The Eric Morris era in charge of the Oklahoma State Cowboys is off to a full start, with the program bringing in 85 new players. 60 of them are coming via the transfer portal, making the Cowboys a completely different program from the one Mike Gundy led less than a year ago.
This, according to College Football U, is the number, although 247Sports has the more conservative yet equally surprising number of 55 incoming transfers.
The group of incoming players is led by five-star quarterback transfer Drew Mestemaker, who is coming over from North Texas. He’s the only five-star-rated transfer Oklahoma State brought in this offseason, although the school did manage to get six four-star transfers.
The 2025 season was an incredible disappointment for the Cowboys, with Mike Gundy leading them to a 1-11 record. This was Gundy’s 21st season in charge of the program, and the second straight losing season, with 2024 ending with an almost as disappointing 3-9.
Eric Morris, like his new quarterback, comes from North Texas, having led the Mean Green to a 12-2 overall record in 2025, including a berth in the American Conference championship, where they lost a spot in the College Football Playoff to the Tulane Green Wave. Before that, Eric Morris led North Texas to 5-7 and 6-7 records in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Not everything has been rosy for the Cowboys on the recruitment front this offseason, however. They recently lost a four-star recruit running back, Javian Jones-Priest, to the Virginia Tech Hokies. Jones-Priest is considered the 28th-best running back in the class of 2027 by the 247Sports Composite.
Eric Morris’ philosophy to make the Oklahoma State Cowboys competitive again
In an interview from May 13th, published by the Oklahoma State website, coach Eric Morris described the philosophy he expects to instill in the Cowboys to turn them competitive once more:
“Building trust is one of the most important things in any organization,” Morris said from his still bare-bones office atop Boone Pickens Stadium well into his fourth month in Stillwater.
“You must be very intentional in building a culture and creating trust in building these relationships. And it’s one of my favorite things to do on a day-to-day basis.”
It seems very simple to him, it seems. It’s all about making the entire program work like one well-oiled football machine. Here’s how he expects to make this a reality during the offseason:
“We have our coaches eat with different members of our roster twice a week,” Morris said. “That way, our defensive line coaches are sitting down with running backs, and our offensive line coaches eat with the defensive backs. People who really aren’t spending a lot of time together have breakfast together.
The Cowboys will be put to the test early on in their 2026 campaign. Their season starts with a road game against Tulsa, which is nothing special beyond being a game against a fellow Oklahoma program. Trouble arrives in Week 2, when they host the Oregon Ducks at Stillwater. The Ducks are considered one of the favorites to win the 2026 national title.
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