‘Intensity Needs to Stay High’: Eric Morris Discusses Finding Balance in Practice Toughness After Rollercoaster 2 Weeks

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STILLWATER — In the midst of answering his first question after what had to be the biggest win of his coaching career, Eric Morris was already well aware of the flip in mindset his team might have after losing to Tulsa and then beating Oregon.

“We’re going to have to be really good as coaches this week because everybody’s going to tell them how good they are now all of a sudden,” Morris said. 

It didn’t sound as if last week’s practices in the fallout of that Tulsa loss were all that pleasant. Morris said his team didn’t use the indoor at all, instead practicing out in the Oklahoma heat that might’ve gotten the better of his squad in Tulsa.

Before that intensity was turned up a few notches, Morris had made note of Curt Cignetti’s quick, efficient practices that the Hoosiers get through in about an hour and a half a few times during the preseason.

So, now Morris has to balance the new-school and old-school ideologies to find a way to best prepare his team while also not running the Cowboys into the ground.

“It will be key for us all year, and I think every team’s going to be different, right?” Morris said Tuesday. “And I think for us, I thought that that’s what we needed at that time knowing we’re going to play in the heat. There are going to be times as the season goes on with our depth, we’re going to have to cut reps down. We’ve done that everywhere. Now, the intensity needs to stay high on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we have to be able to get things out of walkthroughs and things of that nature, which we will.

“I think that’s something we’re going to have to monitor. I don’t have the perfect answer for you right now of what we’ll do, but it’s something we’ll spend time sitting down with all the coordinators and trying to figure out ‘hey, what’s the perfect limit for this group.’ At a certain point, you start getting banged up in certain positions. You’re going to have to monitor what you do.”

In the eyes of many, it’s been a backward start for the Cowboys.

Just about everyone had OSU starting 1-1 but by beating Tulsa and losing to Oregon.

The outside expectation for this week is that the Cowboys will cruise to 2-1 against Murray State, an FCS team that went a combined 2-22 in 2024 and 2025. The Cowboys are 55.5-point favorites, as of writing, on FanDuel, which is a crazy number regardless of the two teams involved.

With a spread that big, it feels like it would take some divine intervention for the Racers to pull an upset off in Stillwater, but it’s important that the Cowboys, no matter the opponent, keep taking steps forward while coming off the high of their big win.

“Our sample size in two weeks are two totally different results,” Morris said. “And so, like, for us to learn and grow from that and know, hey, this one thing that we did right here worked extremely well, and on the contrary, the other one didn’t, right? And I think we see it every week in college sports in general. It’s why people love it. They’re glued to it.

“I’ve been brutally honest with them. And obviously, you can say trap game, you can say rat poison, read your own press clippings, distractions, like everything that can be said as distractions, but like, I was really pleased by the way our kids came out and like the energy and the way we attacked the practice today.”