Eric Morris got a jolt on the recruiting trail Wednesday when Oklahoma State flipped in-state offensive lineman Odaefe Oruru from Arkansas, and that move offered a good moment to step back and size up the Cowboys’ 2027 class as high school football gets rolling this weekend.
Right now, OSU’s group sits at 12 commits and features a mix of in-state anchors and out-of-state additions across the board. The class includes quarterback Carson White of Iowa Colony, Texas; running back TJ Lewis of Bolingbrook, Illinois; receivers Cooper Hooker of Pryor, Oklahoma, and Ake O’Neal of Argyle, Texas; tight end Talan Scott of Gilbert, Arizona; offensive linemen Sonny Mullen of Troy, Texas, Jake Baker of Nashville, Tennessee and Oruru of Jenks, Oklahoma; EDGE Jayden Vessell of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; linebacker Israel Hammons of Choctaw, Oklahoma; and defensive backs Bryson Brown of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and Chayce Davis of Euless, Texas.
At the top of the board, Rivals and 247Sports agree on the Cowboys’ three most highly regarded commits, though they don’t line them up the same way. Both services put Hammons first. Rivals then goes with White at No. 2 and Oruru at No. 3, while 247Sports flips those two behind Hammons.
Hammons checks in at 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds. 247Sports lists him as a 4-star prospect, the No. 160 player nationally, No. 11 among linebackers and No. 6 in Oklahoma.
Rivals has him at 4 stars as well, ranking him No. 165 nationally, No. 15 at linebacker and again No. 6 in the state. ESPN also gives him 4 stars, slotting him No. 270 nationally, No. 19 among linebackers and No. 6 in Oklahoma.
Oruru comes in at 6-foot-6 and 310 pounds. 247Sports rates him a 4-star and places him No. 22 among interior offensive linemen and No. 8 in Oklahoma.
Rivals lists him as a 3-star, No. 87 at interior offensive line and No. 20 in the state. ESPN has him as a 3-star offensive tackle, No. 50 at the position and No. 10 in Oklahoma.
White is listed at 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds. 247Sports ranks him as a 3-star, No. 467 nationally, No. 29 among quarterbacks and No. 57 in Texas.
Rivals has him as a 3-star quarterback and the No. 34 player at the position in Texas. ESPN rates him as a 3-star dual-threat quarterback, No. 9 at the position and No. 78 in Texas.
The raw national numbers aren’t flashy. As of writing, 247Sports has Oklahoma State at No. 77 in the country, while Rivals puts the Cowboys at No.
- That lands OSU 14th and 15th in the Big 12, respectively.
A big reason is simple: the Cowboys don’t have many commits yet. OSU, Baylor and Arizona State are tied for the league low with 12 pledges apiece.
Across the Big 12, the average program has 17.6 commits, and several schools are already well ahead of that pace. Kansas State has 27, West Virginia and Iowa State have 24 each, and Colorado and Utah are both at 20.
Still, the picture looks different when the class is measured by average rating per commit. By that metric, Oklahoma State sits in the middle of the pack in the Big 12, with a 247Sports average of 86.75. Texas Tech leads the conference at 89.79, followed by Arizona State at 87.17, Colorado at 87.15, BYU at 87.14 and Kansas State at 87.11.
Houston is next at 86.93, then Oklahoma State, Kansas at 86.69, West Virginia and Utah at 86.5, TCU at 86.44, Baylor at 86.42, Arizona at 86.29, Cincinnati at 86.18, Iowa State at 86 and UCF at 85.69.
That’s a tighter race than the overall class rankings suggest. Fifteen Big 12 teams are packed within 1.48 points of each other on that per-commit average scale.
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