New Additions to Oklahoma State Football Staff

STILLWATER – Obviously, the most note worthy and significant addition to the Oklahoma State football staff this winter/spring has been new defensive coordinator Derek Mason. The veteran defensive coordinator from Stanford and Auburn as well as seven-year head coach at Vanderbilt has a national reputation and is considered a top coach at the Division I level. Head coach Mike Gundy and director of recruiting Todd Bradford have had other positions to fill with departures such as Zach Crabtree to Southern Cal, John Johnson to Sam Houston, Koy McFaland and Brent Zdebski to Ohio State. There has been some turnover with the group that Gundy calls the “young coaches.”

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Bryce Lewis (left) watching competition day with Derek Mason.

Mason brought Bryce Lewis with him as we reported earlier this month and Lewis will serve as an analyst on defense with the secondary. Lewis played for Derek Mason at Vanderbilt as a safety and then was a graduate assistant for the Commordores for one season before moving into a quality control position on defense. While playing and coaching at Vandy, Lewis earned his Bachelor degree in Special Education and a Master’s degree in Learning, Diversity, and Urban Studies from the Vanderbilt Peabody School. He was with Mason the one season at Auburn as a defensive analyst.

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Zach Allen coaching NEO A&M Junior College.

Zach Allen is the new offensive line analyst for recruiting. He is a former Oklahoma State player that was on Gundy’s first team after he became head coach in 2005. Allen lettered four straight seasons handling the deep snap duties and was a three-time Academic All-Big 12 honoree. He got his Bachelor degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration, but went right into the coaching field at NEO A&M Junior  College and held virtually every position on the staff as a special teams, defensive, and offensive coordinator. During that time, he also earned his Masters degree in Educational Leadership from Pittsburgh State University. Under Clay Patterson he was the assistant head coach and succeeded Patterson as the NEO head coach. His first team went 8-4 and played for the SWJCFC Championship losing to Kilgore. He finished 12-9 at NEO as a head coach.

Allen accepted the recruiting coordinator and defensive run game coordinator job at Northeastern Oklahoma State in Tahlequah. And was there for the COVID pandemic season in 2020 and last fall. He has been named by the AFCA as a Top 30 under 30 Coach and was also named the Merv Johnson Integrity in Coaching Award winner in 2017.

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Kearsley at North Dakota.

Brayden Kearsley replaces Chris Myers as the offensive line graduate assistant or quality control coach. Kearsley has loads of experience having played at both BYU and Oregon State. The native of Aloha, Ore., came to Oklahoma State after serving as an assistant offensive line coach at Southwestern Oklahoma State. Prior to that he was a quality control coach at University of North Dakota.    

Cameron O’Neal has been added as a recruiting analyst for running backs. O’Neal comes from Henderson State where he was secondary coach and NFL liaison. Prior to that he was the defensive pass game coordinator at Birmingham Southern College. O’Neal, who played safety at Southern Miss from 2007-11 graduated with his Bachelor degree in Mass Communication. He served as a graduate assistant at University of North Carolina for four-years and earned a second degree, this one in Sociology.

O’Neal went on to coach the secondary at Saraland High School in Alabama before moving into the small college coaching ranks.

Finally, it was just revealed earlier this week that Appalachian State offensive quality control coach Tim Sanders is coming to Oklahoma State as an offensive analyst. We know Sanders had a coaching internship with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but we are still gather information on Sanders.