Chuba Hubbard Inching Up ESPN’s Heisman List

Chuba Hubbard might not be resonating with Heisman voters at large, but in the eyes of one very large, very powerful organization, he’s starting to get some credit for what remains an outrageous season.

Hubbard came in sixth in Heisman voting in a recent straw poll of voters, but a collection of folks at ESPN see it differently. They have him fourth, behind the triumvirate of Burrow, Fields and Hurts (also a good southern law firm name).

FBS’ leading rusher had another strong performance Saturday, rushing for 122 yards and two TDs in Oklahoma State’s 31-13 win over Kansas. With two games left, Hubbard sits at fifth on the Cowboys’ single-season rushing chart. [ESPN]

The question for me is whether Hubbard is tacked onto that top three or left at home. That’s your probable trio when it comes to a visit to NYC here in a few weeks (unless Bedlam goes very poorly for Hurts ?), and it will be up to the Heisman trustee whether Hubbard — if he’s still in the same position — gets an invitation.

He certainly deserves one.

“At some point you have to look and say, ‘OK is this a quarterback award or do running backs and other positions potentially get involved?’ If it’s just a quarterback award, I’m good. I’m bringing evidence to the table. Here’s my evidence. If he rushes for 1,900 yards and nobody else rushes for 1,900 yards in a Power 5 conference school, is it just a quarterback award now? I’m saying, if he’s the only guy it’s a pretty good accomplishment.”

Chuba is currently at 1,726 yards on the year. Nobody else even has 1,500. Only three other Power 5 backs even have 1,300. And Chuba’s not racking up yards just because he has a lot of carries either. His 6.7 yards per carry ranks sixth nationally among players who have at least 100 carries on the season.

A chart comparing total yards to yards per carry for the 21 rushers who have over 1,000 yards on the season.

It’s honestly kind of laugh-out worthy. Chuba is a Heisman contender, deserves to be a Heisman contender and is now two big games away from all of this coming to fruition as OSU’s best (offensive) Canadian takes on NYC.