Tech freshman linebacker Hubert making name for himself [Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Texas]
Aug. 28--Cqulin Hubert made so many good plays in high school that coaches voted him all-District 19-5A each of the last two years.
Quite often, his teammates on the Aldine Eisenhower Eagles could be found congratulating Hubert on a sack or clapping him on the back for a crunching tackle.
The drawback: That meant some poor stadium public-address announcer had to pronounce his name. Or, more often, mispronounce it.
"Oh my God, so many times," Hubert said. "Every time I'd go to a different stadium -- even sometimes when I was in my home stadium when I was in high school -- they'd mispronounce my name."
For the record, "CUE-lin" is the right way to say Hubert's given name. Texas Tech's freshman linebacker has no idea what his parents, Courtney Hubert and Alicia Williams, were thinking when they decided to name him that. He offers no oft-told story or ready explanation.
He just knows it's been butchered again and again. The worst offender might have been the PA announcer at Sugar Land Hightower. That fellow called Hubert something that, to him, sounded like "Cuckoo-quaylin."
"Cuckoo-quaylin Hubert. I didn't know who that was," Hubert said. "Sometimes before the game I'd tell my coach, let me go up there and tell them how to say my name."
Red Raiders fans might have the name down in no time if Hubert, who's made a good first impression, keeps it up. The 6-foot-2, 233-pound freshman has been training behind middle linebacker Bront Bird, who last week lauded Hubert's hitting ability.
Senior running back Baron Batch said he's seen few players who come in early and play as physical a style as Hubert does.
"He doesn't care if he's out there playing against guys older than him," Batch said. "It doesn't matter to him. He's going to go play. That's what you have to do to be able to get out there early. You just have to have no regard for who's across from you."
Hubert thinks it's because of where he came from. When Hubert was a junior, Eisenhower's senior class had players sign with Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas and LSU. Hubert said he looked up to two in particular, wide receiver Greg Timmons, who went to Texas, and defensive back Craig Loston, now at LSU.
So this isn't the first time he's been on the field with major-college talent.
"I'm not intimidated," Hubert said. "I'm not intimidated at all. My high school was a very competitive high school. There were a lot of great dudes that came out of there. There were a lot of Division I players and, coming out here, that makes it very easy."
Hubert and Tech coaches are still grounded in reality. Hubert said adapting to the Tech defense is "a very big challenge" that is "going to take some time." Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said Hubert "still doesn't have a clue what he's doing."
But Tuberville softened that assessment by pointing out that middle linebacker is the quarterback of his defense, someone who is responsible for taking care of his own duties and getting everyone else lined up, too.
"It's very mental," Tuberville said. "But we'll throw a little bit more at him every day. We'll try to get him in the game a few plays. He's got to get experience, and he's got to be around it."
Hubert is happy to be getting his college chance at Tech. Though 16 of the Red Raiders' scholarship newcomers committed to Mike Leach's staff before signing with Tuberville, Hubert was never contacted by Tech until after the coaching change.
Defensive coordinator James Willis called him less than a month before national signing day, and found a willing listener. Hubert was pledged to Iowa State, but familiar with Tech because a cousin, Marcus Jammer, had been on the Red Raiders' track team a few years before.
During that time, Hubert said he made three trips to Lubbock. He remembers walking around the campus and going to the rec center.
"I always told myself I really wanted to go to Tech," he said, "but I never thought I was actually going to Tech until coach Willis came.
"I was ready. I was so happy that Tech came and got me. Playing in black and red, it's just wonderful. I love it. I love it out here in Lubbock."
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