OSU’s 2021 Recruiting Class Ranks Last in the Big 12, 79th Nationally

Oklahoma State’s 2021 recruiting class could use a life boat. It ranks last in the Big 12 according to 247Sports and Rivals rankings, and 79th and 81st in the national rankings at the two recruiting services, respectively.

Of the programs outpacing OSU in the recruiting realm: Troy, Temple, UTSA, Appalachian State, Rice, Miami (Ohio and the U), Bowling Green … the list goes on.

Adding insult to injury, spring is often the most productive for Oklahoma State’s coaching staff as they hand out offers and reel in early commitments ahead of summer. That approach has been pushed off track this year due to the pandemic, which the NCAA has responded with by declaring a dead period. No contacts, no visits. And for OSU, no commitments.

In fact, OSU’s last pledge came in mid-January when 2021 linebacker Kolbe Fields committed. He is thus far OSU’s lone commitment, making OSU the only Big 12 program to have just one commitment in its class for the cycle. Among all Power Five programs, only Illinois, Colorado, UCLA, Stanford and Utah have one or fewer commitments.

Here’s a look at where OSU stands in the conference race, via 247Sports, with Texas, Iowa State and even Texas Tech finding some success in recent months.

And here’s a link of the scrolling list of the national rankings.

OSU could certainly use a win. There is none on the horizon, but several recruits in the class — the Green twins from Texas, RB Cam Valdez, in-state stars Bryce Stephens and Kendal Daniels — are all giving OSU serious looks right now.

The long-term outlook is mildly promising given those who OSU is heavily involved with, but the short-term remains bleak. Behind UNLV, Troy and Temple in the national rankings, OSU is behind the eight ball, and with a dead period from the NCAA mandated through at least May, the turnaround may not happen any time soon.