Braden Cassity "Fired Up" for Texas Game
STILLWATER – There’s certain games on the calendar that everyone is going to have circled, especially around the Big 12. For Oklahoma State, the most obvious is Oklahoma with Bedlam. For the players out of the state of Texas, you guessed it: the Texas game. Probably none more than cowboy back, Braden Cassity.
Cassity is a redshirt senior out of Austin, TX, and played his high school ball at the vaunted football school Austin Westlake. Cassity was one of the top defensive players in the Lone Star State as a senior as he finished the year with 101 total tackles, 71 of which were solo stops, 15.0 tackles for loss, 11 sacks and an interception, which led to him being named the 6A Defensive Player of the Year, the District 25-6A Defensive MVP, as well as AP All-State, All USA-Texas and TSWA All-State, among a handful of other honors.
Cassity held at least 10 offers by the end of his recruiting cycle, none of which were from the Longhorns. However, it’s the competitiveness and the “friendly jabbing” from family, friends and a few of the players he knows in burnt orange that’s what makes this game so big.
“It is what it is, I mean it’s a huge game for me,” Cassity said of playing Texas. “Not just because it’s Texas, but because all my friends and family are there, and I got some with me and some against me. Which is how it should be; the competitiveness of it is what keeps it fun. It’s an every-year-kind-of-thing, I’m kind of getting used to it at this point,” Cassity said of the Texas game. “It’s always fun when this game comes around because I know a few guys on their team as well and there’s some friendly jabbing going on.”
Cassity came to Oklahoma State as a defensive end but was moved over to cowboy back due to lack of depth in the middle of his redshirt freshman season in 2019. He finished his junior season as an All-Big 12 honorable mention with five receptions for 66 yards, with two catches for 32 yards against the Longhorns.
He’s coming off a big game this past weekend against TCU, another in-state school for him. He hauled in his second reception on the year, a 38-yard pass from Spencer Sanders in the opening drive of the game, a drive which was capped by a 29-yard touchdown run by Sanders.
“I’m just blessed to have that opportunity, not even…the catch was awesome, but more so the fact that I was given that opportunity to do something like that was huge to me,” Cassity said of his catch at TCU. “That doesn’t happen very often, so I was super grateful for that and just happy it came my way.”
It wasn’t the ideal finish the Cowboys wanted against the Horned Frogs, a 43-40 2OT loss for their first loss of the season but Cassity said the team has put it behind them and is looking ahead full steam to Texas.
“I think [the TCU loss] is in the rearview mirror,” Cassity said. “We had an awesome Tuesday practice, even though the temp dropped a bit and guys were taking a little bit longer to get warmed up, we had an awesome day today. I’m fired up for this game and I know a lot of other guys are too. This isn’t one that we take lightly, by any means.”