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

STILLWATER — After a much-needed week off, the Cowboys are back at it.

Oklahoma State hosts Kansas State at 11 a.m. Saturday in Boone Pickens Stadium. Interim coach Doug Meacham met with reporters Monday to preview the contest. Here are five things he discussed. You can watch his full news conference below.

More from Monday: Meacham gives Hauss Hejny update

1. Passing Success in Lawrence Can ‘Remotivate’ Receiving Corps.

It was hard to be too impressed with OSU’s receiving corps through the early part of the season because of all the struggles the passing game was going through.

Obviously the quarterback carousel didn’t help any of that. OSU averaged just 161.6 passing yards a game going into the Kansas game a few weeks back. But it was in Lawrence where Zane Flores turned in the best passing performance of OSU’s season, throwing for 244 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

In turn, guys like Gavin Freeman, Terrill Davis, Shamar Rigby and Sam Jackson V all had their best receiving days of the season. Meacham said that type of game that can instill confidence in the group going forward.

“It can remotivate you,” Meacham said. “You know when a coach tells you, ‘Hey, we’re gonna throw it this week,’ you actually believe him. So, it makes you practice harder as a receiver for sure.”

2. On Kansas State

OSU hasn’t had the year it was expecting, but for what it’s worth, neither have the Wildcats.

After many predicted that K-State would compete atop the Big 12 this season, the Wildcats started the year 1-3 with their only win being a three-point victory against North Dakota.

They’ve since rebounded a bit, winning two of their past three and entering this game at 4-5.

“It’s funny, you watch them and they’ve got some physical guys,” Meacham said. “They got two great inside linebackers. The quarterback scares you to death. They got a running back that’s solid, good tight end play. It looks very similar to what they’ve always had, but they’re just not getting the results. And not to get off topic, but Iowa State’s kind of the same boat. Their numbers are good. They got good players, and it’s just a play or two here or there. Every game boils down about four or five plays, and they’ve been close. And I know they had some stuff occur early on in the season. I think they were ranked really high and it didn’t kind of come to fruition. 

“They kind of struggled there for a while, and I think maybe getting their second wind here at the end. They have good players, and they do it with those guys. They do a good job. They do it old school, and they got big, tough guys. And they play super hard. I looked at their defensive roster particularly, they don’t have a ton of transfers. They got a couple, but a lot of their guys were there as freshmen. So they do a good job.”

3. How O-Line Has Changed

It’s hard to tell by looking at him, but once upon a time, Meacham was a Cowboy offensive lineman.

Meacham played at OSU from 1983 to 1987, and much of his early coaching career had to do with linemen, coaching the position (alongside other titles) from 1989 to 2004.

He said Monday that the O-line game has changed quite a bit since his glory days but that he’d be “way better” in the modern game.

“My gosh, it’s not even the same sport,” Meacham said. “It was like rugby compared to basketball. My son and I watched one of my games. He had never seen me play, and I pulled up some old Nebraska-OSU game from the mid-80s or whatever. He sat there and didn’t say anything for about 20 minutes and then he said, ‘Dad, all you guys do is run into each other for the whole game.’ I told him that was what football was. The pass was like a trick play.

“So, totally different and all the disguising and all the movement and the personnel swaps and all the stuff is at another level. It would be interesting to see how a defense back then would react to an offense of today and vice versa, you know. It is way different to me.”

4. Tight End Versatility

Continuing on how the game of football has evolved over the years, look no further than the tight end position.

No longer is a receiving tight end an anomaly, they’re some of the most versatile athletes on the field.

“That’s what most of them are, they’re kinda hybrid guys,” Meacham said. “They’re not glorified O-linemen, and they’re not receivers. They’re somewhere in the middle. Those guys in this day and age, they’re not asked to really be dominant edge blockers who knock the edge down. They just gotta draw ties and mismatch safeties, is kinda what you’re after. Somebody that can mismatch a safety, that can win with size but also kinda hold a point to some degree, that’s kinda what you’re looking for.

“And there’s not a lot of them out there. You’re either gonna get the light guy that thinks he’s a wideout who won’t block, or the glorified O-lineman that gets to release in the flats every now and then. That’s kinda common. To find that guy who can do both, kinda interesting. It’s hard to find.”

5. WR to TE?

Speaking of versatile tight ends, OSU receiver Ayo Shotomide-King, listed at 6-foot-3, 225 pounds, has played four inline snaps across the Cowboys’ past two games, according to PFF.

The Cowboys had gotten super thin at that particular position, with injuries and Josh Ford hitting the portal. They’ve run some plays with offensive lineman Gage Stanaland essentially playing as a blocking tight end, and Shotomide-King is the other side of that coin.

“What he did was not blocking,” Meacham said. “It was more like we’re trying to get a matchup on a nickel moreso than anything. 

“He probably doesn’t wanna hear this, but he’s probably about 30 pounds away from probably being a pretty good tight end. I’m just saying, that’s my opinion. Don’t tell him I said that.”