4 reasons why Texas football will pull off a massive upset vs. OK State

3) Why Texas football can upset Oklahoma State: Stopping Chuba Hubbard

There’s really no team that was able to completely shut down the star redshirt junior Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard when he got a heavy workload in the last 15 games or so. About the best that any defense was able to do this season so far to stop Hubbard was actually in the Pokes season opener back on Sep. 19 against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.

Tulsa held Hubbard to less than 100 rushing yards on a whopping 27 carries, with one rushing touchdown (averaging just 3.4 yards per carry). Since then, though, Hubbard really started to find his stride on the ground. He’s now registered well over 425 rushing yards and five rushing scores through four games played this season.

However, Texas did do a good job last season of holding Hubbard in check considering the large workload he got. Hubbard registered 121 rushing yards (3.3 yards per carry) on 37 carries, to go along with two rushing scores. That was, by a good margin, the lowest number of yards per carry that any defense held Hubbard to last year.

If the Longhorns can boast similar defensive strength against Hubbard and the Pokes ground game this year, it will go a long way to being able to pull off the upset. An interesting tidbit is that when Hubbard was held under five yards per carry in games last season, Oklahoma State posted a record of 1-3. That left the Pokes to post a record of 7-2 when he averaged more than five yards per carry.