Why Did Mike Leach Nickname Eric Morris ‘The Elf’ After He Handed Sooners a Devastating Loss?

STILLWATER — Oklahoma State football could certainly use a few extra gifts from Santa this Christmas following a rough two-year stretch, but that shouldn’t be a problem since the new guy running the program earned the nickname “The Elf.”

“I’ve almost grown out of the nickname,” OSU coach Eric Morris said during his official Cowboys introduction. “There’s not many people left, there’s only two or three people that still call me The Elf. It’s not always the most complimentary thing.”

His former Texas Tech head coach gave Morris the nickname when the Red Raiders broke down film following a 34-27 win over the Sooners in 2007. Morris finished the day with eight receptions, 56 yards and a touchdown to both earn praise from Leach and hand the Sooners a loss, one of only two in the regular season, that almost certainly kept them out of the national championship game that year.

“I dipped underneath a linebacker, and when he paused the video, I looked like a, I looked tiny on the film, this linebacker was 6-4, 240 pounds, I’m 5-8, 165 pounds, dripping wet,” Morris said during an interview with Wake Up Barstool. “And somebody in the back screamed, ‘Hey, it’s a midget.’ And in only Leach fashion, he thought on his feet as good as anybody, he’s like ‘No, no, no, midgets cannot make this play, only magical creatures can, and little magical creatures are elves.’”

Everyone loves a good Mike Leach story @__CoachMorris pic.twitter.com/54i3zYCHyS

— Wake Up Barstool (@wakeupbarstool) November 19, 2025

The comparison didn’t stop there, according to an interview Morris did with the Texas Tech student newspaper, the Daily Torreador, later quoted by ESPN.

“They’re good with a dagger,” Morris said, quoting Leach. “He goes on and on about how elves have different traits, and he thinks that I fit the traits of an elf. He thinks that I do well with the football in my hands and calls the football my dagger.”

Leach still wasn’t anywhere close to done with the nickname.

“I have some great pictures of me in an elf costume. … Thursday, when I went to put on my uniform for practice, my uniform was entirely green,” Morris said during his introduction earlier this month. “Green tights, green pants, green jersey. He had taped elf ears to the outside of my helmet. I said, ‘Mike, I’m not practicing in this stuff.’ And Mike said, ‘Well, if you want to play this week you’re going to practice.’ So four straight weeks I practice, everybody watching me. … And everybody has red and black on, and there I am running around with green on.”

That nickname played a small role in one of Morris’ favorite moments from his playing career when he took the ball on a speed sweep around the edge against Nebraska for a 1-yard, game-winning touchdown in overtime in 2008 to preserve a 6-0 start.

“We called timeout and Leach and Dana (Holgorsen) are talking on the headset,” Morris said. “Everybody wants to run something up the middle, so they’re giving him all this play information, and Mike looked at me, and he said, ‘Elf, can you score around the edge?’ I said, ‘Hell, yeah, Coach.’ He said, ‘All right, we’re sending Elf around the edge.’

“So he called the play, and we scored. So that’s just an incredible moment for me personally in the magical run that we had.”