Major college football program adds 54 players from the transfer portal

It's no secret that the NCAA transfer portal can absolutely ravage a college football roster these days, but it can also be a tool that reloads it in a big way.

One program that both sentiments could certainly apply to is the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Amid a season that saw them post a dreadful 1-11 record, the program's most losses in a season in school history, legendary head coach Mike Gundy was fired.

The former star quarterback for the program was at the helm for 21 years, but had posted a 4-11 record, counting last season and the first four games this year. The Cowboys turned to the Group of Five ranks to replace him, bringing in Eric Morris from North Texas.

All of the changes in Stillwater led to the Cowboys losing 64 players to the transfer portal, but Morris has made a splash in the portal, bringing in a college football high of 54 players.

His class is headlined by five-star transfer and former North Texas quarterback Drew Mestemaker, who led college football in passing yards with 4,379. Mestemaker is joined by 16 of his North Texas teammates as well, including other notable names like running back Caleb Hawkins and wide receivers Wyatt Young and Miles Coleman.

North Texas Mean Green head coach Eric Morris. — North Texas Mean Green head coach Eric Morris stands on the sidelines. | Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

Morris burst onto the scene this season, as he led the Mean Green to an 11-2 record despite having an 11-14 record in the previous two years combined.

Aside from his development of Mestemaker, who was a walk-on fifth-string quarterback who never started a varsity game at Vandergrift High School, Morris was praised for his high-powered offense. The Mean Green led college football in yards per game with 516.2, making them the only team in the sport to average 500+. They also led college football in scoring at 44.6 points per game.

While there is understandably some buzz in Stillwater surrounding his hiring and transfer portal class, Cowboys fans aren't the only ones expecting a big first season in 2026. ESPN's Bill Connelly recently released a prediction of what the 2026 College Football Playoff bracket would look like, and included the Cowboys as an at-large bid.

"Hear me out," wrote Connelly. "Were the Cowboys abjectly hopeless in 2025? Absolutely. They plummeted to 1-11 with what was, per SP+, their worst team since 1963 (and they had some awfully bad teams in the 1990s). But they made a potentially dynamite hire in Eric Morris -- one of my favorite hires of the cycle -- and he has basically imported his dynamite North Texas offense, bringing in 17 former Mean Green players including stars in QB Drew Mestemaker, RB Caleb Hawkins and WR Wyatt Young. OSU will score plenty of points in 2026, and if the Cowboys' close-games luck flips as well, they could be a huge turnaround story."

So, if you haven't got your stock in Oklahoma State, now may be the time.