Cowboys could struggle to fill out roster
STILLWATER — With most of the work finished on Oklahoma State's 2019 recruiting class, and only two new additions to announce on Wednesday, Mike Gundy didn't need another signing day news conference. Instead, the coach recorded a short video welcoming Katy, Texas, running back Deondrick Glass and Colorado transfer defensive lineman Israel Antwine — originally from Millwood — to the program. “Both of these young men are gonna bring a lot to Oklahoma State football,” Gundy said after showing high school highlights of both players. “So that's gonna wrap up our class.” That's when ESPN star Lee Corso might jump in with a “Not so fast, my friend!” Signing day is complete in Stillwater. Recruiting for the 2019 season is not. Gundy knows it, and he's known for a while. He was already talking in November about how he wasn't going to be able to get the Cowboys' roster back up to the NCAA maximum of 85 scholarship players. The large senior class that departed, plus the eight players who have left, either as traditional transfers or graduate transfers — senior-to-be offensive lineman Arlington Hambright is the latest to join that list, sources told The Oklahoman on Wednesday — left OSU with more holes to fill than would be possible with the NCAA's hard limit of 25 signees per recruiting class. With the latest additions, OSU has 81 scholarship players expected to be on campus in the fall. So it's time for Cowboy fans to familiarize themselves with the term “blue shirt.” The practice of blue-shirting is far more common than the average fan realizes. The basic principle is designed for a player to join a team and be on scholarship, but not have that scholarship count against the current recruiting class. It instead counts toward the next year. As the NCAA began to see what it thought was too many programs taking advantage of the blue shirt parameters, it cracked down prior to the 2018 season. That's where things get tricky for OSU. Under current rules, players can still blue shirt. OSU pulled it off with graduate transfers Dru Brown and Kemah Siverand last year, with both joining the team in the fall, but counting toward the 2019 signing class. The key components of the rule changes involve how a player is recruited. There can be no off-campus contact between coaches and the recruit, and the school can't pay for the recruit to take an official visit. Those two factors make recruiting a blue shirt player incredibly difficult, especially if the school is recruiting against programs that aren't seeking to blue shirt the player. OSU has one spot still open in its class, and can go through the traditional process with the prospect the coaches identify for that opening. The biggest need remains a defensive lineman, probably an end, who can play right away. That means he'll likely come from the junior college ranks or the graduate transfer market. Once the final spot in the 2019 class is filled, OSU will still be three players under the 85-scholarship limit. On top of that, OSU is likely to have 11 seniors in the fall, so it won't have a full 25 openings to fill in the 2020 class. Finding as many as three blue shirt prospects, particularly graduate transfers who would be gone after one year, would build the Cowboys' current roster, and use spots in the 2020 class they likely won't be able to fill next year anyway. The transfer portal is full of prospects looking for new homes. OSU could be an attractive destination for a graduate transfer defensive end or offensive lineman looking for a place to play out his career. The OSU coaches just won't be able to recruit them in the traditional way.