‘I Think It’s Going to Work Immediately’: Andy Staples Discusses Why He Has the Pokes as a Preseason Top 25 Team

The national media is still talking about the Pokes entering the 2026 football season.

On3’s Andy Staples went on the Brandon Walker College Football Show this week, where Staples was asked to breakdown his personal preseason Top 25, where he included Oklahoma State at No. 23.

“I’ve been an Eric Morris guy since he was at Incarnate Word,” Staples told Walker. “I just think he’s really good at finding talent. He’s really good at running an offense. He knows what he’s doing. The fact that these guys were really good at North Texas and then you port them and add pieces out of the transfer portal that are capable of playing in the Big 12, I think it’s going to work, and I think it’s going to work immediately.

“Because what I think what was going on last year is Mike Gundy said it himself. Like, he came on our show at Big 12 Media Days, and Ari and I’s jaws just dropped when he’s like, ‘Yeah, I didn’t believe in it. I thought NIL was a flash in the pan and was gonna go away.’ And I’m like, ‘Excuse me?’ So, Oklahoma State’s donors obviously knew that long ago, and they were basically starving him out. They didn’t give him any resources. There’s a reason they were the worst team in school history last year despite having the best coach in school history. They turned the faucet back on when Eric Morris got there and made sure that he had what he needed. … There’s an opportunity to be one of the best three or four teams in the conference.”

If Staples’ reference to Gundy went over your head there, the Cowboys’ former coach went on Staples’ podcast — Andy & Ari On3 — at Big 12 Media Days before the 2025 season, where Gundy was rather forthcoming about OSU’s slow entrance into the NIL world.

“Three years ago when this started, I almost refused to believe it was ever gonna happen, and I just thought it would go away,” Gundy told them. “It was almost like getting in an argument with your wife, and then you just hope it goes away. …

“The truth be known, this portal class from January (last year) is the first class that we ever bought. We had not bought portal kids. That hurt us. It hurt us the last year or so from a depth standpoint. That was nobody’s fault. That’s not the administration’s fault, not the donors, that was really kind of my fault because what I had done was taken money that had been raised through donations and spread it amongst the troops, somewhat evenly to the current players. We didn’t go out and solicit for players and pay them to come to our team.”

So, that’s the context.

As far as this current team, Staples went on to point out that there’s some turnover in the Big 12 this year — whether that be at Utah or Kansas State — before he noted that it’s possible this OSU squad is fighting at the top of the Big 12.

OSU was fifth among Big 12 teams in Staples’ poll, coming in behind Texas Tech (No. 8), BYU (No. 12), Utah (No. 19) and Houston (No. 21).

Considering the Cowboys were 1-11 last season, there has been a lot of talk about OSU from a national perspective given the excitement Morris’ hiring has injected into Stillwater. The Cowboys received votes in the preseason Coaches Poll, and it seems like twice a week, the major college football podcasts are picking the Pokes to be one of the better teams in the Big 12.

With all the newness in Stillwater (plus how the past two seasons have gone), it’s hard to be certain about anything, but it does make for some exciting times in August.