Playing Fast and Knowing Your Role: Defensive Coordinator Skyler Cassity Breaks Down What Made OSU’s Defense Successful Against Oregon

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Skyler Cassity made the Cowboys’ upset win against Oregon – OSU’s first win against an FBS opponent in more than 700 days – sound simple.

Oklahoma State beat the Ducks 39-31 on Saturday in Boone Pickens Stadium, and on Monday morning, the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator went on Big 12 Today to help breakdown just how the Pokes pulled off what many deemed impossible.

“(Eric Morris’) biggest goal for the week was for our team to play fast,” Cassity said. “You can almost over-analyse or over-schematic things at times. At the end of the day, the game is always about fundamentals. It’s about running and tackling, making players miss in space – all those things. You can’t lose sight of the fundamentals that make you really, really good.

“I think he did a great job of preaching that last week. We eliminated all of the 10, 15 goals you have and said the only thing I want our team graded on is how fast did they play? And I think we were able to fly around on offense and defense and finish plays and make contested catches because guys took the thinking out of it and just played as fast as humanly possible.”

Morris also noted that need for speed – both physically and mentally – in his postgame news conference, but it sounds as if that really resonated from the top down.

Cassity’s defense has been a particular bright spot, even in the Cowboys’ loss to Tulsa. After OSU allowed 33.3 points and 418.3 yards of total offense a game last season, the Cowboys have given up 27.5 points and 321 yards a game through their opening two – and again, one of those two is Oregon.

The Ducks mustered just 281 yards and 12 total first downs against Cassity’s group on Saturday.

Turning around a defense isn’t a new undertaking for Cassity. It’s his third FBS defensive coordinator gig in as many seasons. Here’s a look at how those past two defenses were before Cassity and with him.

Sam Houston:
Before Cassity (2023) – 26.2 points per game, 394.4 yards per game
With Cassity (2024) – 20.5 points per game, 321.5 yards per game

North Texas:
Before Cassity (2024) – 34.2 points per game, 460.5 yards per game
With Cassity (2025) – 26.5 points per game, 381.9 yards per game

Again, Cassity made the process sound simple.

“We’re always gonna play a lot of guys on defense, and really understanding what your role becomes as the season progresses and giving a role for everybody on the team and everybody on the defense to master their role,” Cassity said. “We’re a team that’s gonna personnel-match people. We’re gonna get in a bunch of different packages, and being able to play that many guys and do it at a high level and people taking pride in what they do and the work they do, no matter the size of the role – whether they’re playing 70 snaps or if they’re playing 10 snaps. That’s how our programs will always be run under Coach Morris, and that’s our belief system.

“It allows the growth of your defense to be able to progress year in and year out. Since the first day that all these guys have come here and stepped on the field, they’ve tried to master their roles and done a really, really good job progressing. We’re doing the same thing now. We’re gonna need a lot of guys to progress through the season. Injuries are gonna happen, and our guys, their roles will increase or decrease based on their effectiveness and we’ll continue to do the same thing by playing hard and playing fast and playing fresh because we got a lot trust in a lot of guys on defense and have a lot of belief on our side of the ball.”