Breaking Down Tulsa’s Strengths, Weaknesses, & 1 Thing That Could Upset Oklahoma State
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New Oklahoma State football coach Eric Morris won’t get the chance to open his career in Stillwater at home. But he’ll do it in the state of Oklahoma.
The Cowboys head to Tulsa to face the Golden Hurricane on Sept. 5. For Oklahoma State players and coaches, it’s about getting the season off to a good start. For Cowboys fans, it’s about getting back at the Golden Hurricane for last year’s loss in Stillwater. That led to the firing of Mike Gundy.
Those are big shoes to fill, even if his tenure didn’t end the way he wanted. But the funny thing about football is that one team never feels bad for the other. Even though Tulsa went 4-8 last year, it was able to beat OSU. Can the Golden Hurricane do it again?
Biggest Strength: Baylor Hayes’ Growth
Hayes followed head coach Tre Lamb from East Tennessee after the coach was hired away to take over the program in 2025. It was a risk for both. Lamb needed a quarterback to set the tone for his program’s future. Hayes played in two games for ETSU as a true freshman and took a redshirt. Lamb also had to deal with the idea that if Hayes had a great season he might transfer away after 2025.
Hayes had a solid season that showed he can play at the FBS level. By season’s end he threw for 2,158 yards with 12 touchdowns and six interceptions. He also rushed for nearly 200 net yards, and his 2,346 yards of total offense set a Tulse freshman record.
OSU remembers him. He threw for 219 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 23 more as the Golden Hurricane pulled of the upset. An offseason of development should make the redshirt sophomore one of the best quarterbacks in the American Conference and a real threat to the Cowboys in the opener.
Biggest Weakness: Experience
Scroll through Tulsa’s 2026 roster and a couple of things become clear. First, there more than 40 players that aren’t yet juniors. Many of those players are likely to be second- and third-string players going into fall workouts. Some have already transferred once.
Twenty-four players are juniors or redshirt juniors while nearly 30 are seniors or graduate students. But many of them are transfers, some of which are in their first season in the program. With Group of 6 schools losing players to power conference schools, the turnover can be crazy. It’s no different for the Golden Hurricane. Any lack of experience at key positions will make a difference when the talent gap between the two teams isn’t as significant as some might believe.
The One Thing That Could Upset OSU Again
Of all the players that Tulsa pulled from the transfer portal last offense, one of the most intriguing is running back Damari Alston, who spent his first four seasons at Auburn before transferring to the Golden Hurricane.
Tulsa must replace the production of running back Dominic Richardson, as he rushed for 1,100 yards and five touchdowns in 2025. In four years at Auburn, he was a rotation back and rushed for 809 yards on 162 carries in 38 games, but only three starts. Alston is the best equipped to take the role, even though he’s never started a full season.
Alston has produced at the high school level, and in a big way. While at Woodward Academy in Atlanta he rushed for a program-record 4,195 yards and 62 touchdowns. When he came out of school, he was the No. 3 running back in the country. If he can recapture that kind of production in Tulsa’s offense, then the Cowboy defense has a real problem — and the Golden Hurricane have a wild card in the opener.
OSU fans remember Richardson. He dumped 146 rushing yards on them a year 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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