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Oklahoma State Football

Jaxon Player List of Five Down to Three and No OSU

January 6, 2022
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STILLWATER – Jaxon Player was looking like a great possibility for Oklahoma State to step in where departing defensive tackle Jayden Jernigan played on the Pokes defensive line. Player, who has played well in the past against the Cowboys and been very impressive went into the NCAA Transfer Portal last week and Oklahoma State was one of the first to respond. Player had Oklahoma State in his top five on Twitter along with Oklahoma, Arkansas, TCU, and Baylor. Pokes Report has learned that list is down to Arkansas, TCU, and Baylor.

The Arkansas attraction I’m not sure about, but TCU and Baylor would get Player close to home. Baylor especially.

The Waco Midway H.S. product is 6-0 and 290 pounds. He plays strong and very athletic. He is a two-time All-American Athletic Conference honoree. This past season he had 50 tackles, 22 unassisted, 13.5 tackles-for-loss, 5.0 sacks, a fumble forced, and one recovered.

In his career he has 136 tackles. 66 unassisted, and 8.0 sacks. Pro Football Focus gave him overall grades of 87.3 this season, 74.0 his junior season, 80.6 his sophomore campaign, and 74.8 as a freshman.

Pat Kinnison - Chief Photographer
Antwine among many Cowboys defensive linemen returning in 2022.

Player would not likely play nose for Baylor with Siaki Ika cemented in the middle of the Bears defense.

Oklahoma got a transfer on the defensive line from Hawai’i on Thursday in Jonah Laulu. Oklahoma State is recruiting 2022 junior college prospect Seleti Fevaleaki that is 6-2, 290-pounds.

The Cowboys will return Brock Martin, Tyler Lacy, Collin Oliver, Trace Ford, Kody Walterscheid, and Tyren Irby at defensive end. Inside the Cowboys will return Israel Antwine, Sione Asi, Samuela Tuihalamaka, and promising young tackle Aden Kelley. They could also return Brendon Evers.

 

Discussion from...

Jaxon Player List of Five Down to Three and No OSU

12,552 Views | 41 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by missouripoke
CowboyKip
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How about some info on Jonah Laulu !
cscotty7
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What about Clay? Is he going to get healthy?
missouripoke
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Read the article
CaliforniaCowboy
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CowboyKip said:

How about some info on Jonah Laulu !
Laulu is a goon....

how about some more information on Seleti Fevaleaki

Polston31
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Strike! Trench recruiting is hard for us. We scrape by almost every year. So far the success has us 0-8 or something on gaining/keeping kids. We will lose a ton after next season so they better not miss many more times!
Polston31
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I'll revise and say at tackle. We get ends. We struggle to land defensive tackles.
CaliforniaCowboy
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Polston31 said:

I'll revise and say at tackle. We get ends. We struggle to land defensive tackles.
That comment seems to be living in the past. We use to struggle to land defensive tackles, last year we were freaking loaded, and 2020 wasn't bad either.

We're still really solid for 2022 inside, especially if Evers returns.

We brought in the kid from Colorado, we brought in the kid from Michigan State, we brought in the JUCO kid, all were very good.
Polston31
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In the last 3 classes we have signed one d tackle and that's Kelley from Thomas ok so a natural advantage there. Got a couple transfers in clay and antwine. If I am honest after looking into we got lucky antwine is good cuz I'm reality we are in that great of shape their. Our tackle recruiting is nonexistent. Basically relying on the portal to give us back a kid we missed on
CaliforniaCowboy
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hmm..... hitting in the portal seems to be hitting.... not missing... at least to me.

What about the kid from Mater Dei?
Polston31
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Recruiting high school kids strongly each year and keeping the depth and experience in rotation. You can believe it's strong I hit no problem with that. I personally think we are not strong d tackle recruiters. We get by
Polston31
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Also antwine is the only guy really having a major impact from the transfers. Evers finally came around after a few years. I truly don't mean anything bad I just don't see our d tackle room and see great recruiting.
CaliforniaCowboy
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Polston31 said:

Also antwine is the only guy really having a major impact from the transfers. Evers finally came around after a few years. I truly don't mean anything bad I just don't see our d tackle room and see great recruiting.
this is the issue that every D1 team faces, that does not have blue-blood in their name.

There are very few DTs out of high school with the credentials that you are looking for (I presume stars), and all of them that don't have severe academic or personal issues, are sucked up by the blue bloods, leaving OSU to seek and find great players that we can develop (i.e., came around).

If we can skip the development stage (i.e., no high school kids) and jump straight to transfers that can immediately contribute, then I think we are ahead of the game, not falling behind like you seem to be suggesting.
Polston31
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My suggestion isn't that we are falling behind. I am just saying we aren't really strong at recruiting that position and we have we a way of getting by. Also not implying we are weak in that area. It's concerning to me to not be able to land quality high school kids consistently. I think relying on the portal is dangerous and could have us in a bind someday.
CaliforniaCowboy
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I guess that I'm just perplexed on what it is that you think needs to be different, we have two options, transfers or developmental HS kids - both of which you are seemingly concerned by.

There simply are not the type of kids available that you wish we would get. In 2022 (this class) there are five 5-star DL players, all five committed to the SEC (3 to A$M). Almost all from Florida, no 5-star from Texas, Ark, or OK.

There are 43 players listed as 4-star (per 24x7). Four of those were from Texas, and one was from OK. The Okla kid signed with the SEC (Florida - #17 Chris McCellan/Owasso).

Of the four 4-star kids from Texas, two signed with Texas, one with A$M, and one with Stanford.

Sure, there were a couple of seemingly odd 4-star pickups with Indiana snagging a Florida kid, and Kentucky getting a kid from Detroit, but that's about it. Could OSU have done that too? it seems to be the exception, with likely special circumstances (which I'm not going to look up)

A$M got 5 of the top 10 DL recruits.
Bama got 4 of the 4-stars
Texas got 4 of the 4-stars
UGA got 1 5-star and 2 4-star
Florida got 2 4-star

of the top 48 DL players, the SEC pulled in 21. The B1G pulled in 13. The blue-blood teams nabbed the vast majority of these top kids, with the rest mostly sticking with a local team. (neither OU nor OSU could keep our one Okla kid local)

OU, Ark, BU, TCU, OSU, none of them have a 4-star DL recruit. LSU has one, but he is from La. ISU has one also, but he is from Iowa. Clemson didn't get any. Florida State didn't get any. USC didn't get any.

So, now we're down to the dreaded developmental 3-star kids, so what do you propose that OSU do?




Polston31
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Well simply land more quality high school kids to develop. I don't care about stars. I would take quality 3 star kids all day. Like I said we have landed 1 high school d tackle in the past 3 classes. I don't know how much more clear I can be. I want quality high school kids in the program each year. We recruit every position every year some times we take more sometimes less. We need more quality high school talent in our program keeping the well full. Not land 1 every few years and pray we hit gold in the portal. I am no expectation to be Bama or whoever. I understand we won't land those kids like that.
Polston31
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So simply put do a better/stronger job at recruiting that position
COpoke
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It wouldn't hurt to keep 3 star players who are really good like Jernigan. We have a historic season and has a wide open path for stardom and chooses to leave. Ditto for Macalister. Gundy mentioned 9 players indicated they would come back next year in a press conference and so far we have 1 confirmation with Brock Martin and zero portal pickups. It's early but I'm concerned that we are headed for a repeat of loss of momentum similar to 2011. The Knowles departure is beginning to show its impact and it appears he was the pivotal link to the "cowboy culture" on the defensive side of the ball.
Polston31
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Finally someone who sees it. Another concern is what happens when all these guys leave and we aren't full of developed depth then what do we do? Try to take multiple players from the portal and hope they can learn things fast enough to make an impact? If we aren't taking guys every year then a drop off period is to be expected
CaliforniaCowboy
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These guys are all still on the team (I think) ... well, Jernigan is leaving

plus we brought in a boat load of transfers and JC kids at that position, so there was not much room for more players at that position.

2017 - Brenden Evers
2018 - SAMUELA TUIHALAMAKA
2019 - JAYDEN JERNIGAN
2019 - XAVIER ROSS

We had the Covid season, plus the super senior season since then, so it would seem that you're suggesting that we should have booted a senior contributor so we could bring in a developmental rookie.

I think we're in great shape. I don't really see the problem you're trying to describe.

The times have changed... we may never bring in another HS kid at DT. (and that could be okay)
Polston31
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Right. So class of 20 21 and 22 we landed Aden Kelley. So again I am suggesting we recruit more high school kids lol you keep sayin I am suggesting **** when I am literally telling you what I mean lol we need to recruit more high school talent.
Polston31
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Also 3 out of the 4 kids you have named have been non factors. So if injuries happened or we miss on portal guys we have guys that we can't necessarily trust to get the job done at this level. If it was not for Covid extra years we would be in much worse shape
CaliforniaCowboy
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with all due respect, we had Grant Mahon in there too, but he got COVID - not sure what happened to him, and the 2021 class was impacted with super-seniors so no room, and 2022 class is not complete, signing day has not even arrived yet.

Polston31
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You are technically right we did grab Mahon but he fizzled so quick we never even noticed him leave. So I didn't count him. That would suggest even more that we don't have strong recruiting at that position. If we hit it out of the park before the class of 22 ends I'll stand corrected for this class. Point is tho we just get by we aren't great at recruiting that position
CaliforniaCowboy
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I disagree, mostly with your definition of "recruiting", since transfers are recruited (especially grad transfers and JUCO kids), but also Portal transfers.

accordingly, our DLine the past few years has been among the best that I have seen at OSU over a 50 year span.

Hopefully simply losing Jernigan doesn't flip the script we've developed over the past few years.

I realize that you place the significance on unproven kids that must be developed, while I place significance on kids that are already developed that have a few years to contribute.

Bottom line, we must continue to do both, and fill the gaps where they pop up.

just for grins, I went and looked at Bama's last 3 classes, and they brought in about 10 4-star DTs and 2 that were listed as 3-star but had an .88+ rating. (so this would would not include their upper classmen at that position).

I'm thinking if we just focus on offering all the kids that commit to Bama and UGA, then when some of them get dissatisfied with their PT, then we'd be top of the list to recruit these kids from the portal.... what do you think?

Polston31
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We don't need to recruit Bama or Clemson or Georgia kids. We can recruit transfers. My opinion is simply recruiting and developing high schools kids. Grow them up in the system and culture. Let him have experience in our system. Not just being in bodies. In zero comparison to other schools and solely looking at ok states roster we are not strong or deep. We have good starters that we rely on heavily. It just won't always work that way. Obviously you want upperclassmen to play but what happens when something happens and your go to guy or guys go down or can't play for whatever reason? In that situation I want a player that knows our culture and our system. I would prefer that over a transfer that yeah maybe he has experience but if he doesn't know our defense it does no good. Antwine and Evers have kept us afloat and we have decent backups that keep us from falling on our faces. We are not strong at d tackle tho. All in all we are not super weak there but we are not super strong there either. Extra Covid year helps hide some of that hit in a few years when all that is gone again we need to be prepared. We need to take advantage of our success and recruit better in the trenches so we don't get that drop off. After next season we lose a most our experience there. So if we don't have high school kids training and waiting there and we miss on portal kids then want? We suck that's what. So we need to recruit quality high school kids most importantly. Get a good transfer here and there but secondly because we can't rely on the portal every year cuz at some point that won't work for us
CaliforniaCowboy
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I hear you my friend, but that approach has not worked for OSU.

Before the grad transfer, before the Portal, all we had was HS recruits and JUCO recruits, and we almost never ever had a decent DLine, if we had good starters, there was very little depth, and zero beyond the 2-deep.

That was most of the past 30 years of OSU football.

With the grad transfers and with the Portal, we are building and maintaining both quality players and extreme depth... for once. Finally.

I'm going to move on to another discussion, but your position seems to me, simply to be suggesting more of the same strategy that didn't work for the past 30 years. Yes, if we can land a good HS kid then we should. If we can't, or if we can do better with the new options available, then we should do that. I'm not one that is going to fret about where our good DLinemen came from, or how they got here.

Enjoy. Go Pokes.
Polston31
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We certainly all have an opinion!
Joe Khatib
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Polston31 said:

We certainly all have an opinion!
Yes and you make yours quite clear all the time!
Joe Khatib
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CaliforniaCowboy said:

These guys are all still on the team (I think) ... well, Jernigan is leaving

plus we brought in a boat load of transfers and JC kids at that position, so there was not much room for more players at that position.

2017 - Brenden Evers
2018 - SAMUELA TUIHALAMAKA
2019 - JAYDEN JERNIGAN
2019 - XAVIER ROSS

We had the Covid season, plus the super senior season since then, so it would seem that you're suggesting that we should have booted a senior contributor so we could bring in a developmental rookie.

I think we're in great shape. I don't really see the problem you're trying to describe.

The times have changed... we may never bring in another HS kid at DT. (and that could be okay)
There is a good chance Desean Brown grows into an interior D Lineman, more likely a three than a one or nose tackle. He is about 265 lbs right now and could easily fill out to 295 or 300 lbs. Tyler Lacy for all intense and purposes fills the three technique role or on the outside at end in either the three or four man fronts because he is 295 lbs currently.
Polston31
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As much as anyone does on this site. You and cali form the cry baby band yet?
CaliforniaCowboy
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Polston31 said:

As much as anyone does on this site. You and cali form the cry baby band yet?
tisk, tisk, tisk... and here i thought that you and I just had an in-depth cordial discussion.... then you go and throw me under the bus in your spat with another poster.....

can't we all just get along?
Polston31
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I thought so to cali then your boy chimed in
Joe Khatib
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Polston31 said:

I thought so to cali then your boy chimed in
It's called PARTICIPATION bro, instead of whining like a little kid!
CaliforniaCowboy
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Polston31 said:

I thought so to cali then your boy chimed in
he's not "my boy", I don't even know him, and we have vastly differing opinions on most Pokes topics.


lay down here on the sofa and put your feet up, how long have you been having these feelings that people are teaming up against you, that folks are out to get you? Tell me about you childhood, did your mother love you? Do you have any other feelings of inadequacy?

I'm certain we can help you.
Polston31
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Look I won't argue with you guys all day but I will say again what I said to cali before. If you don't like what I am saying then simply stop reading and don't feel the need to reply. I most definitely have an opinion and never feel like I am arguing. I mean think about it. You can't argue without another persons opinion being inserted into your business. So simply stay out of it. Pretty sure all of our parents taught us this
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