Oklahoma State’s preseason is about more than sorting out a depth chart. For Eric Morris and the Cowboys, camp is already shaping the program’s transfer portal future in two very different ways: who stays patient, and who starts looking elsewhere.
That’s the reality for a roster that has been turned over almost completely. Morris inherited a program that has been through two brutal seasons, going 3-9 in 2024 after reaching the Big 12 Championship game in 2023, then slipping to 1-11 last year in a stretch that ended Mike Gundy’s run as head coach three games into the season. Morris arrived from North Texas, and with him came one of the biggest roster overhauls in college football, including nearly 90 new transfers and nearly 20 from his former school.
For now, the immediate challenge is simple: get this team functional again. Longer term, though, camp is also a test of how the roster holds together once players start realizing where they stand.
The internal pressure is the part nobody likes to talk about in August. Oklahoma State has more than 100 players in fall camp, but only 11 can be on the field at once, and only so many can make the gameday roster or travel. With no redshirts for incoming freshmen anymore, the competition is real, and so is the disappointment when a player sees his role shrink.
Morris said some of that has already started to surface through scout team work last week.
“Some kids are sad because they're finally over on scout teams and we’ve tried to them give a good look,” Morris said. “They there's not redshirting anymore. Everybody's five-for-five, so they can get that out of their head.”
It was a blunt message, even if the point was encouraging: stay ready, keep working, and a path back into the rotation is still there.
But not every player will see it that way. If a player believes the path to the field is blocked, the portal starts to loom.
Quarterback is the clearest example. Drew Mestemaker is the starter, Grant Jordan and true freshman Broderick Vehrs are battling for the backup job, and another freshman, Luke Tepas, appears to have slipped behind.
If he sees no realistic route to playing time this year or next, the portal in January becomes an obvious question.
That’s the downside of a crowded camp. The more bodies Morris has to evaluate, the more players will eventually be told - directly or indirectly - that they aren’t ready yet.
The other side of the equation is what Oklahoma State can sell after the season. Morris’ transfer class has been carefully assembled, but a big piece of that early haul came from players he already knew from his previous stop, including Mestemaker. That kind of advantage won’t always be available going forward.
So the Cowboys need camp to feed into something bigger. A strong preseason can carry into a better season, and a better season can change the way the portal views Oklahoma State.
Winning more games than the last two seasons combined would be a start. Even better would be a run that ends in a bowl game and keeps the Cowboys in the mix for the Big 12 Championship game.
That kind of season would make the program more attractive when the next portal cycle arrives. In other words, camp isn’t just about who plays in September. It’s about who wants to be part of what comes next.
In Other News...
Oklahoma State Still Faces One Big NIL Problem In The Big 12
Oklahoma State enters 2026 with a football NIL picture that looks solid enough inside the Big 12, but still short of the leagues biggest spender. According to data from NIL-NCAA.com, the Cowboys are projected at $22.1 million, a figure that places them among the conferences top six and keeps them in a competitive range with most of their peers.
The challenge, of course, is the team sitting at the top of that financial ladder. Texas Tech is estimated at $33.3 million, creating a sizable gap that still matters in a conference where roster building is increasingly tied to resources. Oklahoma State has room to make up ground if on-field success and NIL support continue to grow, but for now the conferences spending race still has one clear front-runner. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma State Still Has A Few Big Lineup Decisions To Make
Oklahoma State is getting closer to sorting out its first depth chart as the Cowboys close in on the season opener against Tulsa, and recent scrimmages have started to separate the obvious spots from the open ones. Head coach Eric Morris is expected to offer another update soon, with running back and parts of the offensive line looking more settled than they did a few weeks ago.
The defense, though, still has a few more questions hanging over it, and the staff has been clear that rotations will be part of the plan rather than a quick rush to name every starter. There is also still a race up front on the offensive line and a receiver situation that appears to be trending in one direction, but the final call there has not been made public yet. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma State Freshmen Suddenly Have A Real Shot To Matter Fast
The new NCAA age-based eligibility model has changed the calculus for coaches everywhere, and Eric Morris is already treating it like a reality rather than a talking point. With redshirting now largely reserved for extreme cases, Oklahoma State no longer has the luxury of easing every freshman into college football at a slow pace, which means the players who arrive ready to help can get on the field immediately. Morris has made it clear he is willing to use true freshmen early if they earn it, a shift that puts a sharper spotlight on the class before the season even gets rolling.
Among that group, Jones, Thornton and Standard look like the freshmen most likely to factor in fast, each for different reasons. Jones and Thornton are being viewed as possible rotation pieces, while Standard has already turned heads since arriving in the summer with the kind of size that stands out quickly in fall workouts. The open question now is how much of that early promise translates once the depth chart gets real, but the Cowboys appear ready to let the newcomers compete for meaningful roles instead of waiting around for a future that may not come. [Read more 🡒]