Five Most Important Things Eric Morris Said About Oklahoma State vs. Tulsa
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New Oklahoma State head football coach Eric Morris finally has a game to prepare for, and he couldn't be more excited about it.
Morris and the Cowboys will take on Tulsa on Saturday in the first game of his tenure as head coach. What he's most excited about is seeing his team finally face someone other than their teammates.
With 92 new players from the transfer portal and 25 holdovers from last year's team, along with a handful of true freshmen, the Cowboys are itching to get their season going. Morris spoke to reporters on Tuesday and these are the five most important things he talked about.
This Season’s Expectations
Morris talked about the high expectations that he and his team have, even as most analysts around the country see them as a middle-of-the-pack team in the Big 12.
He didn’t talk about a record or a goal, but he did talk about building the mindset that would achieve goals higher than expected.
“Our goal this year was to find a way to win, right?” he said. “I think for us, getting back to where these players buy into a blue-collar approach, that we're going to be gritty and tough and physical and play with violence. That’s something. We have to overcome some other things this year. So I think our guys have bought into that. Now do we still have to go out there and complete the mission and do it on Saturdays? Heck, yeah.”
The Tight End Job
Morris addressed the fact that his depth chart featured five tight ends, including two listed as the top with an “OR.” He compared it to last year at North Texas where his starting tight end played 70% of the snaps.
“I don't think you're going to see that with us this year,” he said. “I think it'll be a little bit more by committee and being able to figure it out on the run. If someone comes out and establishes himself, and they show us that they can do it on a consistent basis, we're gonna tend to play that guy more.”
Carson Kolb and Morgan McPhaul were listed at the top of the depth chart, with Bodie Boydstun, Donovan Green and Oscar Hammond behind them. Green and Hammond were seen by outsiders as the potential starters, so having Kolb and McPhaul at the top going into Week 1 is a surprise.
The Travel Roster
Morris said that the Cowboys intend to take a few more players than they might for a conference game due to the heat and the chance to see players that aren’t on the two-deep get work in on special teams and in special situations.
“We’ll take 76-77, players with us, and hopefully everybody on there will be on the depth chart somewhere,” Morris said. “When you think about a special teams depth chart, I mean, there's people all over that thing. Hopefully that's a place where we can get some of these young guys’ feet wet a little bit.”
Assuming everyone on the depth chart makes the trip, the Cowboys would travel with an additional 11 or 12 players not listed.
The Holdover Cowboys
There are 25 players left over from last year’s 1-11 team and Morris said he got a hint of what turning this thing around means to them during last week’s kickoff luncheon.
Jaleel Johnson, a fifth-year Cowboy, was one of the four players at the luncheon and he was asked the same question. He had a personal response.
“Jaleel steps up and like, ‘Heck yeah, this [season] is personal. I've been here for a long time. I live those moments,’” Morris said. “I've talked about this over the course of the last couple months. We have people with different experiences these last couple years. We have people, you know, that love this place that have poured their heart and soul into it. And Jaleel is a great example.”
The “What Not to Do Cut-Ups”
While most of the Cowboys were just watching games last week and preparing for this week, Morris had his coaches also watch games for another reason — film cut-ups of what not do to in the season opener. Many of them watched FCS games last weekend and the players watched those cutups on Monday. There were good lessons in there, Morris said.
“There was some sloppy play all across America,” he said. “We had FCS games that we pulled up. We made a cut up of just people in their first game or the anxiousness [that goes with that] and going out here and making mistakes? Then [we talked about] how do you respond after that? And so, you know, we had a lot of teaching moments.”
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Matthew Postins is the publisher of Oklahoma State on SI. He is an award-winning sports journalist who was formerly the editor of the College Football America Yearbook and covers the Big 12 Conference for Heartland College Sports.
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