As the transfer portal continues to impact recruiting, Oklahoma State officially signs 17 (2024)

STILLWATER — The process of recruiting, signing and developing players has remained the same. The challenge now, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said Wednesday, is retaining them.

“We bring these young guys in to develop them in the program,” Gundy said. “The majority of these players are going to start to show up in 2-3 years. But as it is now, some of them might not be here. The process to this point and developing them has not changed, the change is how many of them will be here.”

On Wednesday afternoon, OSU completed the first leg of signing high school recruits, adding 17 players, all listed as three-star prospects on early national signing day. On a mostly drama-free morning, the Cowboys successfully signed all 16 players committed to the program and managed to flip one player.

But as Gundy alluded to, the transfer portal’s impact is felt in the recruiting landscape.

OSU already earned two commitments from portal players in the past week. Factor in 17 high school signees — highlighted by quarterback Maealiuaki Smith and safeties David Kabongo and Landyn Cleveland — and the Cowboys are already well into reshaping their roster ahead of the 2024 season.

“Most schools are trying to use the portal to subsidize what would be high school players in the past,” Gundy said. “We’re not really moving that direction yet.”

The emergence of the transfer portal has led to an increase in high school players available for recruiting, Gundy explained. As more schools begin looking toward filling holes with experience in the portal, its resulted in a deep pool of high school recruits available.

The Cowboys ended with 17 players in this class. Some programs will close with less than 10.

It leads to some under-the-radar finds on the recruiting trail. OSU’s staff discovered running back Jaden Allen-Hendrix late, offering him on Dec. 3 and receiving a commitment Tuesday.

“I think the portal affects all of these players,” Gundy explained. “This recruiting class, the last recruiting class and the one before that have all gotten caught up in the sixth-year super senior COVID (year) and the portal.”

Allen-Hendrix wasn’t the only last-minute addition for OSU. The Cowboys and defensive coordinator Bryan Nardo flipped cornerback LaDainian Fields, cousin and teammate of fellow OSU signee Rodney Fields, from TCU on Wednesday morning, the highlight for the program on signing day.

It culminated in the No. 56 class in the country, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings.

Even with a heftier recruiting class than most, the Cowboys aren’t immune from trying to replace lost transfer portal talent with other transfer additions.

“These guys are all going to be projected at a certain position that we have, based on the style of defense we want to run,” Gundy explained. “The challenge now is, which ones do you replace with high school players and which ones do you replace with portal, which are more mature players.”

Gundy explained the scenario using safety Nick Session, who entered the transfer portal two weeks ago.

“Like Nick Session is in about his third year here,” Gundy said. “So, then we’ll look for a safety in the same range from a maturity standpoint. It’s not personal against Nick, but when we have a portal guy, we look for a better player at the same position. So, we say, we lost a mature safety, we need another mature safety.

“Then we have to decide, he either has to be as good as the guy that left, or better. Unless we have quite a few numbers at that position, then we will not bring one in unless we know he’s better.”

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