Oklahoma State Head Coach Eric Morris on Rebuilding the Cowboys After Mike Gundy

Brian Fisher here for Sports Illustrated at Big 12 Media Days.

We we're joined by new Oklahoma State head coach Eric Morris.

Still got the fresh, uh, fresh office and everything, you know how to get to work and all that stuff.

Yeah, Stillwater is a small town, but ironically we ordered new office furniture and it's coming in in July finally.

So hopefully when I get back, my wife says she's not decorating the office twice, so I've nothing, I've not hung one thing in my office until I get everything in.

So hopefully, um, end of July, that's my goal.

It's always unique taking over new jobs, but.

But coming from North Texas, what, what attracted you to, to that Oklahoma State job because you had a lot of offers to, to go to a lot of places.

Yeah, I think, you know, at the end of the day, um, I have a 10 year old and a 6-year-old boy right now and I'm from a small community in West Texas and so I think, um, just the people , the quality of life, um, where a place I wanted to raise a family, um, you know, those were all things that interest me and then too, I think, you know, looking back, it's hard for me in my mind to fathom.

A not good Oklahoma State team just because for so long, you know, Coach Gundy did a phenomenal job and you know, they were winning, you know, 9 to 11 games every single year and playing in conference championships and so, um, to see it kind of fall off the map so drastically like all my memories were really good memories and I've seen Boom Ping stadium on fire and those paddles beaten and the fans on top of you.

And so, um, it was a place and I'm, I'm really comfortable in the Big 12 like you coached here, I played in, in this conference.

Um, my first ever poster I got as a child was, was, and I still have it.

I, I actually found it the other day.

My mom found it was the inaugural 1996 Big 12 poster was hanging in my room when I was a little kid and so, um, so yeah, it's kind of just always been in my blood.

I, I think you might have one of the most changed over rosters from, from year to year given the amount of people that you're.

And then how much does it help though that you can certainly count on bringing your quarterback and bringing a pretty good darn running back too?

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, I think people, you know, they get a little bit, they start over analyzing because we do have so many new people in Stillwater and, and, and I think a little bit too just because the old regime had been there for so long, right?

And so it's the first time Stillwater seen something new and so for me, the majority of my staff, um, I brought.

With me from North Texas, so obviously schematically, um, you know, the way I like to build a culture, um, the way I like to run the program, like these guys knew all those things going into it.

And so, and then obviously, you know, I, I think it's big to bring the 22 guys that I've coached before, um , 19 of those coming with us from North Texas last year, but, but guys that not only understand our scheme, but they understand the way we operate in, in the weight room, they understand.

The standards, they understand, you know, what, what, what we're trying to accomplish each and every day.

And so I think those, you know, 22 guys have been an extra set of coaches for me because they're helping these other players adjust and, and, and they're helping us set the standard, um, every single day, which is a, a day by day thing.

As you get into fall camp, is, is there somebody on the roster or somebody on the team that you think, uh, maybe we're not talking about right now, in media days, but we are going to be talking about this fall.

Yeah, I mean, I, I brought one of them with me today, Jahlil Johnson is a defensive end that was injured last year and, you know, had just a phenomenal spring and, and, you know, I think has all the physical attributes, um, to play on Sundays as well.

I mean, 6'5, 275 pound defensive end, super athletic, super strong.

Super excited about him.

Uh, Christian Bodner is a kid that we brought over from Liberty that's playing nickel from us, uh, very versatile player, played safety and corner at Liberty, has started the last couple of years for him.

Um, and, and so really excited about Christian Bodner coming over and then, you know, I'll say on the offensive side, uh, Justin Boulwick is a big 6-5 receiver that came in from Illinois.

Um, I think, you know, you add him, you know, next to Wyatt Young and Chris Barnes who, who have made a ton of plays is a guy that has the potential to I think have a breakout year for us this year.

I did mention your quarterback earlier.

A lot of people, I'm seeing him on, on NFL draft lists.

He certainly had a great, great season last year.

How, how do you keep progressing with Drew to where he, he can continue to grow as a quarterback?

Yeah, the cool thing about Drew is I think, um, he's only played 15 games, you know, pretty much in his career.

The last game he started before, you know, the bowl game a couple of years ago was a 9th grade B team.

And so he just doesn't have a ton of experience.

And I think, so the growth is still gonna continue to come.

And I think I've seen a huge jump in him this year.

This is year number 3 in the system.

And, and I think he's really been able to dive into the weeds and get into the, the meticulous details of what it takes to be great at this level.

And so, you know, anytime when a quarterback's running over to me and, and, you know, he's kind of telling me what I, I don't, sometimes I don't have coaching points because he gets all the coaching points out to me, you know, before I can even talk to him.

And so, um, so I think, um, This will be a huge year for Drew, you know, and, and I was joking with my wife the other day.

It's like, we want him to have a good year, but not like too good where like he's gone, like let's keep him for a couple of years just because um he's such a great, um, a great teammate, a great human being, a great person to build a program around.

Is there anything different for you going from a group of 6 program into the Big 12 like, like that in terms of dealing with, you know, boosters and, and just how you, A similar roster in terms of who pays for it.

You know, I've always loved to build relationships everywhere I've been.

I mean, I still talk to boosters from incarnate word and there wasn't many of them.

We didn't have a history there and, and I always believe in, in doing the right thing and treating people the right way and then, you know, building these relationships over time, you know, I've, uh, football was super transformational for me and it's become so transactional now like at times like.

I don't want to be the guy that sits here and, and wants to complain about things I don't have, right?

Because to be honest with you, I've never been in a place with resources, you know , incarnate word, no resources in North Texas.

You know, didn't have resources to go and, and buy a, a ball club.

And so for me, like when I got here, I was thankful for the amount of money I did have to spend.

And, and so my job now is, is to figure out how to build the culture and, and to figure out how to build a team that can go out there and have some success on Saturdays.

I mean, you do know this state in particular so well from your time here as, as, as a player and a coach.

How competitive is it here in, in just in the state of Texas, much less going up to Oklahoma with you guys and you?

Yeah, we have a ton of guys on our roster from the state of Texas.

Obviously, you know, that's been a hotbed of recruiting for Oklahoma State for a long time and, and that won't change anytime soon and, and so many great players from Oklahoma too.

So we're, you know, investing a lot of our time in, in some in-state talent trying to keep that home.

Um, but I think, you know, between our bordering states right now, I mean, some of the best football in America, right?

I mean, you look at, you know, if you recruit Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, um, Arkansas, dip into Louisiana, I mean, you, you got a good little group of, uh, states there to go find some talent.

What's, what's been interesting as you've been involved in the league now, getting to know some of these coaches, getting to know some of these ADs, uh, what has there been anything that surprised you?

No, I don't think so.

There's so many relationships I had previous to this, and there's so many guys that I had known before.

I mean, Kelani Sataki's been a good friend of mine for a long time.

Joey McGuire, Sonny Dykes was my coach, um, you know, there's a bunch of people at Texas Tech that, that work there now that were former teammates of mine.

Um, you know, Terry Mahaser, um, you know, is, is a guy at Central , uh, Florida.

You know, I've been good friends with him for the last 1015 years dating back to when he was an 80 at Arkansas State.

So a lot of quality people, um, you know, a lot of damn good coaches in this league right now.

And so, um, and added a bunch of new ones, you know, I mean, I think Colin Klein's done a phenomenal.

Job, Jimmy Rodgers, obviously, what, what he was able to do.

And then like Morgan Sky, like, I don't consider him new just because I've watched him be successful for so long at Utah.

I'm like, all right, he's, he's earned his stripes there at Utah, right?

Uh, it seems like every game in this league is , is a, is a coin flip that comes down to the 4th quarter.

How, how are you going to make sure that, uh, you guys are on the winning side of those, those coin flips, uh, this season?

Yeah, I mean, I think special teams is gonna be a big deal for us, um, you know, something, you know, with my background and, and obviously quarterbacks and offenses and all those different things like, I don't take lightly like the reason we were better last year is because we played a lot better defense last year and then we're really good on special teams and so I think, um, being really good in the kicking game, Coach Saboda, our, our special teams coordinator coming with us from, from North Texas, done a phenomenal job the last couple of years and so I think Um, being able to transition the ball and then, and then have some explosive plays on, on the special teams aspect could help us win some games this year.

I mean, you, you mentioned running the ball.

That's obviously a, a big part of how you run your air raid, right?

Do you see versions of that, you know, iterations of it, you know, throughout this conference in, in particular.

Have you kind of seen the adjustment defensively to, to that system?

You know, what's wild about just, um, holistically the conference going back this summer and watching some, some tape from last year.

I think it's really morphed and turned back to what it was before the Mike Leach days and people are adding so many tight ends and slowing it down and playing a possession game and And really committing to running the football.

It's not near as wide open as, as I remembered it when I was here and, and I think Leach had such a big influence on that over the course of those last, you know, um, 10 years or so, but I think it's kind of more from back in football, you know, history repeats itself and, and I think everybody's going back to, to playing a little bit different style of football right now.

And so, um, So yeah, it'll be interesting to see, you know, week in, week out to, to see how kind of , um, this whole conference morphs together this year.

Well, it should be exciting.

A lot of new things there in Stillwater.

Eric Morris, the head coach at Oklahoma State joining us here at Sports Illustrated.