Chuba Hubbard Calls Relationship With Mike Gundy a Work-in-Progress
Thursday morning, Chuba Hubbard joined Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman on ESPN's First Take to discuss the situation and his relationship with head coach Mike Gundy.
The interview started with showing clips that circulated last night about the upcoming original series following Oklahoma State football this fall on ESPN+.
While he didn't go into great detail, Hubbard was asked by Smith if he spoke out earlier this week because of the shirt coach Gundy was wearing, or if it kind of a last straw situation with other things leading up to it.
"Maybe it's a little bit of both," Hubbard said. "I feel a lot of people need to be educated, including myself, and it's my job to educate myself first and then to educate people that aren't educated. I feel that a lot of things have happened in these last few days, and even these last few years, but my job is just to move forward and try to make Oklahoma State a better place."
The whole ordeal started when a photo of head coach Mike Gundy wearing a One America News Network shirt was tweeted out Monday afternoon. Shorty after it came out, Heisman candidate running back Chuba Hubbard said he wouldn't be doing anything with Oklahoma State football until changes were made.
Shortly after, coach Gundy and Hubbard, along with other members of the team, met for a couple of hours Monday evening and started to work on implementing change. Gundy also released an apology via Twitter Tuesday evening, so people just assumed that things were back to normal with the start running back and head coach. But Chuba mentioned that while things weren't horrible, they definitely were 100% between the two.
“Obviously, [when] that video came out, a lot of people thought everything’s good now. That’s not the case. It’s a work in progress.” Hubbard said. “I wanted that video to be a first step showing that he understands what he did wrong and he needs to move forward. If not, then there’s consequences from those things.”
“To speak on your second question with what my relationship with Coach Gundy was before, it was also a work in progress,” Hubbard said. “Every relationship, I feel, has bumpy roads, whether it’s a good relationship or a bad relationship. Coach Gundy has done a lot of good things, so I will not just shut out a man for one thing he did. But he did do wrong and he’s going to have to make up for that.”
In the ESPN+ interview, you can tell that coach Gundy is trying to work on bettering himself as a person. That started with him condemning OAN after doing some more research.
“I didn’t know some of the stances [OAN] had taken,” Gundy said. “I didn’t know that. But then you look at it and say, ‘OK, I was a dumbass.’ I put the shirt on, not knowing enough about the shirt."
Hubbard was then asked about what specific changes he and the team were trying to work towards. Earlier in the week, Hubbard mentioned he wouldn't be doing anything else with Oklahoma State until changes were made.
While he didn't go into specifics on changes within the program, he did speak powerfully on broad changes he and his teammates are trying to implement.
"I won't go into complete specifics on exactly we want changed as a team, but I'll say this, we want a better experience for black student athletes, we want to encourage people to use their voice and use their platform for good. That's the biggest thing."
