Oklahoma State Football Preview 2026: The Cowboys Will Be Wild Again
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Seriously, do you have any real idea how good Oklahoma State football was in the Mike Gundy era?
He cranked out 18 straight winning seasons, his 2011 team should’ve been in the BCS Championship, the 2021 squad came a few inches away from being in the College Football Playoff, and then, right after the program’s eighth double-digit win season in 14 years …
Oof.
– 2026 Oklahoma State Schedule Analysis
Can Oklahoma State’s Massive Transfer Experiment Work Right Away?
The 2024 team started out 3-0. It was business as usual, and then, in one of the most stunning crashes in college football history, the program lost 20 straight games against FBS schools, with the only break in the gloom a win over UT Martin to start last season.
No, really. How good was Oklahoma State? Even after going 1-20 in the last 21 games, it’s still among the winningest programs in the College Football Playoff era to not make the tournament.
What was worse than all the losing? Oklahoma State became super-dull.
The 2026 Cowboys will be a lot of things this year, but under new head coach Eric Morris, it’ll be anything but boring.
Oklahoma State Quick Hits
- Head Coach: Eric Morris (1st year at Oklahoma State, 8th year overall, 46-34)
- Best Case / Worst Case: Be in the Big 12 Championship mix/Third straight losing season
- Key Player: Drew Mestemaker, QB Soph.
- 2025 Record: 1-11
- Biggest Question: How fast can all the transfers blend together?
Oklahoma State Key 2025 Stats
- Third Quarter Scoring: Opponents 106, Oklahoma State 27
- Fourth Down Conversions: Opponents 18-of-22 (82%), Oklahoma State 10-of-25 (40%)
- Average Yards Per Pass: Oklahoma State 8.9, Opponents 5.7
Offense
North Texas had the No. 1 offense in America.
It was No. 1 in scoring, No. 2 in passing, and it all went at 1000 miles per hour, scoring 45 points or more nine times.
And now, eight players off that high-powered attack will take over an Oklahoma State team that finished 130th in the nation in total offense.
The only time North Texas was held to under 31 points was in the 34-21 American Conference Championship loss to Tulane.
Oklahoma State didn’t score more than 27 points in any game, and scored 21 points or fewer ten times.
What’s Working
Welcome to Stillwater, Drew Mestemaker. He’s one of the wildest stories in college football.
The sophomore quarterback didn’t start in high school, so his first time taking over was against Texas State in the 2024 First Responder Bowl. He threw for almost 400 yards with two touchdowns, and ran for another.
Last year, he ripped apart everyone, throwing for over 4,800 yards and 36 touchdowns, ran for six more, and now he’s the veteran triggerman who knows everything about how to make the Eric Morris O go.
Mestemaker is the star of the show, but Caleb Hawkins isn’t far behind. The fellow North Texas transfer ran for over 1,400 yards and 25 touchdowns, caught 32 passes for 370 yards and four more touchdowns.
He’ll combine with career 2,480-yard, 17-touchdown back Ayo Adeyi to add a whole lot of flash to the backfield.
There wasn’t any problem finding receivers who wanted to be a part of the fun. North Texas stars Wyatt Young and Miles Coleman, Justin Bowick from Illinois, Wake Forest’s Chris Barnes, Akron’s Israel Polk, and on and on and on. There’s no shortage of weapons.
What Needs Work
Yeah, the North Texas offense was amazing last year, but it faced as many Power Four defenses as you did.
The Tulane defense held the attack in check, Western Michigan and Washington State kept it just over 400 yards, and there’s a bit of a prove-it factor here with the upgrade in competition and talent to deal with.
How fast can all of the new guys on the offensive line gel? The skill parts are fantastic, but it’s not all that easy to take five random guys and assume it’ll all work right away.
The starting five of all transfers should be okay in time, but talent-wise, this is one of the few areas with a big drop-off.
Losing center Austin Kawecki to Wisconsin, tackle Grant Seagren to Northwestern, and guard Noah McKinney to TCU is big.
For all of the good things the offense with all these stars can do, there are too many turnovers. Five in the loss to USF, five more in the loss to Tulane, and there were three more games with multiple giveaways.
Player to Watch
Wyatt Young, WR Jr.
Mestemaker and Hawkins are the superstars, but Young should once again be a volume-catching powerhouse. He made 70 grabs for 1,264 yards and ten touchdowns last year, averaging 18 yards per grab.
Everything opened up late in the season, hitting Rice for 295 yards and Charlotte for 190. Expect at least five catches a game.
Defense
The Oklahoma State defense won’t be all transfers like the offense will be, and this side of the ball will be the real question mark.
The offense will go fast, score fast, and work fast – can the defense hold up even though it’ll likely be on the field for at least 35 minutes per game?
Skyler Cassity was Morris’s defensive coordinator at North Texas last season, and his job will be to get this bunch to hang on for dear life.
What’s Working
For what it’s worth, there are a few holdovers who’ll be a part of the mix. Jaleel Johnson and Malik Charles saw plenty of time on the end, LaDainian Fields and Kale Smith return to be a part of the corner rotation, and linebacker Trip White made 33 stops.
The linebacking corps will be terrific right away. North Texas transfer Ethan Wesloski is a fifth-year veteran who made 113 tackles with nine tackles for loss last season. He’ll roam on the outside, UCLA’s Isaiah Chisom is a tackling machine inside, and there’s decent depth.
The tackles are big. The staff brought in Power Four-sized tackles in 312-pound Jery Lawson from Louisville, 310-pound Saadiq Clements from North Texas, and 300-pound Enai White from Penn State. There are plenty of options for a rotation against the run.
What Needs Work
The pass rush. The staff brought in lots and lots of options for the end, and a few will certainly become factors in the backfield, but getting behind the line wasn’t always a regular thing. North Texas transfer Keviyah Huddleston led the team with five sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss, but keep remembering …
The North Texas defense went against Group of Five talent. Yeah, the Mean Green finished second in the nation in pass defense, but that’s because everyone ran wild on that bunch.
To be fair, Army, Navy, USF, and San Diego State had fantastic ground games, but almost everyone padded the stats against Cassity’s run defense.
Again, in a strength-in-numbers way, the Cowboys were fine in the portal. However, Wendell Gregory (Kansas State) and Taje McCoy (Georgia Tech) were big-time ends who took off. Across the board, there’s a lot of depth from last year leaving.
Player to Watch
Isaiah Chisom, LB Jr.
He’s one of the under-the-radar signings among the gajillion new players coming in, but he’s a big deal.
The 6-0, 234-pounder had a great sophomore season at Oregon State, made 84 stops last season at UCLA, and even with other good players coming in, he might be the team’s leading tackler from his spot in the middle.
Keys to the Season
Instant production on the lines will be everything.
The Cowboys brought in a ton of talent for the defensive back seven/eight, and the skill players have monstrous statistical resumes, but nothing works unless the lines can come together immediately.
(Ask Colorado in the Coach Prime era what happens when talent doesn’t turn into continuity on the offensive front.)
Player Who Needs To Shine
Braydon Nelson, OT Jr.
Again, for all of the flash and the fun, you need the infrastructure, and it starts with the offensive front. The 6-4, 327-pound Nelson started over the last two years at North Texas, and he needs to be a star.
Biggest Concern
Third down defensive stops
All apologies for constantly referring back to North Texas, but that’s really what Oklahoma State is.
Third down stops were a problem for the Mean Green defense last season, and they were a big issue for the Cowboys, too.
With so many great offenses on the slate, the defense has to keep teams to under a 40% conversion rate, if possible.
Biggest Game
at West Virginia, September 26
This is when it all needs to start working.
The Cowboys get three games of varying difficulties – at Tulsa, Oregon, Murray State – to gear up for the Big 12 season. By the end of September, the starting 22 has to be rolling.
This is a must-win game early on for West Virginia, and its offense should be humming. With winnable dates against UCF and Colorado coming up soon after on the Big 12 slate, Oklahoma State can go on a little bit of an early run.
Transfer Portal
If you haven’t figured out by this point that the transfer portal is sort of a big deal to the 2026 Oklahoma State Cowboys …
It’s not crazy to think that every starter for the opener at Tulsa will be a transfer. This is a brand new team with brand new players. It’s going to be interesting.
Best Signing
Justin Bowick, WR (Illinois)
Let’s just take all the North Texas transfers off the table – those were easy gets for this coaching staff. How about a guy who could’ve gone just about anywhere, and would’ve been a star at his former spot?
Bowick is a big-play threat who started at Ball State, and last year caught 22 passes with five scores at Illinois. He’s 6-5, has deep speed, and he should be a matchup nightmare on the outside in this attack.
Biggest Loss
Wendell Gregory, EDGE (Kansas State)
He would’ve been the star edge rusher the defense would’ve worked around.
After starting out at South Carolina, he came over to Oklahoma State last year and found a role, making four sacks with 12 tackles for loss and 27 stops. Now he’s with Collin Klein’s Kansas State defense.
Other Names to Know
- James Williams, EDGE (Florida State)
- Quinton Hammonds, S (North Texas)
- Chris Barnes, WR (Wake Forest)
CFN Season Prediction
Here’s the problem, and we could be very, very wrong on this.
Are we really so sure that all the good parts from North Texas, and a team loaded with so many transfers, can really be amazing right away?
It only worked in the first year under Deion Sanders and Colorado because a few superstars on offense clicked right out of the gate, but the infrastructure on the lines was never there.
And when it comes to wholesale full roster overhauls, Year One under Bill Belichick at North Carolina didn’t work at all.
CFN Prediction: 5-7
There’s also a Big 12 schedule problem.
Oklahoma State has to deal with Oregon in non-conference play – if that’s somehow a win, cheerfully forget the doom and gloom vibes here – and missing Arizona, BYU, TCU, and Utah (along with Cincinnati) is a huge break.
However, if Oklahoma State doesn’t get by either West Virginia or Iowa State on the road, it’ll be tough to find more than six wins with this slate.
But it’ll be a whole lot of fun.
Related: Big 12 Football Win Totals 2026: Spring Predictions for All 16 Teams
This story was originally published by College Football News on May 28, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add College Football News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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