There’s Plenty to Be Excited about for OSU Fans, but Eric Morris’ Staff Is Focusing on the Boring Stuff

Support PFB with a PFB+ membership — $8 a month or $50 for a year.

Summer is just more fun when you’re football team is buzzworthy, but OSU’s coaches know it’s the boring stuff that counts.

There is a lot for Cowboy fans to be excited about coming up this fall. Following the seismic dismissal of a Mike Gundy after two decades, they get about the best rebuild scenario you could ask for (on paper). Instead of a complete reset from scratch, OSU nabbed a rising head coach in Eric Morris who’s brought along his exciting brand of offense with most of his North Texas playmakers on both sides of the ball.

You’ve got the nation’s returning leader in passing in Drew Mestemaker, its leading touchdown scorer in Caleb Hawkins and the No. 3 receiver last year in Wyatt Young, among many other #freaks. Illinois transfer Justin Bowick might be the second coming of Marcell Ateman if you listen to what’s coming out of fall camp.

That’s all good and well, but bingeable North Texas highlights and training camp buzz don’t guarantee on-field success. That comes down to the more boring stuff.

This week, offensive coordinator Sean Brophy was asked about the plethora of speed and playmakers he has at his disposal, but he deflected a bit. Instead of feeding the hype machine with a grabby comment about Hawkins’ turbo button abilities, he pointed to the more mundane.

“It’s great, obviously [to have that speed],” said Brophy. “I think the skillset’s there. I think at this point now it comes down to execution, right? I think that going out there and doing our job, with everybody doing one of 11 and executing these plays.”

Defensive coordinator Skyler Cassity had a similar exchange after mentioning some of the defensive playmakers he’s excited about.

“Don’t get things twisted,” said Cassity. “It all goes back to the fundamentals of football, right? They got to communicate, they got to get in a good stance, they got to get aligned correctly. When they play as one is when we really start to show that we can fly around and make a lot plays.”

And don’t get me twisted. There’s plenty of reason for the buzz. Morris is a venerable offensive wunderkind and proven QB whisperer. What he did at North Texas, and in short order, is impressive and there’s no reason to think it can’t be scalable at a place like Oklahoma State.

But the leaders of his staff are emitting a more cool, confident vibe that’s indicative of a program-wide view culture and attitude. There’s a lot to be excited about, but with that comes a lot of expectations, especially in a place and with a fanbase that’s eager to get back to having fun with football again. To meet those expectations is going to take consistency and attention to detail.

“At the end of the day, like we talk about upstairs all the time, we talk about it in unit meetings, there’s a lot of guys that run similar plays in college football, right?” said Brophy. “It comes down to execution and your how and your why, and those guys buying in. We’ve got great skillset, we’ve got great speed, you know, obviously a quarterback that can sling it around the yard, but at the end of the day it’s going to come down to us executing these plays.”