When Oklahoma State hired coach Eric Morris, attention quickly turned to the spoils of the roster he left behind at North Texas. 

Quarterback Drew Mestemaker was the crown jewel, the No. 3 overall player in Cooper Petagna’s 247Sports transfer rankings after leading the nation in passing yards. Running back Caleb Hawkins was close behind, the No. 15 recruit and No. 1 running back transfer after leading the nation in rushing touchdowns. Wide receiver Wyatt Young came in at No. 43 after ranking No. 7 nationally in receiving yards. 

In the first 48 hours of the transfer portal, Morris and his staff managed to lock all three players in. And now, the triumvirate is the perfect foundation to build the future of Oklahoma State. 

College football transfer portal: Indiana, Oklahoma State among teams off to hottest starts in 2026 cycle

Cody Nagel

Mestemaker is one of the great stories in college football, a former walk-on who never started a varsity game in high school. In his second season, he threw for 4,379 yards and 34 touchdowns, the latter of which trails only Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza. Other major programs had interest in Mestemaker, but Morris closed the deal. Young was his favorite target, even posting a 295-yard game against Rice. 

While 247Sports rated Hawkins as a high-end three-star recruit, the rest of the industry was far less optimistic. His only other reported offers were Emporia State and Central Oklahoma. However, Hawkins rushed for 1,434 yards and 25 touchdowns as a true freshman, one of the nation’s best seasons for a running back. 

Immediately, the trio becomes the best set of “triplets” at Oklahoma State since the legendary 2017 combination of Mason Rudolph, Justice Hill and James Washington. And more importantly, the additions announce nationally that Morris and highly-touted general manager Raj Murti are ready to compete on the national stage. 

“Having the relationships with the new coaches helped land all three guys, but they also had to pay them what they’re worth and pay serious money for the first time,” GoPokes’ McClain Baxley told CBS Sports. “Until this week, the highest reported player was running back Ollie Gordon in 2024 and that was less than $1 million. Oklahoma State has stepped up by making scoring points a priority and given other prospects in the portal something to think about.” 

The Cowboys are coming off arguably the worst season in program history, a 1-11 disaster that lacked a single FBS win. Oklahoma State ranked last in nearly every category in the Big 12 as the final year of the Mike Gundy era ended with a thud. 

Gundy was reluctant to embrace the new world of college football, often dismissing NIL and the transfer portal. It seemed to bottom out with a stunning 3-9 season in 2024, after which Gundy claimed he “bought” his first roster for 2025 with 65 new additions, plus nine new assistant coaches. Between bad identification and bad development, the Cowboys rated as one of the worst power conference programs of the past several years. 

As of publication, Oklahoma State has 15 total commitments to hold the No. 2 transfer class in the nation. Eleven commitments are directly from North Texas. James Madison running back Ayo Adeyi also ironically started his career with the Mean Green and reunited with Morris in Stillwater.

The strategy echoes that of Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, who brought 13 highly-touted transfers from James Madison in 2024. Now, many of them are All-Americans and the leader of the national title favorite. Like James Madison, North Texas finished 11-1 in Morris’s final season. 

The transition to the major college level could come with complications. The Mean Green struggled against Tulane and South Florida, the two most talented teams they played in The American. North Texas is bringing several starting linemen, but it’s unclear how they’ll translate. Gundy’s disastrous finish leaves almost no existing foundation on the roster, especially in the trenches. 

However, the triplets give Oklahoma State something to build around. The Cowboys are spending big money and competing with the best. With Morris’s history of creating the best offenses in college football, Boone Pickens Stadium should be rocking once more. 

Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz are joined by College Football Enquirer host Steven Godfrey to discuss how to fix the college football transfer portal window. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.

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Video Transcript

My problem is the fact that the transfer portal opened on January 2nd when we We’re still in the middle of the playoffs.

So there areyes, That is athat is a problem.

So, if you’re the star of college football It is a major problem, yeah.

How do you fix that?

Yeah.

Well, you move it to April, but then we’d start Talking about this thing like it was a professional sport and people don’t want to do That.

Um, no.

We should get it, even though it is out of the way of the playoffs.

We should… What?

Now, whatever do you mean?

Are you implying that it’s a billion-dollar industry that people have made money off of for years, but all of a sudden, when the kids started getting paid, Everything was going to hell in a handbasket?

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Except the television ratings are up and Interest has never been higher, so back of the line, nerds.

No, I’m sick of the idea of pearl-clutching over this.

Ah.

I think that it does need revision, and it does need a certain amount of… Again, I feel like I say this in some way, shape or form every time I’m on the show.

We talk about a problem in college sports.

We have no central governance, okay?

We have no one who is in charge of college.

Football, who’s looking out for just college football?

Everything is, like, feudal and it’s these little confederacies of conferences and they They can’t agree on much.

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And so the portal is the latest example.

Now, before you feel bad for your local coach who is talking about how tough things are.

On him and his staff right now, the coaches voted for this date.

Okay?

The coaches wanted to have the portal here, And they didn’t want two portals.

So before you’re like, Oh, man.

It’s just so, it’s so tough on my coach right Now, think about just the distractions on and off.

No, no, no.

They wanted this.

What’s funny is some of these staffs aren’t even complete yet.

Next week, I’m going to Charlotte for AFCA, which is the college coaches convention where a A lot of these hires are still taking place, and it’s not, Like, the big ones.

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It’s, “Do I have a linebackers coach?”

“Is this guy gonna go…” You know, “Is this assistant gonna go to this team?”

And so At the same time, you’re out there trying to make aggressive offers and also… By the way, it’s two-sided.

You are recruiting players who are in the portal, or might get in the portal, but then you’re also recruiting your players to not get In the portal.

So, is this an ideal system?

No, not at all.

I just don’t care if the kids are getting paid.

And the kids can move around.

That’s fine with me.

I mean, you look at the very top of this graphic right here.

You’re seeing two kids offensively who helped define North Texas’ season.

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Especially Mesta Maker, who’s considered to be one of the best quarterbacks in this class.

They’re following their coach.

That should be okay.

Right?

That should be allowed.

And by the way, don’t think for a second that when Eric Morris was interviewing to be Hired at Oklahoma State… Trust me.

He very casually mentioned, “Hey, I might have a really good quarterback that we can go pick up in the portal.”

So it’s, like, kind of a package deal, Which is, like, a whole other dirty thing that we could talk about sometime.

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As the college football season draws to a close, players’ decisions about their futures are set to significantly shape the landscape of the sport.

Some players have already made their intentions clear, announcing their plans to enter the transfer portal. Several Oklahoma players, including running back Jovantae Barnes, linebacker Kobie McKinzie and quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr.

Starting to seem like the smaller schools are becoming farm systems for the schools with elite NIL funding. Much like Major League Baseball were we see small market teams pillaged by the likes of the Mets, Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Cubs. Has this what College football has become in the age of NIL and the transfer portal? How is it going to be stopped? Feels like we are going to see anyone not getting playing time go to a mid level school develop and off to the elite. I’m afraid college football is becoming MLB, about 6 to 8 of the same teams with a legit shot year in and out.

ATHENS — College football calls the current period of player transactions the “transfer portal,” but Nick Saban refers to it as “chaos.”

More than 4,000 college football players, including more than 120 starters, per Saban, have entered their name into the portal alerting their own and other programs of their intention/willingness to change schools.

“We created a system that only allows you to gain advantage if you want to leave,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said during the lead up to the Bulldogs’ CFP quarterfinal in the Sugar Bowl last week in New Orleans.

“You’ve created a system that inherently rewards what defies a team concept, and in a team sport, it just makes no sense.”

But it does make dollars for some players who make themselves available to the highest bidder, via collegiate sports’ version of free agency.

There was some optimism last June when the House vs. NCAA case was settled that collegiate athletes could find some order with a then-$20.5 million “cap” put in place for schools to pay out to student-athletes.

Roster sizes were to be reduced, but there would be no scholarship limits and an exception was in place for student-athletes to secure their own NIL deals outside of the school’s cap, provided it met the standards as determined by a clearinghouse.

“This new framework that enables schools to provide direct financial benefits to student-athletes and establishes clear and specific rules to regulate third-party NIL agreements marks a huge step forward for college sports,” NCAA president Charlie Baker penned in a letter in response to the case settlement.

It seems like so long ago, and now, here we are after a season that saw 11 Power 4 coaches fired before the end of this season, including five from the SEC — and a sixth change when Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss before the start of the College Football Playoff to accept the LSU head coaching job.

Saban, citing the unprecedented scenario currently playing out at Ole Miss, said it’s a matter of the football “calendar” of events, which includes the early signing date (Dec. 3-5) and the transfer portal window date (Jan. 2-16).

“Ole Miss has six (assistant) coaches going to LSU, trying to take guys to LSU from their (current Ole Miss) team,” Saban said on College GameDay. “But they’ve got to play a game.

“Is that chaos, or is that chaos? So this whole college football calendar needs to change, that would be my New Year’s resolution.”

To Saban’s point, Ole Miss did beat Georgia 39-34 in the Sugar Bowl to advance to play Miami in the College Football Playoff Fiesta Bowl semifinal at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in Glendale, Arizona.

In the meantime, Kiffin is working to rebuild the LSU roster with transfer players who, no doubt, will be wanting to meet and talk with the Rebels’ offensive coaches who plan to join the LSU staff once Ole Miss is eliminated from the CFP.

Clearly, it’s not an optimal situation for the student-athletes, even as some of the current Ole Miss players are considering transferring elsewhere.

There’s no alternative, however, with the playoff schedule and transfer portal overlapping.

Indiana, the CFP No. 1 seed that will face Oregon at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl semifinal, has already received a commitment from TCU quarterback Josh Hoover among five other transfer portal additions, per reports.

“The NCAA doesn’t seem to be in control of the way things are happening right now, and I think if we’re going to change things in college football, we’ve got to get Congress to have some kind of antitrust legislation because the NCAA can’t enforce their own rules,” Saban said. “So even if they tried to change this, somebody might sue, and they might not be able to do it, that’s how we got where we are now.”

Former Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl proposed on TNT programming that collegiate eligibility needs to be capped at five years, with no appeals.

Further, Pearl echoed Saban on the matter of congressional oversight, which could lead to players signing enforceable contracts of two or three years to eliminate the year-to-year free agency turnover.

Saban, a seven-time championship coach at Alabama and LSU, suggests the transfer portal date be moved back to May, in line with the academic calendar, and that offseason football training be moved from the spring semester to the summer semester.

“You can get your team together and work over the summer, just like an NFL team does — they don’t have their team together until after the (NFL) draft and after free agency, in May,” Saban said. “So do the same thing in college football and you wouldn’t have these issues with coaches changing jobs, because everybody could finish the season with their team, which is what’s best for the players.”

Smart, who led the charge at SEC spring meetings for the January portal date, admits the situation is overly complicated.

“I wish I could solve it, everybody will tell you there’s an answer,” Smart said. “I can tell you that the answer isn’t currently where we stand. I can promise you that.”

Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss agreed to a new deal with the school for the 2026 season, contingent on his eligibility waiver being granted, On3’s Pete Nakos reported. School officials are hoping for a resolution to end up in their favor, giving Chambliss a sixth year of college football next season.

Chambliss has been spectacular for the Rebels this season, and their most recent win was no exception. In the victory over Georgia in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, Chambliss completed 30-of-his-46 pass attempts for 362 yards and two touchdowns, without throwing an interception.

In total, Chambliss has completed 66.4% of his pass attempts for 3,660 yards and 21 TDs this season, while only throwing three interceptions. Though Chambliss spent four seasons at Ferris State, he only played in two of them.

He redshirted in 2021 after seeing no action. He didn’t make any appearances in the 2022 campaign, either. Chambliss is seeking a medical redshirt for that season, claiming he battled respiratory issues, which ultimately led to the removal of his tonsils.

“I deserve it,” Chambliss said Dec. 30 at Sugar Bowl media day. “I’ve only played three seasons of college football. I feel like I deserve to play four. I redshirted in 2021. That was my freshman redshirt. Then I medically redshirted in 2022. Played in 2023, 2024 and this is 2025.

“… “I have records from an ear, nose and throat doctor that I was getting treated for the issue that I had in 2022. … I was in communication with Ferris (State), doctors, all of that.”

For now, Trinidad Chambliss can only continue to focus on the current season. On Jan. 8, Ole Miss will square off against 10-seed Miami in the CFP semifinals. The game will air live on ESPN. The winner will advance to the national championship.

Grant Grubbs contributed to this report