Hubbard and Co. Are Ready for Season Opener, Whenever It May Be

Oklahoma State preseason All-American running back Chuba Hubbard talks about how ready and excited he is to start the 2020 season off with the season opener against Tulsa.

STILLWATER – Going into August and fall camp, everyone surrounding and involved with college football knew how crazy it could get. Oklahoma State found out first hand Monday night when Tulsa announced the postponement of the season opener with the Cowboys to Sept. 19.

Tulsa has had to deal with a rash of positive COVID-19 cases since the beginning of fall camp, which means they’ve only been able to practice a handful of times over the last few weeks.

Tulsa head coach Philip Montgomery met with media Tuesday morning to discuss the postponement.

"I think for both schools and for both parties, it was more about making sure that our guys have had — and theirs as well — just making sure that we are prepared physically and mentally to step onto the field," said Montgomery.

As I tweeted about this morning, Oklahoma State Athletics Media Relations made running back Chuba Hubbard available to the media for the first time since early March. The All-American was asked about the team’s mental preparedness going into the series and how, if any, the postponement has affected the team.

“I feel that a lot of people are comfortable,” Hubbard said of his teammates playing in a pandemic. “Obviously, there’s going to be people that aren’t [comfortable], I can’t speak for everybody, but from our team, I know a lot of us just want to play. That’s the biggest thing for us. It’s been a long time; we missed spring ball, we got a little bit of work in the summer time. So, now that the game got pushed back a little bit, I know people are just itching to play. That’s really what’s on our mind, just getting ready to play.”

There were a few quotes from Hubbard that really stuck out during the availability. Before the call officially got started, Hubbard was made aware that he was tabbed an ESPN Preseason All-American. So, naturally, talk made it’s way around to how he’s progressed during the offseason and how prepared he is for the season. Going off these next two quotes, I think it’s safe to say that no matter when the season kicks off for the Pokes, Hubbard’s ready to go.

"Whether we play today, tomorrow, next week, five months from now. I'm going to be ready."

“I didn’t come back to break records for myself. I came back to win a Big 12 championship and a national championship with my team.”

Now, a little news to relay. Pokes Report found out Tuesday evening the game details for Oklahoma State’s rescheduled season opener will be announced on Wednesday.

It’s still unclear as to when or what channel the game will be on, but since ESPN chose the game to air in the first place, it’s very possible they’ll want to retain ownership with another chance to air it. The only problem is they’ve already filled their schedule for the 19th. The likely outcome would be putting it on ESPN+, which would be good for them and Big 12 Now.

The other likely outlet would be FOX as their schedule is completely open with the Big Ten and Pac 12 not playing football this fall. The Big 12 could jump in and say since ESPN has already filled its schedule, they want FOX to pick it up so the game is not relegated to streaming. That would mean the conference would offer ESPN and game later in the future and FOX would have to agree to make the switch.

Pokes Report will be on top of the release tomorrow, so be sure to check back in on Wednesday.