Bound to Happen: Two Cowboys Including Donovan Stephens in the Transfer Portal

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State has had as quiet a spring with the NCAA Transfer Portal window. The window opened at midnight on April 16 and will now close at midnight May 1. In other words, football student-athletes have through Tuesday, April 30 to enter the portal. Graduate transfers have an extra 24 hours through May 1. The absolute quiet broke on Monday when two Oklahoma State players went into the transfer portal, a walk-on wide receiver and redshirt freshman Cason Cabbiness and redshirt junior to be linebacker Donovan Stephens from Del City entered the transfer portal. 

Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics

Stephens in on a tackle against Texas in Big 12 Championship Game.

The 6-0, 220-pound Stephens ran a lot with the first and second team throughout the spring, but Big 12 and Oklahoma State leading tackler and All-Big 12 linebacker Nickolas Martin missed the full speed work this spring coming off a wrist injury. He will be full go for next season. Graduate transfer linebacker from Tulsa Justin Wright was also held out of contact work coming off an ACL surgery from last season. 

Stephens played in 10 games last season and finished with 10 tackles, five unassisted, 2.0 tackles-for-loss, and 0.5 sacks. His season high of four tackles came in the Big 12 Championship Game with Texas. He played in 13 games as a red-shirt freshman in 2022 and had one tackle. He did not play at all in his true freshman season. 

Stephens had 303 total tackles in three high school seasons at Del City. He had five career interceptions and scored 12 touchdowns. He was honorable mention All-State as a junior. He signed with Oklahoma State over offers from Baylor, Texas Tech, and Boise State.

Cabbiness is the 6-1, 170-pound younger brother of Cale Cabbiness, who is a walk-on success story that is now on scholarship and helped to clinch the win on the blue turf in 2021 at Boise State. The younger Cabbiness did not see any action last fall in his freshman season.