Cowboys ride on
Oklahoma State opened the season with a win over Missouri State, 58-17.
Hill, Cowboy running backs star in 2018 debut
STILLWATER — Justice Hill claimed a rather unique place in the history of Oklahoma State and Big 12 Conference football in his one quarter of work Thursday night.
When the Cowboy running back stumbled to the ground 2 yards short of the goal line, having gone 92 yards virtually untouched, he had recorded the longest non-touchdown run in OSU and conference history.
It was that kind of night for the Cowboy running backs.
Even when they came up short, they set records.
Hill had 122 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries as Oklahoma State rolled to a 58-17 win over Missouri State to start the season at Boone Pickens Stadium, the Cowboys’ 23rd consecutive victory in a home opener.
After Hill’s 92-yard run late in the first quarter, he got one more rushing attempt, and was done for the night.
Sophomore J.D. King, regarded as Hill’s top backup, had 52 rushing yards on eight carries, plus a 25-yard reception, making life tough on tacklers. His night seemed impressive until the other backups got
involved.
Redshirt freshman Chuba Hubbard wowed the fans with the speed they’d been hearing about but had yet to see on the BPS turf. In the third quarter, Hubbard caught a swing pass from Taylor Cornelius near the line of scrimmage and immediately dodged an open-field tackle attempt. He sidestepped another defender, then blazed between two more on his way to a 54-yard touchdown.
Hubbard finished with 42 rushing yards and 65 receiving yards on 10 total touches in his first career game.
LD Brown flashed his speed, too, going 77 yards for a fourth-quarter TD that helped the Cowboys put an uneven third quarter behind them. The small guy in the group at 5-foot-9 and 191 pounds, Brown finished with 115 yards on 10 carries.
“I think it’s safe to say that (Hubbard and Brown) are fast,” coach Mike Gundy said. “They got in open field and proved that.”
All told, the Cowboy quartet combined for 443 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns on 40 touches, providing the ideal security blanket for Cornelius.
The quarterback had good numbers, completing 24 of 34 pass attempts for 295 yards and five touchdowns. But a few open receivers were missed and some of his decisions were questionable.
The offense, however, doesn’t need superstar status from Cornelius, thanks to Hill and the rest of the running backs — a crew nicknamed the Justice League by Cowboy radio sideline reporter Robert Allen.
Hill, being the unquestioned leader of the group, surpassed Tatum Bell for the school’s longest non-scoring rush, and he passed Keith Toston on OSU’s all-time rushing list.
That’s the type of company Hill keeps in the school’s running back lore, and that’s why he and the rest of the OSU backs will be the big guns and not the side weapons in the offense.