3 strongest position groups for Oklahoma State football after spring 2024

3. Offensive Line

This position group is arguably the best and most experienced on the team, and is primed to be one of the best units in the country in 2024. 

Oklahoma State ranked first in the Big 12 in sacks allowed last season, while the offense's 2.25 percent quarterback sack rate was the third-best in college football a season ago. 

The offensive line has a combined 200 career starts entering next season and is anchored by 2023 honorable mention Big 12 Offensive Lineman of the Year Joe Michalski. The 6-foot-5, 303-pound center has 23 starts under his belt to go along with 1,035 offensive snaps in 2023, which was the most among Power Five offensive linemen. An elite pass blocker, Michalski surrendered only eight pressures and zero sacks across 617 pass-blocking snaps last season.

Rounding out the interior are rising fifth-year seniors Jason Brooks Jr. and Preston Wilson. A Vanderbilt transfer in 2022, Brooks Jr. accounted for 393 snaps last season, yielding just three sacks and 13 pressures in that span. Wilson brings more experience to the table, as his 34 career starts are the second-most of any returning Cowboy, including 13 in 2023.

Oklahoma State is stout on the outside as well. A pair of 2023 honorable-mention All-Big 12 tackles will return in Jake Springfield and Dalton Cooper. Springfield, who is a former walk-on, had a career year regarding efficiency at the left tackle spot. Across 687 snaps, he surrendered just one sack and 13 pressures. On the right side, Cooper, who transferred in from Texas State ahead of last season, had a highly-productive year as well, allowing just three sacks on 576 pass-blocking snaps and posting the fifth-best run-blocking grade among Big 12 tackles according to Pro Football Focus. His 49 career starts at the FBS level lead the team too.

The Cowboys’ recruiting and transfer portal signings in recent times leaves no doubt about the talent and production along the offensive line. Now sixth-year offensive line coach Charlie Dickey, who was a part of the Bill Snyder coaching tree at Kansas State, will be tasked with taking this unit’s game to another notch this offseason.