New Wrestling Fan Ethan Wesloski Excited to Step Up and Provide Leadership for the Cowboys in 2026

STILLWATER — There’s no question North Texas transfer Ethan Wesloski has embraced his new identity as a Cowboy.

Even though he was supposed to be watching his brother Nick play baseball for the Sooners, Wesloski couldn’t take his eyes off the screen showing the Big 12 Wrestling Championships.

“I didn’t know a thing about college wrestling until Jan. 16 or whenever the first dual I went to,” Wesloski said. “My roommate, Jack Puckett, he’d been a long-time wrestler and he’s from Oklahoma, so he was like, ‘Hey man, like you’ve gotta go to this.’ New favorite sport. It’s awesome.”

The linebacker finished the 2025 season as the face of the Mean Green defense. Wesloski paced the team with 113 tackles, including 59 solo. He also finished with a 90.6 defensive grade from Pro Football Focus, which put him more than 10 points higher than anyone else on the team.

It wasn’t just his teammates who couldn’t keep up.

That grade actually makes Wesloski the 19th-best defender in 2025 with at least 200 snaps and the fourth-best linebacker.

“Ethan has played so much football,” coach Eric Morris said. “He started for me, even in a different defense. This will be his fourth year back for him. A guy that has so many banked reps that you can’t really throw anything that he hasn’t seen.

“I think he’s such a smart, intellectual player. And so sometimes we’ve had to pull him back and say, ‘Hey, you’re thinking too much. Don’t try to out think yourself. You got to be able to see it and pull the trigger and play fast.'”

Morris described Wesloski as someone he looks to for vocal leadership on the defensive side of the football, and it sounds like he’s embracing a heightened leadership role this offseason.

“I’ve prided myself, even the last few years as an undergrad, being a leader as much as I can. … It’s really good, though, now I can sit, like guys come to me every day — ‘Hey, I saw this and this vs. this call, like what do you think?’” Wesloski said. “Being able to help guys through that so now we’re all playing one brand of football, and that, I think, is really important.”

Wesloski will likely have a very visible role on Saturdays this fall. He finished third in snaps for UNT last season and averaged more than 57 snaps per game.

He expects to show off his versatility quite a bit, which makes sense considering PFF had him play 209 snaps on the line as an outside linebacker and then more than 500 snaps at various linebacker positions closer to the middle of the field.

“It gives me a lot of versatility and that, it is good for the next level,” Wesloski said, discussing Skyler Cassity’s defense. “I can go from the WILL in nickel, I can go SAM in base, turn around and play SAM or WILL in three-down stuff, in our dime packages or even our 3-3 stack. So it’s important for me to be able to show I can play multiple positions on any down of the game.”

A lot of Wesloski’s conversations with reporters were about all the familiar players, coaches and defenses. When asked, he said it does feel a bit like North Texas just moved football operations to Stillwater, but the linebacker also made it clear he’s doing his best to forge new bonds with his new family here in Stillwater.

“I’m with them most days (more) often than not,” Wesloski said of his fellow UNT transfers. “But I’m also with my guys all the time still. Like, I’m still with a lot of defensive guys who aren’t from UNT because I want to build those really close relationships with those guys.”