The Top 5 Quotes from Doug Meacham’s Post-Iowa State News Conference

STILLWATER — Doug Meacham coached his final game as the Cowboys’ interim head coach on Saturday.

Oklahoma State lost to Iowa State 20-13 to finish the 2025 season 1-11 ahead of Eric Morris taking over the program moving forward. Here are five things Meacham said after the game.

1. On the Season Coming to an End

In the final weeks of his tenure as his alma mater’s interim head coach, you could tell Meacham wanted nothing more than for his players to be able to celebrate a win.

He’s made comments over recent weeks about how he’ll remember this group for the rest of his life, and Saturday, he got a picture to commemorate that.

“Hopefully those guys coming back will learn some lessons from what they went through this year,” Meacham said. “I know I certainly have and everyone else has, as well. I wish everyone luck.

“I’ve enjoyed this team. We took a big team photo in the hotel today that I’ll probably have on my wall just to remind me how special a lot of these guys were to be able to continuously show up every week and fight when a lot of kinds nowadays would’ve probably just laid down. Pretty special to watch that even though we didn’t get the outcome. It’d have been nice to have finished it up like that, but life’s not a fairytale.”

2. On His Hopes for OSU’s Future

Not only was Meacham this group’s head coach for most of the year, but he’s also an alum.

He was asked what his hopes are for the future of the program.

“Hell, I want them to win a national championship,” Meacham said. “They’ve got a lot in place here to do so. It’s a great school and a great town. It’s in a super location, great academics. Facilities and infrastructure speaks for itself. …

“Those guys (Eric Morris and his staff) will come in here and get it done. Our people know what it takes to win. They’re gonna pick the right guy, and I think they did a great job picking Eric.”

3. He Is Open to Staying

A few weeks back, Meacham noted that he cuts up North Texas’ game film every week because of his similar offensive philosophy.

Meacham said he and Morris talk occasionally about football. Meacham also noted that he’d be interested in sticking on Morris’ OSU staff.

“One of the biggest things that can bring a guy down is to not be wanted,” Meacham said. “You can work hard and do all those things, if you’re not wanted, it just makes you feel bad every day, but if they want me to stay here, man, I’d love to.

“I’m not trying to position myself or promote myself for it. We’ll see how it goes. If it happens that way, great. If it don’t, I’ll be fine. I’ll move on. That’s what we do as coaches, we go find the next one.”

4. Players ‘Know a Hell of a Lot More than You Think’

It’ll be an interesting few weeks for this group — player and coaches.

Some coaches will likely be retained while others will have to look for other opportunities.

For some players, this is it. They laced up a pair of cleats for the last time. But many others have eligibility to play, and they’ll have to figure out whether that will be in Stillwater or elsewhere.

“I know this about players — they know a hell of a lot more than you think they do,” Meacham said. “And how you conduct yourself as a coach, they read that really, really fast. If you don’t think those guys know what’s going on, you better think again, because they know what’s going on. Especially with the social media that’s out there these days, they know what’s going on.”

5. The Moment that Will Stick Out to Him the Most

It had to have been a bitter sweet few months for Meacham.

He was the head coach of his alma mater, but at the same time, the Cowboys couldn’t find a ton of success on the field.

Meacham was asked what moment from the year will stick out to him the most. He said halftime of the UCF game.

“We were winning by 14, so that was kind of our little tiny window of, ‘Holy crap. This is awesome,’” Meacham said. “But I thought we handled it as best we could. We told everybody, ‘0-0. It’s a whole new game,’ all the stuff you say when you’re up at halftime. And I’ll remember that moment because it felt like, ‘Yeah, you know what, these guys deserve it.’ And it felt good for 10 minutes.”