The Top 5 Quotes from Doug Meacha’s Pre-Kansas News Conference

STILLWATER — Playing the Jayhawks used to be a nice get-right spot for Big 12 teams, but now playing the Cowboys might be a get-right spot for Kansas.

Oklahoma State plays Kansas at 3 p.m. Saturday in Lawrence. The Cowboys travel to the Sunflower State at 1-7, while KU is 4-4 coming off a blowout loss to rival Kansas State.

OSU interim coach Doug Meacham met with reporters Monday to preview the game. Here are five things he said that stood out.

Meacham also discussed a few freshmen who are likely going to start rotating into things and gave an update on OSU’s quarterback situation.

1. ‘Still Some Juice’ in OSU Locker Room

This has not been the season the OSU players or coaches expected when the Cowboys kicked it off on Aug. 28, but the reality of the situation is OSU is 1-7 and has been outscored a combined 311-116.

In a season like this, there’s plenty of opportunity for a locker room to turn sour, but Meacham said Monday that hasn’t happened, especially when looking at the visiting locker room in Lubbock this past week.

“I’m not making it up,” Meacham said. “I said a few things, and I got a pretty good response back from the unit. There’s still some juice there, probably as much now than there was maybe two weeks ago in terms of what I’m looking at. So it’s just a testament to the kind of kids we have and what kind of job the coaches that we have are doing with those guys. They are just pushing the message that hey, this is adversity. You’re going to go through worse in life and this is going to train you how to be prepared down the road. How you respond right now is going to mean a lot to everybody that’s watching you right now. And this is how they’re going to remember you for a while. 

“I know at halftime, Bob Schick stood up and got on some kids and showed some leadership. So there’s some good stuff happening. The scoreboard doesn’t reflect it, but, I’m proud of a lot of guys on the team.”

2. Evolving as a Coach in the Modern Landscape

Coaching in the modern world of college athletics is probably tough enough on its own, but for about the past month, Meacham had to coach a group of players who could hop into the transfer portal any time they wanted.

Mike Gundy’s firing opened a 30-day portal window for OSU players that finally closed last week. But before it did, OSU starting right tackle Grant Seagren entered his name into the portal while sticking out the rest of the season in Stillwater. Noah McKinney, who is injured, is doing the same.

“My personal viewpoint is, they’re still practicing, they’re still playing,” Meacham said. “Yeah, they’re looking at their options just like anybody would do in a business world. But, at the same time, they are still here. They don’t have to be. They could probably opt out. They have enough tape. There’s people calling them wanting them to come take a look at our school and those types of things. And they’re saying, ‘You know what? I’m listening to you, I may come look at you, but I’m on this team and I’m going to continue to battle with my teammates.’ Is it something at this point in my life that I would say excites you? No, but I do appreciate the guys that are still out there battling.”

Meacham said he’s learned to evolve with the times, saying coaches are more teachers than yellers nowadays. When asked whether it took time for him to evolve into this portal/NIL era, Meacham had a funny quip about his ole ball coach:

“I played for Pat Jones, what do you think? You know what I’m saying? Holy crap.”

3. On His First Time to Boone Pickens Stadium as a Visitor

OSU interim defensive coordinator Clint Bowen is Lawrence, Kansas born and raised, but this weekend, he’ll head back to Lawrence as a visitor.

He went to Lawrence High School before being a defensive back at Kansas. He then started his coaching career at Kansas in 1996 as a graduate assistant before working off and on (but mostly on) with the Jayhawks until 2019. Oh, and then he went back to his high school and was the head coach at Lawrence High from 2021 to 2024. So, he’ll head back to his stomping grounds this weekend.

Similarly, Doug Meacham played at Oklahoma State and coached at Oklahoma State but returned to Stillwater in 2015 with TCU.

“I felt like it was a spring game or something where we split teams, you know what I mean?” Meacham said. “Like, am I supposed to even be over here? Yeah, it felt really weird because I played here, being on the opposite (sideline), which is kinda odd because when I was here, we were on the visiting side. So, it was kinda cool. I think it was 2015 we came back here and played, and I was on the side that we were normally on, but, consequently, you were on this side for years and years.

“I mean, I still see the old ramps we came down over here, they chopped them off, but you can still kinda see some of that. But, yeah, it’s just odd to be in there. You just feel out of place until the game started.”

4. Fair Catches

Despite being scored on more than any other team in the league, OSU’s nine kickoff returns ranks 12th in the Big 12.

Why haven’t the Cowboys attempted to return kicks rather than fair catching balls and taking it at the 25?

“That was my decision,” Meacham said. “I just felt like I’d rather take it on the 25. I think moving forward, we may take a few cracks at it. I know we did last week, but if you look at the math of it, minus 25 will put you in the top 30 or 40 in starting field position. So, why not? It’s a little bit less of one thing you have to work on, but we’re kinda formulating some stuff there to maybe have an opportunity to maybe get a big play out of it.

“But, yeah, that was kind of my decision. I think it was the Baylor game, we muffed a kick and started off on our own 3. That was kinda it for me real fast with that one. But, you know, I’m a little hard-headed on that.”

5. On Where Things Went Wrong

With the whirlwind that it’s been since he’s taken over, Meacham probably doesn’t have a ton of time right now to sit back and think about the big picture of how the year has gone.

But on Monday he was asked where things went wrong this season for this team.

“I can’t put my finger on it,” Meacham said. “That’s a super tough question that I would have to give some thought to. I don’t know if I can answer that at this point. There are a lot of things that factor into it. It wasn’t just one guy that’s for sure. I was a part of it, probably. Maybe I was a piece of it. I don’t know. I think there are a lot of variables involved with that one. We could probably stand here an hour and discuss it. I don’t really think I have an answer to that question, a definitive answer.”