‘As Bad As It Gets’: Eric Morris Reflects on What Went Wrong in Tulsa, How to Get Cowboys Back on Track

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STILLWATER — The offseason was filled with people from all over the country wondering just how good the Cowboys could be with the roster first-year coach Eric Morris assembled.

And then the first game came and muffled all of that excitement.

Oklahoma State is now a few days removed from its 24-10 season-opening loss to Tulsa. On Tuesday, Morris met with reporters for the first time since that loss. It wasn’t the ideal debut by any means, but it sounds like that first sample size of live bullets gave the Cowboys’ coach a direction.

“That’s as bad as it gets, what we faced starting off the way that we started off with so much hype and whatever,” Morris said. “And, as crazy as it sounds, people are saying, ‘Oh, he’s just saying that.’ I just told our team this. I’m happy in a way — not happy at all that we lost — we spend way too much time, resources, too many people over here that pour their heart and soul into this to want to go out there and have a performance like that. 

“But the only thing is, I’m excited because I know exactly where we’re at right now as a program, as a team, where we did OK, where we were just awful and you start making a checklist of things you got to improve on, right? And can you do that all in one day? Absolutely not. I know exactly where we’re at. There are things that obviously were not good.”

Among the checklist of negatives that Morris pointed out Tuesday included: the Cowboys were off early, Drew Mestemaker missed some early throws, the O-line allowed pressure, there were busts on offense and defense, the Cowboys got beat at the point of attack and various other examples of poor execution. He also noted some positives, pointing to the interior of the Cowboys’ defensive line as a group that played well.

Morris said he didn’t like the conditioning shape his team showed Saturday, citing body language and players throwing up. Morris gave a somewhat similar quote following the Cowboys’ first practice of fall camp, noting it looked like the heat got to some guys.

“All these things are self-reflection,” Morris said. “The mind is, all night, can’t sleep and you just replay everything in your mind. You take notes. Obviously, there’s people that have been around it and there’s a bunch of science involved. So we’ll get a bunch of smart people in a room and try to figure out the best way to solve it.”

Working through the team’s deficiencies is one thing. But the Cowboys are starting that process while awaiting one of the nation’s top teams, as Oregon is set to travel to Stillwater this weekend.

On a few occasions since taking over as the Cowboys’ head coach, Morris has noted the importance of momentum. Going into this past Saturday, the Cowboys seemingly had the wind at their back. That was stopped abruptly.

“You have all of this momentum, and then when you have it, you want to keep it,” Morris said. “When you don’t got it, you’ve got to go get it. Almost like leverage in life. And there’s a bunch of people obviously disappointed, and then we have a bunch of people reading press clippings and social media saying how bad we are and what a disgrace we are and all that stuff. Like, are we mentally tough enough to block that out?

“And we have another opportunity, like a great opportunity. Obviously when you see, you build something up to where you want to play the best. This is a team that is up there in the conversation to being one of the best in the nation this year, and rightfully so. It’s something we’ve got to go out there, and we’ve got to get one game better. There needs to be a ton of growth from Game 1 to Game 2 for our program.”

How does that growth start, with a firm look in the mirror … or the film.

Morris said the team film session Monday was uncomfortable, but it was important for his team to face the truth.

“We tell the truth to our players,” Morris said. “We sat up here yesterday morning, in the first team meeting, and we had some hard discussions, and we watched it together. Football is one of those things, it’s the greatest team sport in the world. One person not doing their job exposes everybody in this program. That happened in a variety of different ways. …

“There’s a bunch of issues. I’m not discounting that. I know that probably more than anybody. And there’s things that we got to start addressing and we got to start building the program. This is the way that I’ve done it in the past and I have full confidence in the way we’re going to do it here again. Is that acceptable and OK? Absolutely not. But that’s the spot. That’s our starting point. Not a great one, and off we go.”