Best and Worst Case Scenarios for Oklahoma State on National Signing Day

Oklahoma State’s 2018 recruiting class is filled to the brim with no last-minute signing day ceremonies to sweat out, so there should be relatively no drama on Wednesday when the two unsigned Cowboy commits who committed after the early period put pen to paper.

Still, there’s always at least some chance that things could go haywire. Dealing with high school and college-aged kids can sometimes be unpredictable. So as national signing day fast approaches, let’s dig in to some best and worst case scenarios for OSU.

Best case

OSU snagged late commitments in mid-January from Amadou Fofana and Samuela Tuihalamaka, two defensive linemen who will fill a big void for the Pokes. The best case scenario is both signing, pain-free at 7 a.m. tomorrow, thus completing the 2018 class at the 25-man cap.

Really, that part’s simple. There’s one best-case scenario.

However ….

Worst case

Tuihalamaka decommits. That would be worst case.

Fofana has told me he’s 100 percent locked in with OSU, but Tuihalamaka, a three-star from Mater Dei in California, carries more risk coming all the way from Cali. If Cal expressed heavy interest late Tuesday night with the full court press, you’d have to think he’d have to at least give it thought before submitting his NLI all the way from Mater Dei to Stillwater.

That would leave OSU with zero defensive tackles in the 2018 class, which is the exact position it absolutely needed to fill after Israel Antwine flipped to Colorado in December. And even with Fofana able to likely play inside or outside at nose tackle or edge rusher, that scenario would be way less than ideal for OSU. Especially because Fofana’s a JuCo player and Tuihalamaka is a four-year guy.

OSU needs youth at the position and not a stop-gap.

Prediction

Nothing to fear. Things will go off without a hitch. Fofana’s locked in, as is Tuihalamaka. Neither are flipping their commitments elsewhere, and OSU doesn’t have any tricks up its sleeve after inking almost the entire class back in December.

That means that, barring a last-minute fallout, OSU is once again going to finish right around the middle of the pack in the Big 12. As things look going into signing day, the Pokes’ 2018 class is ranked 30th nationally and fifth in the conference, a tick above its average finish of 33rd and 5th in the nation and league, respectively, since 2010.