Following an exodus and subsequent influx, OSU reflects on transfer trade outs

ARLINGTON, Texas – It’s no secret that the Oklahoma State football program had its fair share of departing transfers this offseason.That’s the current landscape of the sport. It always has been, really, but the onset of the transfer portal in 2018 set ablaze a process that had previously only been sparks. When the dust settled this April following the second of two allotted transfer windows, the Cowboys had 19 players hit the portal in search of greener pastures. They lost Spencer Sanders, their starting quarterback of four years. They lost their starting running back, along with a bulk of the receiving corps. The defense lost its leading tackler in Mason Cobb, a do-it-all defensive back and a homegrown pass-rusher. There isn’t – and hasn’t been – animosity involved. But OSU offensive lineman Preston Wilson said at Big 12 Media Days on Wednesday afternoon that he doesn’t want to share a locker room with people who don’t want to be in Stillwater. “I love all the guys that left us. They’re brothers. They’re teammates. I’ll never say a bad thing about those guys,” said Wilson, who will be a redshirt senior this fall. “But if they didn’t wanna be an Oklahoma State Cowboy then I don’t want them on my team. That’s the way it is. “If they didn’t feel like this was home for them and they weren’t 100 percent bought in then that’s fine. They decided to leave.” In return, Cowboys coach Mike Gundy lured 13 transfers to OSU, a bunch that includes Sanders’ likely successor, a bonafide nose guard to plug the middle of the defense of first-year defensive coordinator Bryan Nardo and a pair of pieces to add to an offensive line that’s struggled to stay healthy as of late. Perhaps none of those are among the most important, though. That would come in the Cowboys’ retooled receiving room, which added a position this offseason with OSU ridding itself of Cowboy Back and splitting those between traditional tight ends and fullbacks. Gundy and Co. will enter 2023 without four of their top-five receivers from a season ago. Three of the departing quartet – Bryson Green, John Paul Richardson and Stephon Johnson Jr. – landed elsewhere. Braydon Johnson exhausted his eligibility. Between those four, the Cowboys will have to replace 143 catches for 2,041 yards and 14 touchdowns. To do that, they brought in Washington State transfer De’Zhaun Stribling, Iowa transfer Arland Bruce IV and Leon Johnson, a developmental wideout from George Fox (Division III) who towers over opposing defensive backs at 6-foot-5. “We’ve got some depth, and we’ve got some experience,” Gundy said Wednesday at AT&T Stadium. “We benefitted ourselves in the portal. I thought we did a good job of matching what went out of the portal with what we brought in. We’ll find out, but I like where we’re at depth-wise and maturity-wise.” Unrivaled chaos – or rivaled, in this instance – has become a byproduct of the transfer portal. Gundy has witnessed that firsthand for the first time ahead of his 19th season at the helm of OSU. He and his staff recruited in-state product Trace Ford out of Edmond Santa Fe High School in 2019. The 6-foot-2 defensive lineman earned All-Big 12 honors as both a freshman and sophomore before redshirting the 2021 campaign due to injury and missing the final four games of 2022 for the same reason. Ford was one of the 19 outgoing transfers this offseason. Three weeks after entering the portal in early December, he announced via social media that he was headed to Oklahoma. The Cowboys host the Sooners on Nov. 4 in Stillwater. “That’ll be unusual. This will be kind of a first time that you play against a guy that you bring in,” Gundy said. “It’ll be different to see him out there, but that’s gonna happen. I think, in the future, you’ll probably see more of that.” It’d be easy to think Gundy, a self-proclaimed college football traditionalist, will change his strategy when it comes to recruiting and developing. That isn’t the case, though. That isn’t the way he’s has done things through his first 18 seasons. It isn’t the way he’ll do things moving forward, either. The Cowboys have made a living off of embracing their community’s blue-collar work ethic. They were on the doorstep of the BCS National Championship in 2011. They were a win away from the College Football Playoff a decade later in 2021. That’s where they’re hoping to return to in 2023, regardless of who is or isn’t at OSU anymore. Follow News Press sports reporter Jon Walker on Twitter @ByJonWalker for updates on Oklahoma State athletics and more.