The Top 5 Quotes from Doug Meacham’s Pre-Houston News Conference

STILLWATER — The sun came up again on Monday, and the Cowboys are back to work.

Oklahoma State is 1-4 after Saturday’s 41-13 loss to Arizona. The Cowboys return home to play Houston this week at 11 a.m. Saturday in Boone Pickens Stadium. Interim head coach Doug Meacham met with reporters Monday to put a bow on Arizona and preview the game with the Cougars.

1. Meacham’s Message to the Players about the Tough Circumstances

I think it’s safe to say no one on this football team saw the year going the way it has thus far.

It’s not just the losing. Coaching changes and players hitting the portal add an entire new dynamic to how tough a year it has been.

“The message to the kids would be that there are going to be a lot of things in life that don’t go your way,” Meacham said. “How are you going to respond to it? It’s really easy to pull your hoodie over your face, pull your towel over your face, that’s what average people do. It’s really easy to ball up in the locker room with other guys who complain. Our message is not to do that because if you want to turn it around and get what you want out of it, that’s the last thing you want to do. Your options are A, do what I just said or B, grow up, be a man and move ahead and figure out what we need to do to generate some points, stop them and win a football game. …

“Ten years from now, you’re going to come back for a reunion, and you’re going to look at all your ex teammates, and they’re going to go, ‘that’s the guy who quit complaining in a locker room’ or ‘He was all in. He’s a foxhole guy. I love that guy.’ You know, choices you make in life, they’ll last a while.”

2. Sam Jackson ‘Full-Blown’ Quarterback

Sam Jackson had been dipping his toes back into the quarterback waters, but with Zane Flores going down with an injury Saturday, Jackson is having to cannonball back into that pool.

Meacham said Flores is “probably not gonna participate this week” after suffering the injury. It sounds as if either Jackson, a quarterback-turned-receiver-turned-quarterback, or true freshman Banks Bowen will get the start against Houston on Saturday.

With Jackson playing receiver, quarterback and returning kicks, Meacham was asked what Jackson’s schedule looks like during the week.

“Previously, he was just special teams, and he’d go to the wide receiver meeting,” Meacham said. “And then, like the last two weeks, he and I met on the side for like 20, 30 minutes every now and then. But now, it’s full-blown. Coach (Kevin) Johns (OSU’s QB coach) has him, and they do all their extra quarterback meetings and their film-study sessions and their tests and all their stuff. He’s sitting in that room now.”

3. What He Saw in Sam Jackson the High Schooler

Despite this being the first year Meacham has been back in Stillwater and the first year Jackson has been in Stillwater, this isn’t the first time the two have worked together.

Meacham recruited Jackson to TCU to play quarterback for the Horned Frogs. The two went their separate ways with Jackson going to Cal and Auburn before getting back with Meacham this year in Stillwater.

When asked what he saw in Jackson as a high schooler, Meacham mentioned a name that quarterbacked the most successful offenses Meacham has coordinated.

“His high school film (watch below) was unbelievable,” Meacham said. “He played receiver his 10th-grade year, played quarterback his junior year and then they had COVID and they had no school and no athletics his senior year.

“But he reminded me, on tape, of (former TCU quarterback) Trevone Boykin. That’s what really stuck to me. Unbelievable release, huge hands, those a light ball, and he can run, and he’s pretty twitched up. He just kinda reminded me of some of the stuff Trevone had.”

4. A Similar Coaching Background to Willie Fritz

These past two games have marked the first time Meacham has been a head coach, but he’s had plenty of other jobs at various different spots on staffs.

He’s worked as an offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Georgia Military College, a junior college. He worked at Jacksonville State when it was still an FCS program. He’s worked at D-II Henderson State.

It’s not too dissimilar from Houston coach Willie Fritz’s come-up. Fritz has been in the junior college level, Division-II ball and everywhere in between.

“I don’t really know him,” Meacham said. “I saw him last year at TCU, I think. We played them and I met him and said hello and that was it. I don’t really know him. But, yeah, he’s been in the bus leagues like me.

“He’s probably drove a van of O-lineman to Grand Rapids, Michigan a couple times just like I’ve done. And handed out equipment, mowed grass, all the rest of it. Laundry, yeah, I was equipment manager one year. Mowed grass. First day on the job I sodded our practice field, had ants all over myself. It was awesome. Appreciated my degree a little more. And then my parents are like, ‘Why are you doing that? You have a degree.'”

5. On Getting a Lead

The Cowboys haven’t led in a football game since going up 3-0 against Tulsa, just about all of Meacham’s time as head coach has seen the Cowboys trying to fight from behind.

Meacham was asked what a lead could do for the team’s confidence, and he said he thinks when the Cowboys find a lead, they might not look back.

“Shoot, it may make me nervous,” Meacham joked. “We got a lead? No, playing with house money is kinda what you want, you know what I mean? I don’t know if you’ve ever sat at a black jack table up two grand. It’s pretty fun. I’ve sat at a few down two grand. That’s not fun.

“I think once we get to that point and we are ahead in a game, I think you’ll see an explosion on our side. I think you’ll see guys that won’t let it go.”