Oklahoma State's Midseason Portal Entries Not Significant for Cowboys

The transfer portal is open in Stillwater, and some players have begun to take advantage of it.

On Saturday, Oklahoma State lost its third straight contest, falling 45-27 against Baylor. After the matchup in Boone Pickens Stadium, the Cowboys now sit at 1-3 and are still without an FBS win in their past 12 tries.

While Mike Gundy’s firing gave OSU a bit of a boost on the field over the weekend, it wasn’t enough to get a win. On Sunday, OSU made another move, firing defensive coordinator Todd Grantham after Baylor became the second team this season to gain over 600 yards against the Cowboys.

Considering the state of the program, it’s not exactly a surprise that some players are interested in a fresh start moving forward. After Gundy’s firing, the portal opened for 30 days, and a couple of Cowboys have already chosen to enter.

On Sunday night, long snapper Shea Freibaum became OSU’s first midseason entry. Meanwhile, safety Dylan Smith joined him on Monday morning. With only two players in the portal at this point, there isn’t some huge problem in Stillwater and likely won’t be.

While every player is eligible to enter the portal, it doesn’t make sense for most of them to do so. Players who play in four or fewer games in the regular season are eligible to redshirt that season if they haven’t used their redshirt year already, which is the situation Freibaum and Smith found themselves in.

For the players who have already redshirted, entering the portal now would simply take away eight games from their college careers. Still having the ability to enter the portal after the season without any issues, some of those most impacted by Gundy’s firing won’t be in the portal until the offseason.

Meanwhile, there is a similar reason for other young players eligible for a redshirt to stick it out this season. Although key players who have seen the field plenty already this season and can redshirt could be making a smart move by entering now, those with minimal or no playing time might as well stick around in Stillwater for the rest of the year. After all, they might as well stay in the program and get on the field for up to four games if they haven’t used that time up already.

A similar though process could be used for others, considering the portal is open for 30 days after Gundy’s firing. In that time period, other players eligible for redshirt could hit that four-game threshold and enter the portal at that point.

There will be plenty of moving parts in Stillwater over the next few months and into 2026, but there likely won’t be much movement between now and the end of the 30-day window.