Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s Defensive Transfer Portal Haul

PORTAL TRACKER

Things started to get a bit better toward the tail end of last season, but the past two years of Cowboy defense have been … well, not good at all.

As part of the from-the-studs rebuild Oklahoma State is undergoing, new Cowboy coach Eric Morris brought defensive coordinator Skyler Cassity with him from North Texas, and Cassity will be the Cowboys sixth defensive coordinator in six seasons.

After coming up with some takeaways from OSU’s offensive portal haul on Thursday, here are some thoughts on the Cowboys’ work on the defensive side of the ball.

1. Depth Seems to be a Strength of the D-Line

Some of the more interesting position battles of the spring and fall will come along the defensive front because the Cowboys aren’t lacking options.

As of writing, eight defensive linemen have joined OSU via the portal (which includes edge rushers, traditional defensive ends and defensive tackles). That group of eight combined to make 145 tackles, 27.5 tackles for loss and 12.5 sacks in 2025.

North Texas transfer Keviyan Huddleston‘s numbers standout from that group, as he led the Mean Green with five sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss.

SMU transfer Billy Walton, who was once committed to OSU has a high schooler, might not have super eye-catching numbers, but he did record two sacks in just 74 defensive snaps in 2025. For reference, Huddleston played 409 defensive snaps.

And not to be forgotten, it looks like Jaleel Johnson, DeSean Brown and Malik Charles are all set to return only further adding to the depth.

2. Predicting OSU’s Leading Tackler

For the past two seasons, OSU’s leading tackler has been a safety (shoutout Parker Robertson and Trey Rucker). In fact, a safety has led the Cowboys in tackling for three of the past five seasons with Jason Taylor grabbing that honor in 2022 between linebackers Nick Martin (2023) and Malcolm Rodriguez (2021).

If you know anything about the past five OSU football seasons, you’d know that OSU fans are hoping to come out more on the 2021 and 2023 side of things than how those other three seasons finished out.

For what it’s worth, a linebacker led UNT in tackles in all three of Morris’ seasons in Denton, so for the sake of everybody, I’ll keep my focus on the Cowboys’ second line of defense.

Ethan Wesloski has to be the first nominee given he just led a Cassity defense in tackles, taking down 113 ball carriers for North Texas last season.

The Cowboys also added UCLA linebacker Isaiah Chisom, who as a redshirt sophomore in the Big Ten this past season, made 84 tackles — which was second among Bruins.

UCO transfer Jack Puckett is also an intriguing addition after tallying 102 total tackles for the Bronchos in 2024. It’ll obviously be a more significant jump up in the level of competition for Puckett.

It looks like Trip White is set to return. White transferred from Ole Miss last season and made 33 tackles in some limited work for the Cowboys last season.

Speaking of returners, I’m also intrigued to see how Cassity uses redshirt freshman Carl’veon Young. Listed at 6-4, 215, Young was a four-star recruit in the 2025 class. He was limited to mostly special teams duty in his redshirt season.

My official prediction: Wesloski. Just makes too much sense given his experience with Cassity and his production. But I was close to taking a flier on Chisom.

3. One of OSU’s Biggest Wins Was Keeping LaDainian Fields Out of the Portal

LaDainian Fields started to breakout in his redshirt freshman season, and despite his cousin hitting the portal, Morris and Co. were able to keep the 6-foot corner in Stillwater.

Fields finished the 2025 season with a PFF coverage grade of 77.6 — which was best on the team by nearly three points.

He also allowed just two catches on 13 targets. That 15.4% reception percentage ranked tops in the Big 12 among defenders with at least 113 coverage snaps. And in those 13 targets, he had two interceptions meaning he left with the ball just as much as the receiver did.

And on top of all that, he still has three years of eligibility left. So, this was a big, big win within the OSU secondary.

4. Christian Bodnar Stands Out

With all the depth and people coming from different levels, it’s hard to say how all the snaps will be divvied up, but in the firehose research I’ve had to do on these 50 guys over the past two weeks, Liberty transfer defensive back Christian Bodnar stands out.

He’s listed at 5-foot-11, 185 pounds and was primarily used as a nickelback for the Flames, finishing the 2025 season with 44 tackles, two sacks and two PBUs.

Of his 581 defensive snaps in 2025, 556 came either in the slot, in the box or near the defensive line, meaning Bodnar plays much closer to the ball than what you’d traditionally think of a corner.

His film reveals he isn’t afraid to put his face in the fan, which is a strong attribute at a nickel position that has gotten increasingly more important over the past decade or so.

MY TAPE:
59 tackles (45 solo)
2 FF
1 INT
3 Sacks
9 PBU
10 TFLs

May this Journey continue to bring blessings. AGTG🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/0wJq8XWqIX

— Christian Bodnar (@ChristianBodna2) December 19, 2025

Bodnar also has a crazy story. He was starting to breakout in his redshirt freshman season in 2024 before being diagnosed with post-infectious encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. Liberty put together a feature on his situation and him bouncing back from it.

So long as Bondar can adjust to the Power Conference level, I’d expect him to play a role for the Cowboys in 2026.

5. Not Worried About the Amount of Mean Green

This isn’t solely a defensive thought, but I’ve seen some sentiment online from some Cowboy fans that OSU dipped its toes too heavily in the UNT-to-OSU waters.

I, for one, don’t see that as a bad thing.

For starters, OSU was 1-11 last season, and while I understand that North Texas probably wouldn’t have gone 12-2 with a Big 12 schedule in 2025, I’m fairly confident that the Mean Green A, would’ve beaten Oklahoma State, and B would’ve finished much better than 1-11.

It also gives Morris and his mostly Mean Green-converted staff some sort of jumping off point rather than everyone getting to Stillwater at Square 1.

As of writing, 17 players have transferred directly from North Texas to OSU. Then there are others like running back Ayo Adeyi and lineman Tyler Mercer who were at UNT but transferred elsewhere and are now reconvening with Morris in Stillwater.

Seventeen players of a roster of 105 comes out to about 16% of the roster being straight from UNT. I just don’t think that’s too big a deal and certainly not a negative.