Oklahoma State’s defense didn’t need a complicated explanation after Saturday’s 39-31 upset of Oregon. Skyler Cassity made that clear Monday morning on Big 12 Today.
The Cowboys’ defensive coordinator said the focus all week was stripped down to one simple standard: play fast. That approach, Cassity said, came straight from Eric Morris, who wanted the team to stop overthinking and lean on the basics.
“(Eric Morris’) biggest goal for the week was for our team to play fast,” Cassity said. “You can almost over-analyse or over-schematic things at times.
At the end of the day, the game is always about fundamentals. It’s about running and tackling, making players miss in space - all those things.
You can’t lose sight of the fundamentals that make you really, really good.
“I think he did a great job of preaching that last week. We eliminated all of the 10, 15 goals you have and said the only thing I want our team graded on is how fast did they play? And I think we were able to fly around on offense and defense and finish plays and make contested catches because guys took the thinking out of it and just played as fast as humanly possible.”
That message, Cassity said, carried through the whole program. Morris had already pointed to the same need for speed in his postgame news conference, and Cassity’s comments made it sound like the idea stuck everywhere.
The payoff showed up on the scoreboard and in the numbers. Oklahoma State, which beat an FBS opponent for the first time in more than 700 days, held Oregon to 281 yards and just 12 first downs. Through two games, the Cowboys have allowed 27.5 points and 321 yards per game, a clear step forward from last season’s 33.3 points and 418.3 yards per game.
Even in the loss to Tulsa, the defense has looked like the unit’s bright spot.
Cassity has done this before. This is his third FBS defensive coordinator job in as many seasons, and the pattern has followed him.
At Sam Houston, the Bearkats went from allowing 26.2 points and 394.4 yards per game in 2023 to 20.5 points and 321.5 yards per game with Cassity in 2024. At North Texas, the numbers also came down, dropping from 34.2 points and 460.5 yards per game before Cassity to 26.5 points and 381.9 yards per game in 2025.
For Cassity, the formula keeps coming back to role clarity and effort. He said the Cowboys will keep rotating a lot of defenders and asking each one to understand exactly what’s expected.
“We’re always gonna play a lot of guys on defense, and really understanding what your role becomes as the season progresses and giving a role for everybody on the team and everybody on the defense to master their role,” Cassity said. “We’re a team that’s gonna personnel-match people.
We’re gonna get in a bunch of different packages, and being able to play that many guys and do it at a high level and people taking pride in what they do, no matter the size of the role - whether they’re playing 70 snaps or if they’re playing 10 snaps. That’s how our programs will always be run under Coach Morris, and that’s our belief system.
“It allows the growth of your defense to be able to progress year in and year out. Since the first day that all these guys have come here and stepped on the field, they’ve tried to master their roles and done a really, really good job progressing.
We’re doing the same thing now. We’re gonna need a lot of guys to progress through the season.
Injuries are gonna happen, and our guys, their roles will increase or decrease based on their effectiveness and we’ll continue to do the same thing by playing hard and playing fast and playing fresh because we got a lot trust in a lot of guys on defense and have a lot of belief on our side of the ball.”
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