Oklahoma State’s Nearly New, but Incredibly Experienced, 2026 Football Roster

Just about everything is new for Oklahoma State football, but that doesn’t mean the roster hasn’t seen it all on the field.

Oklahoma State head football coach Eric Morris. | NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

New Oklahoma State head coach Eric Morris had a big task when he landed on campus in December. And he knew it. Heck, everyone knew it.

In the transfer portal era of college athletics when a coach is fired, as Mike Gundy was in September, it isn't just the coach that moves on. It tends to be a good portion of the roster. Some of those Cowboys declared their intention to transfer every before the window officially opened.

Once Oklahoma State hired Morris, even more of them left. The program experienced an incredible amount of churn — even for a new head coach. By the time Morris and his staff had wrapped up the roster there wasn't much left from the Gundy era. Dozens of transfers came in.

All of that would imply that Oklahoma State is in for some real choppy waters this season, and they may be right. But it won't be because the players the Cowboys recruited through the transfer portal don't have experience. Of all the newness at Oklahoma State, that's the one thing the Cowboys have — experience.

Cowboys Have Roster Experience

Oklahoma State wide receiver Wyatt Young. | BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

CBS Sports recently broke down the roster for every team in FBS and found something very interesting for Oklahoma State. When it comes to number of snaps returning from last year Oklahoma State has just 10% of those players coming back. That put them among the worst teams in the FBS. Not only are there few returning players, but they didn’t play much.

But when CBS Sports broke every team down by the number of total career snaps played on the roster, the site found that Oklahoma State had the third most experienced football team behind Virginia and Texas Tech with 34,621 total snaps. Virginia had 39,158 and Texas Tech had 35,838.

In CBS's rankings Oklahoma State was in the Top 10 in all four of the categories it tracked. It was seventh in offensive snaps taken with 16,965, third in defensive snaps taken with 17,656, fifth in games played with 1,111 games and fifth in starts with 458.

In this era the transfer portal is an implication of newness to a program. And it's fair to say that most of the roster is new to Oklahoma State. But Morris and his staff cultivated a portal class with a wealth of experience in college football. Some of that is concentrated at his former job at North Texas. Nearly 20 former Mean Green followed him to OSU, including the offensive triumvirate of quarterback Drew Mestemaker, running back Caleb Hawkins and wide receiver Wyatt Young.

Now, experience doesn't always equate to winning. Plus, Morris and his staff must build chemistry quickly with a roster that hasn't played games with one another. But experience can be a building block, especially when the Cowboys have so much of it at their disposal.