Dylan Smith is Excited for An Unknown and Under-the-Radar Junior Season

STILLWATER – A few weeks into fall camp 2025 for Oklahoma State, and I’m still asked on a daily basis what I think of this team from people I regularly associate with, family members and friends and random people around Stillwater. My answer has changed just a bit from spring football, but it hasn’t changed much from: “I really don’t have any idea.”

I do, however, have a sense of familiarity with a few of the returners, of which there aren’t many. One on the defensive side of the ball is junior Dylan Smith.

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The safety out of Little Elm, TX, is one of just 12 returning defensive backs, joined by 12 incoming freshman and transfers. There haven’t been too many years where an entire secondary is comprised of half new players. Or I suppose an all-new coaching staff and defensive scheme either.

One thing I’ve tried to ask players the past few weeks, both returner and newcomer alike, does it make it an easier transition for everybody knowing the system change is the same for everyone? Both players and coaches, so it’s possible no one truly feels like an out-of-place newcomer? And most guys have given about the same answer.

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Smith against Baylor.

“I think that was one of the things coming back in spring ball, it’s kind of like a clean slate for everybody,” said Smith. “Everybody had to show what they had to offer the team, so I feel like it was a good opportunity for anybody to step up and earn a role on the team.”

But with all the newcomers and new system and coaches for the returners to learn, I asked Smith what this fall camp has been like.

“It’s been fun. With the new defense, it’s kind of putting me in different positions, as well as my teammates, putting in different positions to make plays. With the defense being so multiple, it’s been a lot of fun coming out here and practicing every day. And the energy of the new guys has been great.”

Circling back to the opening paragraph, one reason I, or anyone else outside the program for that matter, really don’t have any idea how good/bad this team can be is based on several factors. First and foremost are all the new players and coaches coming off a 3-9 season in 2024. 

“Kind of coming in, you kind of want to use [last year] as fuel, but also with so many new [players] and a new staff, like it’s a whole new clean slate,” said Smith. “Most of the people who were here when that happened, they’re not here no more and you kind of just have to move past it.”

With that, it has national pundits and coaches putting the Cowboys way down the list for just about everything: preseason rankings, both coaches and players, preseason watch lists and the like.

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Smith celebrating in Boone Pickens Stadium

It all makes for good radio and website fodder, but it really doesn’t matter or get talked about in the West End Zone. In fact, Smith is just like coach Gundy in that he doesn’t care at all and would prefer to enter every season under-the-radar.

“For sure, I’d rather it be that way,” Smith said of entering the season under-the-radar. “I like being the underdog because no one believes in you. You come out and punch people in they mouth and it’s kind of a shock factor. But like coach Gundy, I like to be under the radar. Practice, go hard, do what we need to do in the offseason, and we come out on gameday and that’s the product."

Smith and the new-look Cowboys will get a chance to prove to everyone that last season was a fluke, a one-off the likes of which we won’t see for a long time. UT Martin will be a fun warm-up game to test everyone out before a challenging road trip up to Eugene, Ore., for a showdown with a top-10 Ducks team in week two.