Three Questions for Oklahoma State’s Corner Room Entering the 2024 Season

The Cowboys’ most experienced defender is in their corner room, and that’s where we’re headed next with our three offseason questions series.

To the uninitiated, I’m pondering on three questions for each of Oklahoma State’s position groups this offseason.

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1. Will Anyone Throw at Korie Black?

According to Pro Football Focus, Korie Black played 350 coverage snaps in 2023, and in all of those snaps, he was targeted just 35 times.

That’s tied for the seventh-fewest targets among corners with at least 300 coverage snaps in the nation, according to PFF. It was tied for the fewest targets in the Big 12 with Texas’ Malik Muhammad. Among the 35 times Black was thrown at, he allowed just 16 catches.

So that begs the question — will anyone throw at Black now that he is even another year wiser?

With as youthful as OSU was elsewhere in the secondary last season, it made little sense for opposing teams to throw Black’s way. Now that those young pups have a little more experience, maybe teams will worry less about trying to exploit the Cowboys’ youth and give Black some action. But at the same time, Black enters his super senior season having 50 games of experience under his belt and 26 starts.

2. Where Do DJ McKinney’s Snaps Go?

The Cowboys didn’t lose a ton in the portal this offseason, but they did lose a stellar, young corner in DJ McKinney.

McKinney played in all 14 of OSU’s games this past season, making 38 tackles and five pass breakups. Among the four OSU corners who played at least 125 coverage snaps, McKinney’s PFF grade of 70.3 was second to only Black, and McKinney’s 44.9% catch percentage was the best of those four.

The most likely to pick up McKinney’s workload are Cam Smith and Kale Smith (no relation). Cam actually started all 14 of the Cowboys’ games despite playing 93 fewer coverage snaps than McKinney did.

In 238 coverage snaps, Cam was targeted 37 times and gave up 22 catches. He finished the year with 26 tackles and four PBUs. Kale played 126 coverage snaps, where he was targeted 11 times and gave up eight catches. He had 22 tackles and a PBU.

De’kelvion Beamon is now in his fourth season with the program after reclassifying to get to Stillwater a year early in 2021. He played in eight games last season and physically looks the part at 6-foot-1, 200 pounds.

The Cowboys also have some tweener corner-safeties — like Dylan Smith, who is Cam’s brother but still isn’t related to Kale.

OSU took this big haul of DBs in its 2024 recruiting class:

Landyn Cleveland
David Kabongo
Willie Nelson
Jacobi Oliphant
LaDainian Fields

Cleveland, Kabongo and Nelson all enrolled in the spring but were listed at safety, but all spent at least some time at corner as high schoolers.

3. Does Kenneth Harris Factor In?

Kenneth Harris was a bit of a forgotten man in OSU’s massive haul of transfers last season.

A 6-foot, 190-pound corner from Arkansas State, Harris played four games and redshirted with OSU in 2023. But before that, Harris amassed 18 starts with the Red Wolves.

He started all 12 of Arkansas State’s games in 2022, recording 36 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, an interception and 10 PBUs.

Similar with Kobe Hylton in the safety room, if Harris can be serviceable for the Cowboys this season, it could ease the burden on some of those more inexperienced guys.