No, you’re not seeing things. The Oklahoma State Cowboys landed a commitment from Bryson Brown on Wednesday night.

The Stillwater, Okla., linebacker announced his decision on social media. He is not to be confused with another Oklahoma State commit named Bryson Brown, a safety from Broken Arrow, Okla., who committed earlier this year.

Also notable — the newer commitment is from a player who had committed to Baylor earlier this year. This comes less than a week after the Bears fired head coach Dave Aranda.

Flips like this happen often when a head coach is fired. It happened to Oklahoma State last cycle after the firing of Mike Gundy.

Why Baylor Coaching Change Helped Cowboys

When head coaches get fired, a couple of things become issues for the school — the potential loss of recruits and the potential loss of current players in the transfer portal. In this case, Baylor is willing to roll the dice that they won’t lose too many recruits as they try to hire a new coach, which may not happen until December.

With national signing day set for early December, that may not be time for the new staff to circle back to players like Brown, a three-star recruits as rated by 247Sports.com (subscription required). It may not matter.

Being a Stillwater native, Brown may have wanted to stay home at one point. But the erosion of the program under Gundy — the Cowboys went 4-20 in 2024 and 2025 — likely played a role in his decision to commit to Baylor.

It it’s just Aranda’s firing that factors into this. It’s also the Cowboys’ turnaround under new head coach Eric Morris. He has the Cowboys (5-2, 3-1 in Big 12) one win from bowl eligibility for the first time since 2023 and in the race to reach the Big 12 Championship game. That certainly hasn’t escaped Brown’s attention.

He’s the second defensive player to commit to the Cowboys in the last three weeks. Before the Houston game, Keilan Neal, a defensive lineman from Franklin Road Academy in Nashville, Tenn., announced his verbal commitment to the Cowboys.

This also boosts OSU’s defensive class, which was light on commitments going into the summer but is now close to catching up to the offensive class. Also committed on the defensive side is Baton Rouge Catholic edge rusher edge rusher Jayden Vessell; Choctaw, Okla., linebacker Israel Hammons; Trinity (Euless, Texas) High School safety Chayce Davis and Broken Arrow, Okla., safety Bryson Brown.

The Cowboys now have 14 commitments going into the final month on the recruiting trail.