By ADAM ADKINS | aadkins@tampatrib.com

TAMPA - J.J. Hubbard stands just 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs 163 pounds, but the Robinson High School football team expects him to carry a huge load this season.

Hubbard, a rising senior running back, will enter the 2010 season as the first option out of the Knights' backfield. After splitting time as part of a backfield committee each of his first two full varsity seasons, this will mark the first time in Hubbard's prep career that he will be the primary ball carrier, an opportunity he eagerly has awaited since entering the program as a freshman in 2007.

A string of big performances in the playoffs last year paved the way for Hubbard to get this opportunity. He had two of his best games of the season in Robinson's two postseason victories, rushing for 90 yards and a touchdown in an opening-round win against Arcadia DeSoto County, and rushing for 155 yards and three touchdowns in a regional final win against Wauchula Hardee.