Elston, a defensive back from Oxford, Ala., could visit either OSU or LSU this weekend. He played in the Under Armour All-American Bowl and is a three-star prospect, according to Rivals.

Rivals lists Mississippi as Elston’s current leader.

OSU is the leader for four-star receiver Jaydon Mickens of Dorsey High School in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports and his Twitter account. Javon Williams, a four-star receiver from Chandler, Ariz., visited OSU this past weekend.

(Updated: I missed a report by Scout.com’s Inna Lazarev yesterday that Williams is down to UCLA and Arkansas.)

OSU does have holes to fill at receiver, with Justin Blackmon, Josh Cooper, Hubert Anyiam and Colton Chelf all leaving.

But placing this kind of emphasis on the position—and adding a pass-catching tight end in JUCO All-American Blake Jackson and big-armed quarterback Wes Lunt—shows that Todd Monken likely won’t deviate much from the wide-open, spread attack post-Weeden2Blackmon.

Someone on Twitter brought up how using a tight end would be different, which is somewhat true. But, as I wrote Sunday, Monken plans to use Jackson much like Tracy Moore was this season. Jackson is a big target, but he runs the 40-yard dash in 4.6 seconds. He’ll find holes in the zone, create matchup problems, break tackles and stretch the field.

Still, it would be interesting if OSU signed five or six wide receivers and two tight ends, but no running backs in this class.

Here’s a look at the wide receivers OSU has signed over the past three seasons and their production in the 2011 season.

2011
Torrance Carr (Dallas)–no action at receiver
David Glidden (Mustang High School)—no action at receiver
Johnny Haynes (Irving, Texas)—wound up at Navarro JC
Isaac McCoy (Alma, Ark.)—no action at receiver
Josh Stewart (Denton, Texas)—19 catches, 291 yards, two touchdowns

2010
Chris Dinkins (Tyler, Texas)—moved to linebacker, no longer on roster
Kevin Johnson (Houston, Texas)—no action at receiver
Montra Nelson (Arlington, Texas)—moved to fullback, no longer on roster

2009
Michael Harrison (Dallas)—20 catches, 255 yards, three touchdowns
Charlie Moore (Bullard, Texas)—three catches, 56 yards
Tracy Moore (Tulsa Union)—45 catches, 672 yards, four touchdowns

Bad news first?

Owasso wide receiver Keon Hatcher appears to be set on signing with Arkansas.

Hatcher has been committed to the Razorbacks since August, but OSU entered the running late, and he was very “vocal” (on Twitter) about how much he enjoyed his visit to Stillwater last weekend. But he took his official to Fayetteville this weekend and tweeted “IMA HOG 100% #WPS” and a photo of him in Arkansas gear in the Hogs’ locker room. Someone then asked him if that was an “official” commitment (he never decommitted, by the way) and he responded “Yessir.”

Now for the good: Blake Webb was breaking all kinds of news Saturday night.

First, he revealed that Michael Wilson, a 6-foot-6, 265-pound offensive lineman from Aledo, Texas, switched his commitment from Texas A&M to OSU on his official visit this weekend.

Webb tweeted “Got my boy Big Mike Wilson Wilson to join tha brothahood #GoPokes.” Later, Cowboy wide receiver Charlie Moore tweeted “Big mike (Michael Wilson) joined cowboy nation today!! #bignight #okstate.”

Wilson, who committed to A&M last February, is a three-star prospect, according to Rivals.

Wilson isn’t the only A&M commit that OSU is trying to lure away. Five-star running back Trey Williams and three-star defensive back Corey Thompson, who have both pledged to the Aggies, will visit Stillwater next weekend.

Later, Webb tweeted “In case y’all were wondering, we got @DudaMcLovin Too!!! #cowboynation.”

@DudaMcLovin is Chance Allen, a three-star wide receiver from Missouri City, Texas. Allen is a high-school teammate of Thompson.

Wide receiver continues to be the most active position on the recruiting trail for OSU over the past few weeks, with Allen in and Hatcher out. The Cowboys now have four receiver commits in this class in four-star prospect C.J. Curry (Flowery Branch, Ga.) and three-star prospects Brandon Sheperd (Chesterfield, Mo.) and Blake Webb (The Woodlands, Texas) and Allen. Javon Williams (fours stars, Chandler, Ariz.) and Jhajuan Seales (two stars, Port Arthur, Texas) are among the wide receiver prospects that OSU is still targeting, according to Rivals.

This was a huge recruiting weekend for the Cowboys, as evidenced by the large number of prospects and their families sitting in Section 314 at Gallagher-Iba Arena for the men’s basketball game. I also spotted offensive coordinator Todd Monken, defensive coordinator Bill Young, offensive line coach Joe Wickline, wide receiver coach Kasey Dunn, linebacker coach Glenn Spencer, director of football operations Mack Butler and recruiting coordinator Jonny Barr at the game.

That means we should have plenty more news in the coming days as we enter the home stretch before Signing Day.

By John Helsley

jhelsley@opbuco.com

Pat Jones offers up a great take — an inside take — on the recruiting game. And I couldn’t agree with him more, across the board, whether it’s the topic of rankings (who knows!?), coaches’ spin  (always positive!) or the obsession of fans and the media with the decisions and futures of 18-year-olds.

And Jones is dead-on when it comes to the signing party silliness where players reveal their decisions with a pick of a hat, or by stripping away a jacket to reveal a shirt or some other attempt at being cute.

Cute, it is not. Nor is it entertaining.

C’mon, be a man. State your destination, clearly, so as not to embarrass yourself or your new school before you even arrive on campus.

Bottom line: for the coaches and their families who understand and feel the time involved with chasing talent, resulting in too many nights away from home, recruiting isn’t some fanciful folly. It’s serious.

So when a guy like Calvin Barnett sends out a tease alert by promising “something different and a little flashy” a week before signing day, you can count on some silliness.

And some shenanigans.

But beyond the silliness, there’s something less than genuine involved. In Barnett’s case, there was deception and, according to OSU insiders, lies.

What we’ve heard:

Cowboys coaches were told for 10 straight days leading to Wednesday’s signing that Barnett and his mother told OSU coaches he would be a Cowboy.

Left to rely on his word, OSU couldn’t seek a replacement for his vacated spot in the signing class. And some young man who wanted to be Cowboy could not.

And there would have been options, right here in state. Cowboys coaches were taking calls from interested players — including a defensive tackle — right up to signing day. And based on Barnett’s word, they had to turn them away.

All Barnett had to do was be open and honest with OSU’s coaches. Yeah, he would have had to resist efforts to re-recruit him. Yeah, it might have been uncomfortable. But he owed them some honesty after all the “love” they’d showered on him for six months.

That honesty would have allowed the Cowboys to move on, fill their recruiting class and not have their own signing day tinged by silliness.

Barnett’s silliness.

At this point, it appears all of OSU’s 19 high school commitments have signed letters of intent today, joining the four junior-college players who signed early and are already attending classes.

There was plenty of drama from Saturday-Tuesday, but so far, signing day has lacked any surprises.

As for the spot vacated when Demontre Hurst jumped ship to sign with Oklahoma State, right now it looks unlikely that the Cowboys will add another recruit. So 23 might end up being the final tally on this class.

Guthrie prospect Donte’ Foster could still be a candidate for the final spot, if there is one. The biggest concern with Foster is that OSU coaches had anticipated he wouldn’t sign anywhere to play football. They didn’t bring him in for a camp, so they don’t have much of an idea what he looks like on the field, other than his highlight tape. And that almost completely consists of him playing offense, not defense. So there’s some fear of the unknown there.

I don’t necessarily see a lot of risk, because from all accounts, Foster is a good kid who attends class and stays out of trouble. And there’s no arguing that he’s got some special athletic skills, along with a knack for making big plays.

But to paraphrase Colorado coach Dan Hawkins, this is the Big 12, not intramural football. Coaches can’t be tossing around scholarship offers if they’re not 100 percent confident in the situation.

For those fans who are worried about the prospectus at cornerback, here’s an idea where that position stands.

The primary guys at that position will be seniors Perrish Cox, Terrance Anderson and Maurice Gray, with sophomore Markelle Martin also in the rotation. So cornerback isn’t an issue this fall, but next. That’s where Hurst’s defection is most damaging.

But Brodrick Brown redshirted last season and will get some valuable work in the summer and fall. Andrae May signed on Wednesday and should be ready to contribute after redshirting this fall. And Andrew McGee, the junior-college transfer from Mississippi, can play anywhere in the secondary. He plaeyd cornerback and safety at Copiah-Lincoln Community College.

So the position isn’t in total disarray. Defensive tackle is far more questionable right now, without a lot of significant experience represented on the depth chart.

That’s one reason it won’t hurt OSU to hold its 24th scholarship from the 2009 class for next year, to add one more spot for a better player at a position of need.

As of now, OSU has 23 players who will be seniors this fall. But with the signing class of 23 today, the Cowboys are four scholarships over the limit of 85. Ryan Robinson has yet to qualify and could end up at a junior-college, but that still leaves three spots to open up by the end of spring.

That leaves 20 scholarship spots to fill next year. And let’s toss Dez Bryant in as an early departure for the NFL — that makes 21 scholarships available for next year’s class.

Not a huge class, so keeping that extra spot around might be a bigger benefit than filling it this late in the recruiting process.

Former Oklahoma State assistant coach Trooper Taylor came in as an ace recruiter, and though he never landed the big fish from the recruiting sea, Taylor did make players who wouldn’t generally look at OSU to consider the Cowboys.

Meet Rueben Randle.

Ranked by Rivals.com as the No. 1 prospect in the nation at any position, the receiver from Bastrop, La., had scheduled a visit to Stillwater this weekend. On Monday, Taylor took a job at Auburn, and on Thursday, reports surfaced that Randle had decided not to visit OSU. Instead, he has scheduled an official visit to — you guessed it — Auburn.

Sources have confirmed the reports, so it looks like OSU will have to look elsewhere for another receiver in the 2009 class.

The top candidate in that group is Cobi Hamilton from Texarkana, Texas, who is expected to visit this month.

In coaching news, there’s nothing new regarding positions being filled, but Robert Matthews’ future continues to be a mystery. OSU’s current recruiting coordinator is a candidate for a promotion, either to an on-field position or the vacant director of operations position. But his wife and former OSU women’s golf coach, Laura Matthews, is among the candidates and has interviewed for the same position at Oregon. Laura Matthews resigned during the fall at OSU.