‘Tears Were Shed’: Eric Morris Unlocked Sean Brophy’s Coaching Potential by Benching Him as a Player

STILLWATER — It only took Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Sean Brophy five years to climb to the rank of coordinator at a Power Conference program. Quite the rise, considering he had to almost force his way into the profession in the first place.

“I tried to talk him out of coaching,” Oklahoma State coach Eric Morris said. “And he had a great job (already). … And just called me out of the blue and said, ‘Coach, I’m gonna come work for you.’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t have a job for you.’ ‘Alright, I’ll be there next week.’ And so he came, and he worked the whole year as a volunteer for free, and I knew that at that time to turn down the job he had to come work for free, that he was committed.”

Officially, Brophy was a quality control assistant helping out primarily with wide receivers and quarterbacks. This fall will be his sixth season as a coach, all of which have come on Morris’ staff.

“He’s the same competitive, fiery individual,” Brophy said of Morris. “There’s no doubt in my mind about that. I think he still has the same chip on his shoulder that he had at 32 when he was at Incarnate Word as the head coach, but I think he’s grown a ton as a head coach.”

Although Morris has and will continue to serve as the offensive play-caller, Brophy has been his quarterbacks coach for the last three years, which includes Drew Mestemaker’s development from high school backup to college football sensation.

All of which makes the start of Brophy’s relationship with Morris even more surprising. He was the returning starting quarterback at Incarnate Word in 2018 when Morris took over the program.

“Our relationship started off not very good,” Morris said. “Not for anything he did or anything in particular, but one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had as a coach was when Sean was the starting quarterback at Incarnate Word before I got there. He was the starting quarterback all through spring ball.

“We had a true freshman come in and gave us a chance to be a little more mobile. The first time I had a sit-down with Sean was to tell him he wasn’t the starting quarterback a couple weeks before his senior season. I think there are a lot of tears shed in that.”

Two days later, Brophy was back in Morris’ office.

“(He) said ‘I’m going to be the best teammate ever,’” Morris said. “He’s so damn smart. And that’s what he did. He started learning as a senior. While we’re planning for certain things, he’s bringing play ideas to me for us to run.

“‘Hey coach, this is how they’re running the defense, what do you think about this?’ You could tell at that point in his life, he did a phenomenal job being a great teammate and helping coach that quarterback.”

That brutal conversation was the first time Morris had that kind of talk with a player as the head coach.

“It prepared me,” Morris said. “I’ve had a ton of tough ones since then. So fast forward one year. You know, the freshman we started instead of Sean was a freshman All-American, first-team all-conference, led us to the first conference championship in program history, all these things, had all these accolades. Well, all of a sudden, Cam Ward showed up on campus next and so that next year, I had the same conversation with that kid.”

The next time he has that conversation, Morris will be better equipped for the moment, but he stressed relaying that to a player never gets easy.

“Because you care about these kids and their emotions and work so hard to get to a point, and some of those where you’re, you know, almost feel like you’re letting them down at times,” Morris said. “But yeah, you could tell, and Sean would tell you right now, that’s one of the best things that ever happened to him, and it put him on this path.”

Morris said he fully expects both Brophy and defensive coordinator Skyler Cassity will get their own chances to be head coaches sooner than later. In the meantime, Brophy has not lost sight of how quickly his life turned from quarterback replaced before the season to first-time offensive coordinator.

“You have to remind yourself, you know, how lucky you are to be here,” Brophy said. “But at the same time, too, I think that when you believe in your process, and you’re smart, you’re diligent, and you go about your work in a certain way and the way that you prepare, I’ve always felt like this is where we deserve to be. He deserved to be (head coach here). I feel like I can coach at this level and really excited to go prove it.”