What Do National Pundits Think of Oklahoma State Entering the 2026 Season?

It’s getting to that point in the offseason where the same unanswerable questions are bouncing around in my head.

How will Eric Morris do in the Big 12?

How will Drew Mestemaker adjust to the jump in competition?

Just how good is this roster made up of almost entirely new pieces?

Those questions, to this point, are unanswerable until the Cowboys kick off their season Sept. 5 in Tulsa at the earliest.

So, as we’re insulated in this Oklahoma State bubble, I often find the opinions of national pundits rather interesting this time of the year. Although we see how much better of a spot OSU seems to be in entering the Morris Era as compared to the past two seasons, what do those who keep their eyes on many teams see?

Well, within the past month, two of the most recognizable national college football podcasts have mentioned the Pokes as some sort of sleeper candidate.

The guys of the Cover 3 podcast noted college football’s biggest turnaround candidates last week and spent much of their Big 12 discussion talking about the Cowboys.

“I think it’s Oklahoma State,” Danny Kanell said. “I don’t think it’s close. Obviously they have the low win total from last year. I think they should make significant improvement. I would probably say out of all of these teams (in all of the leagues), even going back to UCLA, out of the Power Four, I would expect Oklahoma State to be the biggest jump of all the Power Four schools.”

They then discussed win totals and whether Oklahoma State could get up to seven wins in 2026. They got to six or so wins somewhat smoothly, picking the Pokes to win games against Tulsa, Murray State, Colorado, at Iowa State, Kansas and one of at WVU and UCF.

The UCF/WVU discussion led to those schools also being tabbed as Big 12 turnaround candidates before Chip Patterson asked Bud Elliott who was the better team among OSU, UCF and West Virginia.

“I think they’re all pretty similar if (UCF quarterback Alonza) Barnett is actually healthy,” Elliott said. “… I think (OSU’s roster outside of Mestemaker) will be, like, very competent. I worry about the ceiling, but they clearly have the best quarterback of those three. Like, Mestemaker does get some real NFL buzz.”

“He’s legit,” Kanell added.

The Cover 3 guys aren’t the only ones drinking the Mestemaker Kool-Aid this offseason, which is an exciting thing for a fanbase that has gone through it’s quarterback struggles in recent seasons.

Late last month, Josh Pate also named his dark horse teams for each conference.

“Give me Oklahoma State in the Big 12,” Pate said. “You wanted dark horse — it can’t possibly have been darker in Stillwater, Oklahoma.”

And he wasn’t talking about the neon black skies over a big night game in Boone Pickens Stadium.

Pate went on to point out that Oklahoma State is 1-20 over its past 21 games.

“So, what did they do?” Pate said. “Well, they looked across the G5 landscape, as everyone’s doing these days, and they said, ‘Where’s the best head coach and best offense that we can import?’ And they looked down in Denton, Texas at North Texas and saw, well, Eric Morris is there. He’s really good. The Mestemaker kid, man — that Drew kid at quarterback, he looks good, too. Bring him on — it’s like picking up hitch hikers at this point. Bring them all.

“North Texas was No. 1 in points per game last year. They hung 45 or more nine times. Mestemaker is a legit future NFL guy, and Oklahoma State had the 130th scoring offense in the country last year. So, they’re a dark horse.”

So, what can we glean from these national takes?

For starters, some of the turnaround/dark horse status the Cowboys have has to do with how bad they’ve been the past two seasons.

From the outside, a jump from 1-11 to 7-5 would be a big boon. Is that the same from within the fanbase, or are the expectations Mike Gundy built over the past two decades to the point where even that might be considered somewhat meh? I think the answer to that question probably has a lot to do with how big of a toll the past two seasons have taken on the fan answering the question.

The excitement of  the Morris’ hiring has sparked many possibilities in the minds of OSU fans. The win total (OSU sitting at 6.5 on FanDuel as of writing) and national pundits aren’t exactly ready to put the Pokes back in the Big 12 title picture, but they do see the Cowboys’ getting off the mat after two rudderless seasons.

There is certainly a renewed energy reverberating from Stillwater. It’s just a matter of how big those waves can get.