Did Canadian Hubbard hurt NFL chances by waiting?
The NFL is calling Chuba Hubbard. But many think he's answering a year too late.
News of Hubbard's decision to declare for the NFL Draft came out Saturday, just ahead of his Oklahoma State Cowboys' 42-3 victory over the host Baylor Bears.
“Chuba's not gonna play,” head coach Mike Gundy said on Oklahoma State's radio pre-game show. “Chuba's chosen to go to the NFL.”
His opt-out of the rest of the season caps what's been a strange 2020 for the native of Sherwood Park, Alta. — never mind all the COVID circumstances.
After winning the Jon Cornish Trophy in May as the most outstanding Canadian player in NCAA football, Hubbard faced turmoil — from a highly publicized criticism of Gundy, who was caught on camera wearing a shirt promoting a channel that often attacks the Black Lives Matter movement, to a spate of injuries that hampered his on-field performance.
He didn't play a lot, fuelling talk he should have declared for the NFL Draft last year after racking up an eye-popping 2,094 rushing yards. When you get right down to it, though, NFL scouts already have a handle on what the “Canadian Cowboy” can do.
Did Hubbard's draft stock drop by returning? Probably. That nagging leg injury certainly didn't do him any favours in posting just 625 rushing yards this fall.
But you can't blame a kid for wanting one more year of fun and football with an NCAA contender before the business of pro sports takes over this life.
And really, his position for the 2021 NFL Draft isn't much different than last year, when he was ranked as one of the top-five running backs with Clemson's Travis Etienne, Ohio State's J.K. Dobbins, Wisconsin's Jonathan Taylor and Georgia's D'Andre Swift on many boards. He was rated fifth on the biggest of those draft boards, which is put together by ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr.
Last we saw this year, despite all the issues, Hubbard is fourth on Kiper's “Big Board” behind Alabama's Najee Harris, Etienne — who, like Hubbard, returned for another college campaign — and North Carolina's Javonte Williams. The Canadian's likely a second-rounder when the NFL drafts in late April, just as he would have been in 2020.