Climbing Oklahoma State football's all-time charts, WR Brennan Presley refuses to relax
Scott WrightThe Oklahoman
STILLWATER — Asked earlier this week if he could go back and talk to the high school junior version himself, would Oklahoma State receiver Brennan Presley offer that kid some reassurance?
Six years later, Presley has climbed the charts among the receiving greats at OSU — not an easy place to reach such heights.
But when he was a junior at Bixby High, not yet as big as the 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds he’s currently listed at, Division I offers felt unattainable.
So, would he go back and tell his younger self that it would all work out?
“I don’t think I would tell myself that,” Presley said Tuesday in his first meeting with the media during spring practice. “If I go back and tell him that, then you start to relax. And then you don’t carry yourself with a chip on your shoulder.
“It’s that sense of security, that I would not tell him that, just because that grind always has to be there.”
Presley is coming off the best year of his career, catching 101 passes for 991 yards and six touchdowns, all personal bests. For his career, he ranks fourth in OSU history in receptions with 225 — yes, Rashaun Woods’ record of 293 is within striking distance — and seventh in receiving yards with 2,548.
He holds two of the top three marks for receptions in a game with 15 and 16, and has made at least two catches in 30 straight games.
Yet six years ago, he still had to wonder if he’d get the shot to prove himself at the Division I level.
“I stressed about it all the time,” he said. “You work that hard to play college football, and you want to see the fruits of your labor, you want to see this and that opportunity pop up. So when it doesn’t, you get a little bit discouraged.”
It wasn’t until after his stellar junior season at Bixby that Presley finally started pulling some offers. Smaller programs like Arkansas State and North Texas were the early ones in the spring of 2019, but OSU finally pulled the trigger in June of that year.
“We had conversations about him and watched him,” head coach Mike Gundy said. “He would make plays, but he’s not very big. Then I think he was like 147 pounds or something. He could run full speed under a coffee table and not hit his head.
“So you’re concerned about his overall physical longevity. But then we’d watch him make plays.”
Gundy’s middle son, Gunnar, was the quarterback at Stillwater High School, which crossed paths with Bixby a couple of times, and that gave Mike extra opportunities to see Presley in action.
“I saw him continue to be productive in big moments,” the coach said. “We like guys in high school that can produce, so we said it was worth taking a shot, and obviously, we were right.”
For years, Gundy has watched Presley get pinballed around the practice field, and he’ll pull him to the sideline.
“I look up and he’s back in there,” Gundy said. “I’ll tell him, ‘You don’t need to be in there right now. Then he’s back in there. He is who he is from a competitive level. And his body’s ability to recover from the punishment at this level is pretty amazing.
“The guy might play the game for another five, six, seven years, because he just doesn’t know anything other than being productive.”
But first, Presley has his Cowboy finale ahead, a super-senior year that came as an easy decision last winter.
“It was pretty easy, knowing there’s still a lot for me to do,” he said. “I’ve still got more work to do to know who I can become as a receiver. If I had left, I would always wonder, ‘What if.’ What would’ve happened that season?
“Let’s say I go and don’t get drafted, or things happen, and you’re like, 'Dang, what if I would’ve just did it?' I didn’t want to live with that regret.”
