Breaking Down Oklahoma State’s Offensive Position Groups by Classification

After a long offseason of combing through the Cowboys’ roster filled with more than 50 new players, I’m just about at the point where if you name a player on the roster, I can tell you what position he plays and a few factoids about him.

But one thing I realized while looking over some things this week is that I just about have no idea what class many of the guys are in.

Classification (like eligibility) has become a bit of a abstract construct in the college sports world. Used to, you could look and see that a guy was listed as a junior and know he had two more seasons left to play. The pandemic was the first circumstance to derail that. That along with some other rulings over recent years have made it much trickier to keep track of just how many years a player has left.

We might soon be getting back to some more normalcy as far as that goes, though. Quinton Stewart is the only player left from OSU’s 2020 recruiting class — a year that didn’t count toward players’ eligibility.

In getting to know the roster a little better ahead of OSU’s Aug. 28 opener against UT-Martin, I thought it’d be a nice exercise to look at OSU’s roster by classification. I should specify that this is by classification and not years of eligibility remaining because that feels more like throwing darts at a board sometimes. So, if a player is listed as a sophomore on OSU’s roster, he’ll be listed as a sophomore here. It doesn’t matter if he’s a redshirt, COVID, twice-removed sophomore — a sophomore is a sophomore.

We’ll start with the OSU offense then take a look at the defense tomorrow.

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*Has a redshirt available

Quarterbacks

Senior — 0
Junior — 0
Sophomore — 0
Freshmen — 4 (Zane Flores, Hauss Hejny, Banks Bowen*, Mason Schubert*)
Committed — 1 (Kase Evans*)

There have been many angles to look at just how inexperienced OSU’s quarterback room is entering 2025, but here’s a new one — all freshmen.

Now, Flores should technically be a sophomore, but he received a medical redshirt for a lower-body injury that saw him miss last season, but still, this is a stark difference than last year when OSU was going into the season with a seventh-year senior behind center.

It’s a sign of the times as far as the transfer portal goes. Garret Rangel would be the group’s redshirt junior. Gunnar Gundy was the Cowboys’ QB pickup for the 2021 class but is now on staff as an offensive quality control coach.

Running Backs

Senior — 2 (Trent Howland, Freddie Brock)
Junior — 0
Sophomore — 2 (Sesi Vailahi, Kalib Hicks)
Freshmen — 3 (Rodney Fields Jr., Jaden Allen-Hendrix, DJ Dugar Jr.*)
Committed — 1 (KD Jones*)

Despite losing Ollie Gordon after just three seasons to the NFL, OSU has done an exceptional job in the portal keeping the running back room leveled out.

Trent Howland, Freddie Brock and Kalib Hicks are all transfers from the past two offseasons, and all appear capable of playing a role this upcoming season. Meanwhile, there is exciting youth in the room with a guy like Rodney Fields while the commitment of Jenks standout KD Jones also provides and a positive look for the future.

Wide Receivers

Senior — 4 (Terrill Davis, Christian Fitzpatrick, Sam Jackson V, Da’Wain Lofton)
Junior — 5 (Cam Abshire, Gavin Freeman, Jaylen Lloyd*, Talyn Shettron, Ayo Shotomide-King)
Sophomore — 2 (Camron Heard, Shamar Rigby*)
Freshmen — 5 (Royal Capell*, Tre’ Griffiths, Matrail Lopez*, Jaden Perez*, Kam Powell*)
Committed — 1 (Jabarie Thornton*)

Only two of OSU’s wide receivers who are sophomores or older came to Stillwater straight out of high school — Talyn Shettron and Camron Heard. That hasn’t been a regular thing over the years; just last season three of OSU’s top four players in terms of receiving yards (Brennan Presley, Rashod Owens and Shettron) were fully developed internally.

Tight Ends

Senior — 2 (Quinton Stewart, Oscar Hammond*)
Junior — 1 (Will Monney*)
Sophomore — 1 (Josh Ford*)
Freshmen — 3 (Grayson Brousseau, Carson Su’esu’e*, Jordan Vyborny*)
Committed — 1 (Bryton Niu*)

OSU is carrying two more tight ends on its roster this season than it did last — perhaps a difference in Doug Meacham’s scheme. Of this group, only Quinton Stewart and Josh Ford were at OSU last season, with Ford looking like the position’s present and future after playing in all 12 of OSU’s games as a freshman last season while making six starts.

Offensive Line

Senior — 2 (Markell Samuel, Bob Schick)
Junior — 7 (Tyler Brumfield, Louie Canepa, Davis Dotson, Jarrett Henry, Austin Kawecki, Noah McKinney, Lavaka Taukeiaho)
Sophomore — 5 (Kasen Carpenter, Jamison Mejia, Jakobe Sanders, Grant Seagren, Gage Stanaland)
Freshmen — 7 (Jaylan Beckley*, Miguel Chavez*, Simona Fuailetolo*, Caleb Hackleman, Ryker Haff*, Nuku Mafi, Matthew Wade)
Committed — 2 (Aiden Martin*, Sunia Vuki*)

A year after having six senior offense linemen, the Cowboys have just two listed seniors in the room this year in transfers Markell Samuel (App State) and Bob Schick (Virginia Tech). But despite the losses of that group that has played so much over recent seasons, OSU still has a solid amount of players developed in-house throughout the room. There are a dozen O-linemen on OSU’s current roster who have been in Stillwater since getting out of high school.