Oklahoma State's Quarterback Situation Continues to Evolve Ahead of 2026

Oklahoma State’s quarterback room is beginning to look a little different.

Over the past few weeks, players from around the country have begun to plan their future, which includes many deciding to enter the transfer portal. While there are plenty of players ready to enter the portal and impact their new and old teams in various ways, no position is more interesting to watch than quarterback.

Over the past couple of weeks, OSU has seen a couple of quarterbacks make their decision to enter the transfer portal. While Zane Flores was the first domino to fall on that front, Banks Bowen recently became the next quarterback to shift what OSU’s passing room might look like in 2026 and beyond.

While portal departures are common in today’s game anyway, the Cowboys are also coming into the offseason with a newly hired coach in Eric Morris, who has already started shaping the roster to his liking ahead of 2026. Bowen’s departure is unique in some other aspects too, given that he’s the son of Clint Bowen, who took over as OSU’s defensive coordinator for the final eight games of 2025.

With the news that most of the staff from last season, including Bowen, won’t be returning next season, it was always rather predictable that Banks Bowen would likely be finding a new home as well. While all of OSU’s changes have certainly impacted the Bowen duo, this latest departure is just another example of how different OSU will look next season.

While Bowen never started any games for the Cowboys, he was one of five players to play quarterback for Doug Meacham last season. Of those five, Hauss Hejny appears to be the only one set to return next season, and of course, that could change at any moment, given how wild the portal can be.

So, with only one quarter of quarterback experience at OSU set to be on the roster in 2026, it seems clear that Morris will have to put an emphasis on finding some more arm talent in the portal. With North Texas quarterback Drew Mestemaker among the many potential candidates to come to Stillwater, the Cowboys should have no issues finding someone for Morris to succeed with.

Although it won’t be easy to almost entirely replace the quarterback position for the second straight year, OSU understands that change is the name of the game in today’s college football, and Morris has already shown he can succeed in this era.