College Football HQ

College football program sets record after losing 64 players to transfer portal

No other college football program has lost as many players to the transfer portal in a given cycle. But this Power Four school also brought in a ton of talent amid a coaching change.
James Parks|
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In an era where thousands of players enter the transfer portal every offseason, it comes as no surprise that college football programs will see plenty of turnover, especially those that also hired a new head coach in the same cycle.

Oklahoma State was no exception to that rule this offseason. In fact, the Big 12 program exemplified that rule, not only leading the nation with the most outgoing transfer players, but establishing a new national record in that category in the process.

A new transfer record

Until now, Colorado held that record, losing 56 players from its roster ahead of the 2023 season, the first under current head coach Deion Sanders.

Oklahoma State broke that record during this offseason, leading college football with 64 players who elected to leave the program and enter the portal, according to On3 Sports.

It was expected

It’s no surprise for a program that struggled so badly would see a lot of turnover.

Veteran head coach Mike Gundy was fired just three games into the 2025 season after a 20-year tenure, opening the portal very early for players to plan an escape.

Add to that the second transfer portal window in January following a disastrous 1-11 season, and a mass exodus flooded out of the Cowboys program.

Into the place vacated by Gundy stepped North Texas head coach Eric Morris, who helped engineer the top-ranked scoring offense in college football and nearly put his team in the College Football Playoff from the Group of Five ranks in 2025.

Morris had plenty of work ahead of him, and he didn’t disappoint.

Cowboys also signed a ton

Not only did Oklahoma State rank among those college football programs that lost the most players to the transfer portal.

It also rates among those Power Four schools that used the portal to its benefit, ranking tops in the country by bringing on an additional 54 players as transfers.

Among them was quarterback Drew Mestemaker, the signal caller who led the nation in passing yards this past season, along with two other blue-chip skill players.

Key offensive additions

Mestemaker passed for 4,379 yards as a redshirt freshman for North Texas, tops in the FBS.

Wide receiver Wyatt Young also joined the Cowboys from the Mean Green after catching 70 passes for 1,264 yards with 10 touchdowns last fall.

Caleb Hawkins is another key addition for Oklahoma State, also from North Texas, after rushing for 1,434 yards and leading college football with 25 touchdowns on the ground.

Mestemaker, Hawkins, and Young represent three of the 17 former North Texas players who left their former school to join Morris at Oklahoma State.

Five of those were linemen, and the Cowboys added 13 new other linemen, six on defense and seven on offense.

Now comes the hard work of putting all those pieces together, replicating what Morris was able to achieve in the Group of Five in one of college football’s power conferences.

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James Parks
JAMES PARKS

James Parks is the founder and publisher of College Football HQ. He has covered football for a decade, previously managing several team sites and publishing national content for 247Sports.com for five years. His work has also been published on CBSSports.com. He founded College Football HQ in 2020, and the site joined the Sports Illustrated Fannation Network in 2022 and the On SI network in 2024.

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