Who Oklahoma State Should Target at Cowboy Back for 2018

Last week we took a look at where Oklahoma State’s 2018 recruiting class stands and which positions the staff should focus its efforts on with their remaining scholarships. Now we’re breaking down each of those positions to look at where OSU is likely to or should focus their efforts.

As a recap, OSU still has a maximum ofseven scholarships remaining for the 2018 class with 18 commitments, but I think they’ll only use four or five. Here are the positions they need to fill:

Defensive End | Cowboy Back | Defensive Tackle | Linebacker

We’ve already looked at linebacker and defensive tackle. Today, we’re going to look at Cowboy Back targets.

Cowboy Back

We’ll start with a player I think is the most likely prospect to end up in Stillwater, three-star tight end Jesse Palmer. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound TE from Oklahoma City was generating a lot of interest last year before suffering a season-ending Achilles rupture. That’s a serious injury that have left most teams, the Cowboys included, in a holding pattern.

As of now, Palmer’s only other offers are Arkansas State, Colorado State, Louisiana-Monroe, Memphis, and Ohio. However, if Palmer picks up where he left off before the injury, expect more offers from bigger programs to start rolling in.

If Palmer doesn’t work out, the next most likely candidate to me, is two-star recruit Barclay Ford out of Forney, Texas.

While Ford doesn’t get the needle moving like some of the other guys on this list, he fits the size requirements at 6-foot-2, 225-pounds. Last season for North Forney, Barclay had 820 yards and three touchdowns on 51 receptions, and averaged 16 yards a catch. That was a big jump from his sophomore year when he had 173 yards and zero touchdowns on 14 receptions, and averaged 12 yards a catch. If he can make another leap this year, his stock will rise.

As of now, all of Barclay’s offers are from division two schools, though he has generated interest from multiple D-1 programs including OSU, Baylor, Texas, Oregon State, and Tulsa.

There’s no hurry here for OSU, but they should certainly keep an eye on him. If the Cowboys head into signing day without a tight end commit, Barclay could be a diamond in the rough find.

A guy OSU would love to land is three-star “Big Easy” prospect Glenn Beal. The 6-foot-5, 250-pounde tight end is big and athletic, and plays for powerhouse John Curtis High School. Last season Beal had eight receptions for 153-yards and a touchdown on offense, and three tackles, one tackle for loss, and one sack on defense.

OSU made an offer to Beal earlier this month, despite the fact that everyone believes he will end up staying in state at LSU. Beal has offers from 19 schools in all including Alabama, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Arizona State, and TCU among others.

Despite everything saying Beal will pick LSU, it’s interesting OSU made an offer to him. Yes, Coach Gundy and Co. can offer anyone they want, but you have to think there was at least some interest by Beal. OSU has developed a history of nabbing talented players out of Louisiana. If they could do so again here, it would be a huge get for the class.

My outside-of-the-box pick would be three-star tight end prospect Jacob Kanier. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound prospect from Cypress, Texas may be listed as a tight end, but he spent his junior season playing quarterback for Cy Woods High School. We was a dual-threat with 1,606 yards, 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions on 205 passing attempts, and 506 yards and 10 touchdowns on 140 carries.

At 6-foot-4 and 220-pounds , he fits what OSU seems to be aiming for at Cowboy Back now. While the upperclassmen range in height from 5-foot-10 to 6-foot-4, the three freshmen are 6-foot-4, 6-foot-4, and 6-foot-5.

Right now, Kanier only has offers from two Division-1 programs: Louisville and Air Force. He’s also made a visit to Purdue but hasn’t picked up an offer.

An offer and a solid push may just push Oklahoma State to the front of the line on an intriguing, but raw prospect.

I’m not generally one for going after prospects who have already committed to other schools. However, in this case there’s a chance OSU could swing the favor of Christian Trahan. OSU has a good track record of landing players from Louisiana, and Trahan has long been on OSU’s radar dating back to 2016.

Trahan committed to Houston after Oklahoma State had offered, but at the time Nic McTear was committed to the Cowboys. Now that he’s gone, there’s no reason to think OSU couldn’t make a strong push to flip him. OSU is Trahan’s only Power-5 offer. Based on reputation, Houston was the second best program that offered Trahan, behind the Cowboys. If it get late into the recruitment period and OSU still hasn’t landed a tight end prospect, I think it would be wise to put the full-court press on Trahan.