Oregon State Football: Most Valuable Player Countdown - #15 Andrzej Hughes-Murray

The sophomore linebacker looks to become a mainstay in the linebacker starting lineup.

By Leo Castaneda@PoliCastaneda Aug 11, 2017, 9:15am PDT

Oregon State v UCLA — Andrzej Hughes-Murray was thrust onto the field at the midpoint of the season due attrition at the outside linebacker position.

#15 Andrzej Hughes-Murray - Inside Linebacker

Remember how earlier in this countdown we mentioned that due to the injury situation at outside linebacker, several true freshmen burned their redshirts last year? Well, Andrzej Hughes-Murray was one of those guys that was forced into playing time earlier than expected because of that. He ended up playing in the last six games of the season while starting four of them. Tree-Trunk, as I like to call him (seriously, have you seen the legs this guy came to OSU with?), finished the year with 24 tackles, 3 of them for a loss.

Hughes-Murray’s best game came against Stanford where he collected nine tackles, one of them for a loss, and one fumble recovery. There he also executed what was likely one of the best defensive plays of the season where he stopped former Heisman Trophy finalist, Christian McCaffrey on a fourth and goal play (1:59:49 of video below). To accomplish that feat, the timing of his burst off the line and his point of attack had to be absolutely perfect, along with the use of good tackling form, using both arms to wrap up.

Oregon State v Stanford — In one of the best defensive plays of the year, Andrzej Hughes-Murray pulled Christian McCaffrey from scoring on fourth down, completing the goal line stand.

This spring, Hughes-Murray was moved from outside linebacker to inside linebacker where he will likely suit up next to Manase Hungalu in the starting lineup. We at Building the Dam are very high on him to blossom into All Pac-12 material before his career is over. He’s already got the strength and nose for the football that will make him a serious contributor on this year’s football team.