‘He’s a Star in the Making’: Morris Says Cassity Has ‘Full Autonomy’ of Cowboys’ Defense

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If Eric Morris’ breakout pupils last year were Drew Mestemaker, Caleb Hawkins and Wyatt Young, his breakout pupil this year might be Skyler Cassity.

Cassity is Oklahoma State’s 31-year-old defensive coordinator. Despite being that young, this is actually Cassity’s fifth season coordinating a Division-I defense after starting at Abilene Christian in 2022.

Four games into his first Power Conference gig, and Cassity’s defense ranks in the Top 20 nationally on third down. His Cowboys are 3-1 having knocked off Oregon and West Virginia.

“Skyler, he’s a star in the making,” Morris said on Big 12 Today. “Obviously I’ve said this on record numerous times: the biggest difference in our football team at North Texas that last year was how good our defense was. Even though, you know, Drew and Wyatt and Caleb, they had a buncha numbers, so they’re the ones that get the media time. But that’s where all of our biggest improvements were made from the previous years.”

Cassity was with Morris at UNT for just one season before Morris packed him up and brought him to Stillwater. Here’s the instant impact he made:

Cassity’s most notable result thus far this season is when the Cowboys held Oregon to 281 total yards and a combined 5-for-17 on third and fourth down.

Although West Virginia had a good statistical day against OSU this past weekend, Morris praised Cassity’s halftime adjustments. He also noted the way Cassity held certain blitzes for big plays late in the game, as the Cowboys sacked Michael Hawkins Jr. three times in the second half en route to the win.

“He’s somebody that’s young but is so mature for his age,” Morris said. “Listen, I know. At some point, he has all the characteristics to be a great head coach, just not only the way he calls a football game, how he sees it and how smart he is, but the way he interacts with our kids. Our players absolutely always respond to him in the best ways.”

Morris and Cassity shared a staff at Texas Tech back in 2017 when Morris was the OC and Cassity was a graduate assistant.

When Cassity got his first DC job at Abilene Christian in 2022, Morris was familiar with the Southland Conference, having been the head coach at Incarnate Word. Morris said he knew Cassity wouldn’t have the most resources available, but Cassity was still able lower the Wildcats’ points and yards allowed per game in his first year.

Then Morris watched as Cassity got the job at Sam Houston in 2024, the Bearkats’ second season at the FBS level after jumping up from the FCS. Sam Houston went from giving up 26.2 points and 394.4 yards a game in the year before Cassity to giving up 20.5 points and 321.4 yards in his lone season with the program.

So, with a lack of resources at both of those spots, Morris knew Cassity was nailing evaluations.

Although Cassity might be young, he is fully in control of what the Cowboys do on that side of the ball.

“He has full autonomy over there,” Morris said. “There’s things that we talk about and we discuss and get on the board. He’ll ask me, ‘Hey, how would you handle this? How would you handle this?’ So there’s a bunch of conversation that happens, but that’s not my expertise in any sense or way, so I try to stay away.

“I like to be really confident when I’m able to present information, and what I have a PhD in is finding ways to get first downs that hopefully end up being touchdowns. So, yeah, he has full autonomy on that side as far as what we’re doing schematically and how we’re calling it. But there is a lot of conversation just trying to sharpen each other’s brains on what the other side of the ball is thinking in certain situations.”