Morgantown this weekend when Chuba Hubbard and the Oklahoma State Cowboys come to town to take on the Mountaineers.

West Virginia (3-6, 2-5 Big 12) kept its bowl game aspirations alive last week with an upset of Kansas State on the road. Meanwhile, Oklahoma State (7-3, 4-3) is riding a three-game winning streak having defeated Iowa State, TCU and Kansas in consecutive contests.

Hubbard, a redshirt sophomore, is leading the nation in rushing with 1,726 yards through 10 games. His 2,244-yard pace would set a new Big 12 single-season record.

WVU head coach Neal Brown said Oklahoma State’s offense runs through Hubbard.

“It all starts offensively with Chuba Hubbard,” Brown said. “He’s the complete package, he runs for power, he runs for speed, he’s been incredibly durable. He wears you out.”

Defensive coordinator Vic Koenning knows what makes Hubbard so good.

“Strength, speed, balance, got a really good burst, he finds the hole and he’s really got good vision,” Koenning said. “Once he breaks into the secondary, I don’t know if we’ve got anybody that’s going to run faster than him. So we’ve got to use great angle and we’ve got to be flawless in out support angles.”

Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy has been saying that Hubbard is deserving of consideration for the Heisman Trophy, and Brown agrees.

“I’m in agreeance with coach Gundy that he’s definitely deserving of being in the Heisman Trophy race for sure,” Brown said. “I wish him luck, just not luck on Saturday and I hope he goes straight to the NFL.”

Junior defensive lineman Darius Stills said competing against a player like that is a great opportunity for the WVU defense to make a name for itself.

“I believe if you’re not motivated to play a player like that, nothing can really motivate you,” Stills said. “Us as a defensive line, as a whole defense, we’re really motivated to go up against competition that’s going to get our name out there if we stop the. We’re ready to step into challenges every week.”

No matter how confident the defense may be, Koenning and Stills both know stopping Hubbard will be a challenge.

“It’s going to be a great challenge for our guys,” Koenning said. “Schematically, they do a fantastic job, they always have. Regardless of who Mike’s had as an offensive coordinator, they’ve always been a premier offensive team. They have great players and their scheme’s really good. You put those two things together and it’s really difficult (to stop them).”

“It’s a challenge and our defensive line like challenges,” Stills said. “Us as a defensive line, we love competition and love challenges. We’re still going to do our thing. He’s a really good running back but we’re not going to get too uptight about it. We’re just going to run our calls, execute our calls and whatever happens happens.”

Mountaineers and Cowboys will kick-off from Milan Puskar Stadium at noon and be broadcast on ESPN2.