Oklahoma State Linebacker Isaiah Chisom Chasing Stories Worth Telling This Season

STILLWATER — Linebacker Isaiah Chisom wanted a fresh start both on and off the football field.

So once he knew he was leaving Los Angeles behind for Oklahoma, Chisom decided he’d make fishing one of his primary hobbies.

“Just the scenery,” Chisom said, explaining his new passion for fishing. “Sometimes you know you can go to a really good lake, and just sit out there, and even if you don’t catch a fish, it’s just nice to decompress and get your mind out of everything.”

The linebacker is definitely coming off a chaotic year after his former team, UCLA, fired its head coach on Sept. 14 following an 0-3 start. The Bruins finished the season 3-9 and named a new head coach on Dec. 6.

Chisom didn’t let that stop him from making an impact, as he finished second on the team with 84 total tackles, including 2.5 for loss. Twenty-five of those resulted in stops, which Pro Football Focus defines as a “tackle that constitutes a ‘failure’ for the offense.” Only one UCLA player had more stops last season.

“I think it was okay,” Chisom said, reflecting on his individual performance in 2025. “You know, I feel like personal success is always great, but you know, we were missing that team part, and that’s what I’m looking forward to about being at Oklahoma State.”

Chisom said he went in the portal to escape the uncertainty surrounding UCLA at the time. There was one clear reason he chose the Cowboys over other options.

“Coach (Eric) Morris and all the other coaching staff,” Chisom said. “I think that they had a great, I had a great talk with coach Morris in his office, and just speaking to (linebackers) coach (Reggie) Johnson and coach (Skyler) Cassity, like it just made sense for me.”

Chisom, now a redshirt junior after two years at Oregon State and one at UCLA, ranked 52nd among linebackers coming out of high school according to 247Sports. He has more or less remained in place from a rankings standpoint, as 247Sports and On3 ranked him 54th and 55th, respectively, in their transfer portal rankings.

He was one of four guys Morris mentioned competing for a starting spot at linebacker last week and would appear to be Arizona State transfer Tate Romney’s top competition for second at the position behind UNT star Ethan Wesloski.

“Competition everywhere is always good, and it’s going to make you better as a player,” Chisom said. “I think in the room, you know, we’re always still trying to make sure that we’re helping out each other. It’s not like we’re in a competition, I’m not going to help you out. We want the best people to be out there, you know, no matter who’s out there.”

Although not a direct commentary on Chisom, Morris highlighted some of the unique dynamics in the linebacker room on Saturday when discussing Romney, who is 25 years old.

“It’s fun for me to watch Tate sitting next to a really young linebacker that just got to college,” Morris said. “Their social lives are, like, completely opposite. One of them is thinking about what his 1-year-old is doing, and finally walking, and what they’re eating, do I need to send flowers to my wife right now. … And then the other guy sitting right next to him, going through the same thing on a day-to-day basis, is trying to figure out who the pretty girls at the sorority house are that just got on campus and all the different things. It’s cool for me to see them to start having connections.”

It definitely sounds like Chisom has benefitted from watching Romney balance everything this offseason.

“I definitely think it makes you remember what’s important in life,” Chisom said. “Obviously, you know, you want to have fun and have a social life, but also at the end of the day, people want to have a family and be able to have that type of stability. So it’s definitely been cool to see somebody who’s focused on both.”

The former UCLA linebacker doesn’t have that one truly incredible fish story yet, but he’s expecting to get a fair share of stories worth telling in the months to come on the football field, and maybe one on the lake will soon follow.

“I think it’s super high,” Chisom said of Oklahoma State’s expectations. “I think all eyes are on us, and that’s something that we’re embracing. We’re not going to shy away from that. We know what everybody’s looking from out of us, and we know what we’re expecting from each other.”