Quinton Hammonds is about to get his first start at free safety for Oklahoma State on Saturday against Tulsa, but the road to this moment reaches back far beyond his time with the Cowboys.
It starts with family ties that go nearly 30 years deep. Hammonds is the son of Nicki Hammonds and Patrick House, who played college football at Stephen F.
Austin with Drew Svoboda, now Oklahoma State’s special teams coach. Morris said the two stayed connected after their playing days and coaching careers began, and that connection eventually brought Hammonds into the picture.
When Svoboda joined Eric Morris’ first staff at North Texas in 2023, he gave Hammonds a look during that recruiting cycle. It wasn’t a clean evaluation, though. Injuries made it tough for the Allen, Texas, product to show what he could do, so he walked on at UNT and let his play do the talking.
Hammonds didn’t arrive as a safety, either. At Allen, he was a wide receiver and piled up 700 all-purpose yards as a senior. Once he got to college, though, he was moved into a different lane, with Morris pointing to special teams coverage as the spot where he first had to prove himself.
“He really hadn’t worked that much on special teams. One of the natural questions was whether he could tackle well.
The defensive coaches kept a close eye on him as he proved he could. As he did, they kept giving him more.”
That trust started building quickly. Morris said Hammonds was running down on punt team and making tackles early in his freshman season, and that production kept pushing him up the depth chart.
“We saw it live football games early on in his career as a freshman on punt team, running down making tackles, and he starts moving his way up the depth chart because we trusted him more,” Morris said.
That freshman year ended with Hammonds making five starts in 13 games. He finished with 52 total tackles, a pass breakup and an interception, and he had 10 tackles in two different games. In the process, he became the first UNT true freshman since 2000 with multiple games of at least 10 tackles.
By 2025, Hammonds had become a full-time starter at North Texas, putting up 53 tackles with five tackles for loss and a sack. He also picked up national and conference recognition after a two-interception game against Navy, earning Bronco Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week and American Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors.
Last season, Hammonds spent more time in nickel for the Mean Green. This year, the move of Liberty transfer Christian Bodnar to Oklahoma State opened the door for Hammonds to shift into free safety, a spot Morris believes suits him better.
For Morris, the story is part discovery and part development: special teams revealed the player, and the work since then has only sharpened him. Hammonds has the background, the production and the role now. The next step is simple enough to say and hard to do.
“Q works extremely hard,” Morris said. “He's smart.
He grasps what we're asking to do on the defensive side of the ball. He's tough.
He's really worked on his body. He’s gained weight, really good weight this offseason, so he has all the physical tools.”
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Oklahoma State Still Has One Crucial Battle To Settle In Week 1
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Head coach Eric Morris has said all five cornerbacks have stood out in fall camp, which is why the group appears headed for a rotation when Tulsa comes to town. The bigger question now is how that competition carries into live action, because Morris has made it clear the final call will come down to what happens on the field, not just what has shown up in practice. In a room this crowded, Week 1 may not settle everything, but it should go a long way toward defining who is first in line. [Read more 🡒]
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Oklahoma State Opens A New Era With Immediate Pressure At Tulsa
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For Morris, the timing makes the game feel less like an opener and more like an early stress test of the programs direction. Tulsa already has a place in this story, and Oklahoma State does not need a reminder that one bad night in this series can change the tenor of a season. A win would not solve everything for a team still being built, but it would give the Cowboys a needed surge of momentum and a first real step toward changing the narrative. [Read more 🡒]