FRISCO, Texas - For Jaleel Johnson, the upheaval around Oklahoma State this offseason has been a lot to process. The roster has been almost completely remade, the coaching staff has changed, and the Cowboys are trying to start over under Eric Morris.
Johnson just stayed put.
“It felt like I transferred without transferring,” he said Tuesday at Big 12 Media Days.
That line fit the moment. Oklahoma State is dealing with nearly 90 new players, but Johnson remains one of the holdovers from Mike Gundy’s final team. The Oklahoma City native, who played at Putnam City North High School, said the idea of leaving never really took hold as he headed into his senior season.
“I’m big on loyalty,” Johnson said. “Knowing that if there is a reunion, I don’t have to worry about which school to go to. I know I’m coming back to Oklahoma State because that’s home.”
His path in Stillwater has already included plenty. Johnson was a redshirt in 2022, then played in 12 games in 2023 as Oklahoma State reached the Big 12 Championship Game for the second time in three years.
The last two seasons brought much rougher results. He appeared in 10 games in 2024 and finished with 24 tackles, then was limited to four games last season before a shoulder injury ended the rest of his year.
That stretch was hard to watch from the sideline, especially as the program unraveled around him.
“It was sad for me to not be out there,” he said. “It took a toll on me mentally.”
Keeping him in the fold became a priority quickly for Morris. The new head coach reached out to Johnson and told him he wanted the fourth-year defensive lineman back. Morris also brought in a familiar face for Johnson: defensive line coach Greg Richmond, who coached him in 2022-23 before moving on to North Texas.
Morris believes Johnson can be part of the fix. He was direct about what he saw in spring practice.
“He was probably our most disruptive player in the course of spring practice,” Morris said. “He’s somebody that I think can change a game for us.”
Morris has described the offseason as a “hard reset,” but Johnson is one of the players who still sees Oklahoma State as home. Now he gets a chance to help a new staff build something from the ground up while finally having a real shot to make a bigger defensive impact after four years of waiting.
“I always loved Oklahoma State,” he said. “This is my dream school.
So just coming off these seasons, it hurt me. The fans deserve better than that.
I want to be part of the reason we turn this around.”
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