BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 7, 2026

Eric Morris

Ford Center at The Star

Oklahoma State Cowboys

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Our first coach's press conference for the Monster Energy Big 12 Media Days features Oklahoma State head coach Eric Morris. Coach, welcome. We'll start with your opening statement.

ERIC MORRIS: Yeah, I appreciate you guys being here. Such a unique time for me and being in my first year, but such an amazing past seven or eight months for me. It's been a whirlwind, obviously. There's a ton of storylines going into the season for our ball club.

But first and foremost, I just want to talk a little bit about the leadership at Oklahoma State. Just super blessed, thankful for our president, Jim Hess, and our athletic director, Chad Weiberg, with them trusting me in the job that they have given me, and to be able to take over a program that's had a history of a ton of success the last 20 years.

Super excited for Stillwater. It was a big draw for me and my family to come to Stillwater. I have a 10-year-old and a 5-year-old right now, and I'm from a small town in west Texas, and that's how I wanted raise my family. So Stillwater has been nothing short of amazing. Super genuine people, hard-working, blue-collar organization.

The guys that I brought with me today, obviously there's a couple headliners that everybody knows their story by now in Drew Mestemaker, our quarterback; Caleb Hawkins, our running back; Ethan Wesloski, linebacker; and Jaleel Johnson, lineman. Excited for you to hear from them later. Excited to be here and excited for the season. With that, we'll take any questions.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Coach Morris, you inherited a program where any success will be an improvement. You faced that in your first year at Incarnate Word. Did you learn from that at Incarnate Word? How important is it for your program not to be satisfied by any early success?

ERIC MORRIS: Yeah, this was a super unique one for me. Obviously when I went to Incarnate Word, a place with no history, they had no success at all. They had only been Division I a couple of years. I think I could come in there really guns ablazing and be able to bring my personality into that place, kind of reset the culture starting in the weight room, building in the offseason, and then ultimately we were able to have some success that first year.

North Texas was a little bit different when I got there, just because they played in a bowl game the year that I got there. Had a six-win team. So it's a team that had a little bit of success.

Then this one was so different for me just because, you know, I've been in the Big 12 as a player and a coach. Oklahoma State was so good in my memories. I remember going to Boone Pickens, how rowdy it was, the paddles slapping against the wall, the student section on fire.

You know, my memories are always good, and obviously during those times, there were a bunch of eight-win teams, nine-win teams, ten-win teams, won the Big 12 in 2012. I didn't have any of these bad memories.

Now, when I got there, I had to sit back and realize that there had been kids that are in this program that have been there for two years that hadn't experienced walking in that locker room after winning a conference game. So that was something really unique for me because my memories were great, and then I had to realize a bunch of our players' memories haven't been great in the recent past.

Obviously me bringing a lot of my staff with me was huge. We have 42 new guys in our operations staff-wise. 35 of those came with me. They knew what I expected. They knew the standard. They knew the expectations where, they knew the Xs and Os. All of our position coaches came. So I wasn't worried about that as much as formulating and getting these guys to believe in themselves in the locker room.

We spent a ton of time breathing confidence into these guys. I think the weight program is a great way to build culture as well, so bringing my strength staff has been good for me as far as all the off-season training we're doing in the summer and spring.

Obviously, a ton of success, but we needed a hard reset, I felt like. It's also helped that we were able to bring 19 guys with us from North Texas that really understood how we operate on a day-to-day, understand the standard, how we operate. I think bringing the people that were familiar with me and the way I run a program has been really beneficial for us.

Q. Expanding on what you were just talking about, coming into a program, the Oklahoma State Cowboys have went winless in Big 12 play over the past two seasons. Do you feel there's more added pressure with that and there's a sense of urgency to get the Cowboys back on a winning track? A second-part question I got for you is, you coached at North Texas. Denton, that's less than 20, 30 miles from here. Does it feel like it's been an easy transition doing Big 12 Media Days since you coached last season not too far from here anyway?

ERIC MORRIS: Yeah, there's definitely urgency from me right now just because I love winning, and I love competing. As soon as there's not urgency from me to put out a good product, I'm going to find something else to do with my time. That's what I love so much.

I think in a world of college football right now where everything seems that it's become so transactional, like, living it day-to-day, I see the transformational side of it, right? I'm able to see -- I've never really been at a place with resources.

You know, when you look at Incarnate Word, where I started, a bunch of people told me that was career suicide when I took that job. That gave me motivation every day to prove people wrong. That's the way I've been wired my whole life. Same thing at North Texas. Wasn't a place with a ton of resources.

I'm not worried. I get to live and breathe it every single day, and I see this game change people's lives, right? I get to see Drew Mestemaker and Caleb Hawkins walk into a new situation they never dreamed about a couple of years ago and watch them have success.

The one thing that's been frustrating for me the last couple years at North Texas and at the G6 level is just the resources to be able to retain talent year in, year out, right? That was something I think didn't sit with me well early on (audio interruption).

Q. Coach, this summer has been getting a lot of attention, you and Mestemaker and Hawkins and all of the North Texas talent you brought in there, but on the defensive side, can you just discuss with us what you have done over there and what the expectation for the defense is this year?

ERIC MORRIS: Yeah, it's been really fun to watch this defense come together. I'll be the first guy to tell you, like, I know I'm an offensive guy, and I still call the plays and have been known for putting up numbers or quarterbacks or whatnot.

You know, the two biggest reasons for our success last year was, number one, Skyler Cassity, our defensive coordinator, came in. They had new expectations. We played great defense last year, and it won us some football games. Another one is our special teams coach, Drew Svoboda, has done a phenomenal job. We've been able to change games in the kicking game.

For me right now, you know, especially as a head coach, I've had to learn this over the course of time how important playing good defense is. I think really when I think about it, our defensive end, the position as a whole, you know, we have one of them here today, Jaleel Johnson, who I think is an All-Conference-caliber player. He has the size, the talent to play on Sundays. I think really excited to watch the defensive end position.

Our linebackers in Ethan Wesloski and Tate Romney. We have a nickel in Christian Bodnar, who had a phenomenal spring. Quinton Hammonds is a safety we're bringing over from North Texas that had an incredible year last year. Has only played defense two years now. LaDainian Fields, a cornerback who played the last half of the season and had one of the highest PFF ratings.

A bunch of talent and a bunch of people that have played a lot of snaps, although those snaps might not have been Oklahoma State. I think returning snaps this year in college football we're No. 3 in the whole entire nation. That was something we did intentionally in the portal. So really hoping that that experience pays off for us in year one.

Q. You talked about bringing 19 players from North Texas with you over to Oklahoma State. I want to touch on that a little bit. With so much roster turnover, even though you have players from your previous school, what gives you confidence or where does that stem from that y'all can compete in the Big 12 right away?

ERIC MORRIS: Yeah, I'm a little bit old school. The way I like to build my teams is we intentionally spend time together. There's nothing flashy with it. It might be mandatory breakfast together, sitting at a different table with a different coach. It might be splitting up playing different activities, Wiffle ball, going bowling, you know, coming over to my house to swim. Just different activities where we spend intentional time together.

I think that's one thing that's lost not only today in just athletics, but just in college students in general. With technology, so many people are addicted to their phones, to video games. And I think since COVID, people just don't have the same college experience they used to have.

I think what's really cool about Stillwater is it's such a small, tight-knit community that our kids actually go out and do a lot of activities together. You know, whether it's golfing, fishing, or out at the gun range shooting skeet, there are so many unique things to do together.

For me, if you came in our locker room right now and you just paid attention to the way that guys interact with one another, you would think these guys have been around each other for years and years, and not just the North Texas guys, but everybody together, right?

From our very first team meeting, all the North Texas guys were sitting in the front right, and the first thing I did when I addressed the team is I made everybody stand up, move, and go sit by somebody they didn't know so we could immediately start forming new relationships, because it's not about us and them. This is all about Oklahoma State versus a really good conference in the Big 12.

Q. I just wanted to ask, how do you plan to execute your next vision for this program, and what kind of impact do you plan to leave on this program moving forward?

ERIC MORRIS: Yeah, you know, what I'm going to do next right now is our coaches are finally on vacation. It's been a long seven months for them trying to get everything up and running there in Stillwater. I think it's still very important that there's a separation before we get everything started with our coaches and our players.

I think it's almost become year-round in the football calendar. We have more access than we've ever had in the past as far as being able to do football-related activities. We do all that through the spring and then June. I think it's really important that they spend time with just the strength coach in the month of July.

We're in the middle of that right now. I'm just coming off of vacation. I'm going to go immediately back on vacation for about another week, a week and a half. Then hopefully our coaches get back, get rejuvenated, organize all of our stuff going into fall camp.

Then I want to see -- I always remember as a player and then, you know, seven or eight years ago how excited everybody was when you get back in the team meeting for the first time before training camp. I want our players to have that excitement about football still.

Yeah, we're in a little break right now. Then obviously it's going to become real really fast once we get into training camp. Really unique training camp for us this year. We only have eight days of training camp because we start school a little bit early. It will be the shortest training camp I've ever been a part of, but super confident in the fact that we've been able to practice so much through the spring and through the month of June.

Super excited. Obviously, you know, my predecessor had an amazing career in Mike Gundy. I mean, all the respect in the world to how much success that he had there, being somewhere 21 years, and then obviously he was such a great player there. Obviously, you know, as a competitor you're always chasing that, and the bar is set pretty high.