What Ethan Wesloski Believes He Owes Oklahoma State Players That Stayed

Ethan Wesloski is one of the many transfers to join Oklahoma State this season. But he recognized some Cowboys have been here for the long haul.

North Texas Mean Green defensive back Ethan Wesloski (left). | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

FRISCO, Texas — Ethan Wesloski sat next to Jaleel Johnson at Big 12 media days on Tuesday. Their paths to Oklahoma State are vastly different.

Johnson is an Oklahoma City native who is in his fifth year with the Cowboys. He didn’t entertain many thoughts about leaving after Mike Gundy was fired last year. He’s one of the few players that was part of the Cowboys’ 2023 Big 12 Championship Game team that lost to Texas.

Wesloski is one of the many North Texas transfers that followed new Oklahoma State head coach Eric Morris from the Mean Green. He spent his entire career with UNT but opted to follow Morris for his final season of college football.

He’s known winning and he’s known losing. He won a lot last year with the Mean Green, which went 12-2. Now he’s joining a team that went 1-11 last year. He wants a winning final season. So do his new teammates. He owes it to them.

What Ethan Wesloski Owes His New Teammates

Oklahoma State football coach Eric Morris. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The McKinney, Texas, native has gotten to know nearly 100 new players this year. Only a handful played for the Cowboys last year. Morris said on Tuesday that there are some Cowboys, unlike Johnson, who was a part of the success in 2023. Wesloski was asked if he felt an obligation to those holdover players to get this turned around quickly. He said he did feel that.

“Just because those guys are so hungry to win,” he said. “I feel like I owe it to them to give them my best every day. If I don’t, I feel like I not only let myself down but I let them down. I come in and I give it my best because I want to win. I’m one of the most competitive people you will ever meet and so is the rest of this team. We’re just gonna win no matter what it takes.”

Wesloski will be one of the touchstones for this defense in 2026. He was one of the stars in last year’s unit at UNT and thrived in defensive coordinator Skyler Cassity’s system. Cassity is the defensive coordinator at OSU and Wesloski is expected to start in the same spot he did a season ago. The question is whether he can produce at the level he did a season ago while playing in a power conference?

Last season he led the Mean Green with 113 tackles and started eight of their 14 games. He ranked second in the conference in both tackles and solo tackles. He also had nine tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and an interception. He set a career high of 17 tackles against Rice. That team reached the American Conference title game before losing to Tulane.

The expectations around the Cowboys nationally are muted. They’re expected to be better. How much better will be determined by players like Wesloski, who must balance his own expectations with those of his new teammates. Fortunately, both have the same expectations — win.

He owes it to them.