Two Potential X Factors for Oklahoma State’s 2026 Season

After two years of outright bad football, the feeling is that the Cowboys will play some good football this season. But there are X factors who could take this group from good to great.

As we crawl ever closer to the start of the Eric Morris Era at Oklahoma State, here is an offensive and defensive X factor for the Cowboys entering 2026.

Offense: Chris Barnes, WR

For good reason, Wyatt Young is the most highly publicized OSU receiver heading into the 2026 season.

He’s coming off a year in which he caught 70 balls for 1,264 yards and 10 touchdowns in this same offense with Drew Mestemaker slinging the pill.

Chris Barnes isn’t exactly coming out of nowhere, as he was a four-star prospect coming out of the transfer portal via Wake Forest. But it’s safe to say he’s flying a little under the national radar when it comes to this team with much of the offseason talk about this offense centering on Mestemaker, Young and running back Caleb Hawkins.

But Barnes has all the potential to be a star in Eric Morris’ system. He’s a 5-foot-7, 169-pound redshirt sophomore with blazing speed and catlike quickness. After redshirting at Washington State in 2024, Barnes caught 39 passes for 547 yards and four touchdowns at Wake Forest last season as a redshirt freshman. He also tallied 143 rushing yards and a kick return touchdown.

And Morris has long been interested in getting Barnes into his system, as the speedster was committed to Morris at North Texas for the better part of five months before Washington State swooped in ahead of signing day.

“He’s so electric,” said Morris of Barnes at Big 12 Media Days. “He ran a 10.2 100-meter dash. He was committed to me in high school at North Texas and ended up flipping late, but a kid I knew the family, I knew his personal makeup, I knew he could fit our system, can really stretch the field vertically.”

Whether it’s the standard passing game, the return game or some gadget-type stuff in between, I expect Barnes to have a big year in orange and black.

Defense: Braylon Rigsby, DT

Defensive tackle is perhaps the Cowboys’ biggest question mark entering 2026, but some Big 12 Media Days comments might soothe some of those worries.

At different points of the long day of interviews, defensive end Jaleel Johnson and linebacker Ethan Wesloski each sat down with The Sports Animal’s Mike Rodgers and Cale Gundy. They were each asked about guys to watch out for on the defense, and the first name out of each of their mouths (independently of each other) was Braylon Rigsby.

Rigsby is a 6-foot-3, 283-pound redshirt junior who transferred from Texas Tech this offseason. He took part in all of Tech’s games last season, winning a Big 12 title and making the College Football Playoff. Across the past two years, he’s played in 26 games and made 24 tackles, and three tackles for loss.

“I really like Braylon Rigsby,” Johnson said. “He came in from Tech. The way that man plays football is astonishing. I really admire his game. He’s able to work past these offensive linemen with ease. I just enjoy the way he plays the game.”

There isn’t a ton of glory available for interior defensive linemen, as most times they are successful if they eat enough blocks for someone else to make a play. But you can’t deny the importance of a good interior, and if Rigsby is standing out to a defensive end who plays next to him and a linebacker who plays behind him, that’s probably a great sign.

Maybe the offseason worry about this group was unjustified. The room does have some nice pieces like North Texas transfers Saadiq Clements and Fatafehi Vailea II (returning from injury) and Louisville transfer Jerry Lawson. You also can’t mention this position group without noting that returner Iman Oates is still seeking another year of eligibility, a situation Morris still didn’t have an update for at Big 12 Media Days.

“I wish I had more information for you on that,” Morris said. “It’s all out of our hands and in the court’s hands right now.”

But if Rigsby is a dude, he probably unlocks quite a bit in terms of what’s possible for the OSU D this season.