Oklahoma State Cowboys 2026 Season Preview

Starting From Zero

A 1-11 season with an 0-9 mark in league play is about as bare a canvas as it gets, but it belongs to Eric Morris and nobody else now. There is no prior era to defend or roster he inherited blind, just his own year one to build from scratch. The power rating at No. 54 says the pieces on the field are not the problem, which puts the story on scheme and execution translating into actual wins in 2026.

Mestemaker Arrives

Nothing about last season's 14.2 points per game or a 129th-ranked success rate survives the offseason overhaul, because Eric Morris' entire offense now runs through Drew Mestemaker, the North Texas transfer who threw for 4,369 yards and 34 touchdowns a year ago. That kind of production landing on a roster that finished 132nd in yards per play is the whole story here, a talent-for-scheme swap that should lift the passing game even if the rushing attack stayed 114th-ranked broken. The bigger question is whether a defense that allowed 33.3 points per game and posted a 109th-ranked rate of keeping opponents off schedule can hold up long enough for Mestemaker's arm to matter in the fourth quarter.

Oklahoma State did not just lose Zane Flores, it emptied the room, and the fix is Drew Mestemaker, the 5-star North Texas transfer who threw for 4,369 yards and 34 touchdowns last season. That production arrives behind an offense that finished 132nd in yards per play and 129th in success rate, so Mestemaker is not walking into a finished product, he is the reason it has a chance to look different. Noah Walters returns with all of 72 yards to his name, which only underlines how much Eric Morris is betting on the transfer portal to fix a passing game that ranked 116th nationally.

Oklahoma State didn't just lose its backfield production, it imported an entirely new one. Every back on this depth chart is an arrival, headlined by North Texas transfer Caleb Hawkins, who ran for 1424 yards and 25 touchdowns last season, with Tarleton State's Tre Page III (839 yards, 7 TD) as insurance behind him. That kind of proven volume matters for a rushing attack that managed just 118 yards per game (114th) in 2025, and Eric Morris is betting Hawkins alone can be a bigger factor than the group he's replacing, none of whom topped 614 yards.

Oklahoma State didn't lose much at receiver, it lost almost the whole room, and it rebuilt through the portal instead of hoping Matrail Lopez and Kam Powell (neither with a catch on record) suddenly become playmakers. Wyatt Young arrives from North Texas off a 70-catch, 1264-yard season, easily the most proven target this offense has had, and Chris Barnes (Wake Forest) and Israel Polk (Akron) add real receiving production behind him. That's a real infusion of talent for a passing game that managed just 174 yards per game and a 116th-ranked output last year, but new play-caller Eric Morris still has to get quarterback production and protection to a point where Young and company can actually turn this into more than isolated big plays.

Oklahoma State is rebuilding this room almost entirely off the transfer market after a 2025 offense that ranked 130th in total yards and produced only 2.96 points per scoring opportunity. Every tight end who caught a pass last year, including Grayson Brousseau's 7 grabs and Quinton Stewart's 4, is gone, so the production has to come from newcomers Morgan McPhaul, who brings 15 catches and 174 yards from VMI, and LSU transfer Donovan Green, who adds a pair of catches for 40 yards. Oscar Hammond returns without a prior statistical record, which means Eric Morris is effectively betting his new blockers and receivers at the position on outside additions rather than any incumbent production.

Eric Morris inherits a front that produced 118 rushing yards per game and a 35.4% success rate, numbers that explain why Oklahoma State went 1-11. Thirteen linemen are gone, so the new pieces carry real weight: junior Louie Canepa is the most experienced name still in the room, and Morris went to the portal for tackles Ashton Lepo and Braydon Nelson plus Oklahoma transfer Jacob Sexton to pair with high school signee Kole Seaton. With almost none of last year's group left to anchor it, this line is being built from scratch rather than patched, and the early returns will show up fastest in whether the run game can climb out of the bottom third nationally.

A line that surrendered 251 passing yards a game and ranked 120th in that column gets almost entirely rebuilt, not patched. Eric Morris and staff cleared out the interior production of Sitiveni Havili Kaufusi, Iman Oates and Aden Kelley and went shopping in the portal, landing Keviyan Huddleston (31 tackles, 5 sacks, 9.5 TFL at North Texas) and Saadiq Clements (30 tackles, 5.5 TFL) as a package deal off that same North Texas front, plus James Williams from Florida State and Jerry Lawson from Louisville. Jaleel Johnson (16 tackles, 2.5 TFL) is the lone returning piece with real snaps, so the pass rush that managed just 22 sacks now leans on Huddleston to be the disruptive edge this roster hasn't had.

Eric Morris essentially rebuilt this room through the portal rather than trust it, and the numbers explain why: Bryan McCoy Jr. and Brandon Rawls, who combined for the bulk of last year's tackle production, are both gone off a defense that allowed 251 passing yards and 6.32 yards per play. Ethan Wesloski arrives from North Texas with 113 tackles and 9 TFL, and Isaiah Chisom brings 84 tackles from UCLA, giving Oklahoma State two proven every-down producers to slot in immediately alongside Trip White and Malik Charles, who each played real snaps a year ago. The volume of tackles Wesloski and Chisom bring in from other leagues matters more than any recruiting star next to their names, and if that production translates, this group should tackle better in space than the unit that finished 116th in yards allowed per game.

A secondary that allowed 251 passing yards per game (120th) got almost entirely gutted, with Mordecai McDaniel and corners Cam Smith and Raymond Gay II all out the door. Eric Morris rebuilt the back end through North Texas, importing safeties Quinton Hammonds (54 tackles, 5 TFL) and Evan Jackson (44 tackles) plus corner Kollin Lewis, while Liberty transfer Christian Bodnar (44 tackles, 2 sacks) steps in at corner. LaDainian Fields is the lone proven piece back at corner with 16 tackles and 2 TFL, so the 2026 pass defense is basically a transfer rebuild betting that Hammonds and Bodnar hit the ground running.

Eric Morris cleaned out the specialists entirely, and both new leg jobs come from SMU. Sam Keltner arrives after going 14 of 20 with a 51-yard long and 78 points, an upgrade in scoring punch over departed Logan Ward, while Lachie Pozzobon steps in from Stephen F. Austin off 53 punts at a 41.8 average to replace a punting job that barely existed last season. With long snapper Aidan Davenport the only holdover of note and two more snappers imported from SMU and North Texas, this is a near full rebuild of the operation from scratch.

The North Texas Rebuild

Eric Morris didn't tinker with last year's 1-11 roster, he replaced its engine wholesale, importing his old North Texas core almost intact: quarterback Drew Mestemaker (4,369 yards, 34 TD a year ago), back Caleb Hawkins (1,424 yards) and receiver Wyatt Young (70 catches, 1,264 yards) all follow him to Stillwater. That trio should immediately outproduce what Zane Flores and Gavin Freeman managed in an offense that scored almost nothing, and with Chris Barnes added from Wake Forest and Tre Page III from Tarleton State stacking the backfield, this is a full offensive transplant, not a tweak. The 69th-ranked class barely matters here; the 2026 story is whether an entire Mestemaker-run system can be installed faster than Big 12 defenses adjust to it.

Caleb Hawkins

Oklahoma State rebuilt its backfield around Caleb Hawkins, who ran for 1,424 yards and 25 touchdowns before following coordinator ties over from North Texas, and he inherits a job vacated by Rodney Fields Jr.'s modest 614-yard, 1-touchdown output. Pair him with Drew Mestemaker, who threw for 4,369 yards and 34 touchdowns in that same North Texas offense, and the whole 2026 attack rests on whether that connection translates against Big 12 fronts after a winless conference season.

The 1-11 Cover

Oklahoma State went 1-11 on the field but 5-4 against the spread in conference play, the kind of split that happens when a roster gets overhauled mid-collapse and the market never quite catches down to it. Eric Morris takes over a program that lost nine straight league games by respectable enough margins to beat the number, and that gap between results and expectation is the whole story for oddsmakers heading into his first year. Bet against these Cowboys as favorites and it worked every time, they went 0-2 straight up losing as the chalk, but buying them as road underdogs cashed at a steady enough clip that the market seemed to expect the blowouts that never quite fully materialized.