Doug Meacham on the No. 1 Thing the Next Cowboys Coach Needs to Be Successful

STILLWATER — With Oklahoma State’s ongoing coaching search looming over the last week of the season, interim coach Doug Meacham described what he thought the next coach needed to be successful in Stillwater.

“The number one thing is, to me, it’s obviously you have to do a phenomenal job of picking the right players,” Meacham said. “And anybody can pick an all-star team, OK.

“It’s picking the right guys and being able to develop and pick a team where you have certain levels of talent, and you have certain levels of leadership and things that when you put all that and stir it up, it equals a championship team.”

Even legitimate discussions of OSU as a dark horse championship contender would be huge for a program in the midst of an ongoing 17-game losing streak in Big 12 play. But Meacham said it doesn’t stop there.

Meacham, who has repeatedly praised the character of the current group of Cowboys, said the incoming head coach needs to recruit guys with the right kind of personalities to handle success and pressure that comes with college football.

“Just watch tape, you know, you’re going to see what you get,” Meacham said. “You can tell who it matters to. You can tell, like, after the whistle, kind of how guys react to certain things, kind of what you’re getting. You don’t particularly want the guy throwing his helmet on sidelines, maybe. Even though he’s really, really good, it may be not really good in that locker room, you know, that kind of thing.

“So I think that part, just being able to assess and make good judgments on picking a team is critical. It’s hard to do because the allure of picking the big, fast guy and all that stuff, it’s hard to say no to, and then you just got to continue to research and see if he’s a guy that’s going to fit what you’re trying to accomplish.”

Whoever athletic director Chad Weiberg and OSU go with will already be well versed in these realities. So Meacham’s answer on Monday isn’t some hidden secret to success, but it does demonstrate what he thinks the biggest priority should be for if Oklahoma State is going to fight its way back up the Big 12 standings.

A reporter asked Meacham if those character evaluations have gotten more difficult in the transfer portal era. The interim coach implied the best way to evaluate a prospect’s character looks more or less like it always did.

“You do your research and make as many calls as you can,” Meacham said. “And it’s kind of like these pro scouts, they come in here, they don’t watch tape. They’re talking to the strength staff, the position coach, teammates, the trainers, all the other stuff. They’re trying to find out, if I am going to invest in you, I want to make sure you’re solid off the field, you know. Unless you’re just elite, if you’re elite, then maybe we need to hire some people to help handle it.”