With Freshmen Reinforcements on the Way, Two Stand Out

Mondays with Doug Meacham have turned into a bit of a morbid roll call this fall as the interim coach spends a great deal of his weekly Monday press conferences discussing who the team lost over the weekend either due to injury or the transfer portal.

That wasn’t the case this week though as for once Meacham got the chance to talk about an influx of players expected to bolster the Cowboys on the field through the remaining four games.

“We’re going to have an infusion of some freshmen, some guys that haven’t played, that can play in the last four games, that can still garner a redshirt,” Meacham said. “So we’ll get five or six or seven or some odd players out there on some special teams and helping us with some time offensively and defensively.”

It’s been extremely common in recent years to see many if not most freshman in college football spend their entire first season riding the bench most of the year so they can redshirt and avoid losing the year of eligibility. To qualify players are allowed to participate in only four regular season games.

Meacham said this could create some healthy competition on special teams units and perhaps even push some guys who find themselves in backup roles on offense and defense.

“Here comes a young kid in here with some energy,” Meacham said. “You better turn up the volume. … The biggest discipline tool that we have is playing time.”

Meacham highlighted one player he was most excited to see get the chance to make an impact on each side of the football.

“Carl’veon (Young) on Carl Albert was a high jumper athlete,” Meacham said, singling out the linebacker.

Young was the highest-ranked commit in the 2025 class, checking in at No. 232 nationally, according to 247Sports. He finished his high school career with 250-plus tackles, 15-plus tackles for loss and 10-plus sacks.

“I’ve been waiting for him to get his opportunity,” OSU linebacker Trip White said, grinning. “I feel like he going to shock the Cowboy family. He is a very exciting player. He likes the work, he loves football.”

Meacham also praised receiver Matrail Lopez, who finished with 1,500-plus all-purpose yards as a senior at Idabel. He recorded 1,507 receiving yards during his final two seasons while also playing significant roles on special teams and defense.

“He could be a guy who can play and give us some minutes at receiver,” Meacham said. “I think what we gotta figure out is it inside or outside, but he can. He’s kind of got that body. He can do both, you know, he’s got a skill set where he can play inside, but he’s just long enough to be able to play, you know, do some things outside.”

Meacham said Lopez made people miss during the offseason before suffering a hand injury which sidelined him, perhaps even delaying his collegiate debut this fall.

Lopez didn’t see the field, but did make the travel squad sent to Texas Tech over the weekend.

“Before he got hurt,” OSU receiver Gavin Freeman said, “he was making some really good plays in practice. … It is rare you say like a kid has a 1, 2, like a 1, 2 or whatever like a left, right with his route running and he definitely has that so he’s going to be exciting in the future to watch.”