3 Players Who Could Break Out for Oklahoma State This Season
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The 2026 Oklahoma State Cowboys football team will be defined by turnover, as in player turnover. The numbers are staggering.
Per the Cowboys’ media guide, only four starters return from last year’s team and only one player started more than six games. OSU lost 31 players that made a minimum of four starts a season ago.
Only 11 letterwinners that played last season are back from last season and only one is on offense. Meanwhile, 53 letterwinners left the program, either through the portal or due to graduation. There are 87 newcomers to the team, 65 new transfers have joined the program, and 31 freshmen join the program, including 22 true freshmen.
Of those 112 players heading to fall camp, here are three players that could have a breakout in 2026.
Jakobe Sanders
The Stillwater, Okla., product has been on a slow burn with the Cowboys since he joined the program in 2022. He was a redshirt his first year, played in just three games his redshirt freshman season and then started half of the Cowboys’ games in 2025. He’s the only returning offensive letterwinner from a season ago.
As the only returning offensive lineman with a tangible track record up front, he’ll be in competition for more playing time and even a starting spot against a set of offensive linemen that are transfers and expected to get more playing time based on that.
Cameron Epps
He is one of two players that didn’t get much action last year due to injuries, the other being defensive end Jaleel Johnson, who is most likely to be a starter. Epps is going to have to fight for a starting spot at safety, where the competition is made up of transfers. He’s been a while since he’s seriously contributed, but there is talent there.
Back in 2023 he was named an honorable mention All-Big 12 defender who got votes for Big 12 defensive freshman of the year. He finished that season with three interceptions, which was tied for second among all FBS freshmen and was one of our four freshmen in FBS with a pick-six. He can give this defense a boost and break out in the process.
Donovan Green
Oklahoma State needs a pass-catching tight end and Green has been itching for a chance to prove it since he started playing college football with Texas A&M in 2022. The best he did was his true freshman season when he caught 22 passes with the Aggies. A season-ending injury erased his 2023, followed by limited playing time with the Aggies in 2024 and a transfer to LSU in 2025 that yielded little in production.
Now, he has perhaps the best quarterback he’s played with in Drew Mestemaker and an offensive system that should give him plenty of chances to prove he’s the four-star player the Aggies recruited long ago.
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Matthew Postins is the publisher of Oklahoma State on SI. He is an award-winning sports journalist who was formerly the editor of the College Football America Yearbook and covers the Big 12 Conference for Heartland College Sports.
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