EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsSTILLWATER, Okla. -- First-year Oklahoma State coach Eric Morris stepped away from celebrating in his office packed with family and friends, walked outside with a Coors Banquet in hand and sat down in a seat overlooking Boone Pickens Stadium.One hour after his team shocked the college football world, the venue had cleared out but "COWBOYS WIN" still flashed on the video board beneath a score nobody saw coming: Oklahoma State 39, No. 6 Oregon 31.The goal post in the west end zone directly below Morris' office was long gone, tossed into nearby Theta Pond by students who'd rushed the field after the program's first FBS win in two full years.In his home debut as Oklahoma State's head coach, the first game in this stadium for his 92 new players and coaching staff, his Cowboys had just become the first team to snap a double-digit losing streak by taking down an AP top-10 opponent."If you asked me, when I took the job the first day, if I'd take a loss to Tulsa and a win over Oregon at home? I might've done it," Morris said with a smile.The 40-year-old coach accepted this job after three years at North Texas, believing there'd be an opportunity for immediate success. If he could get his players and his people to follow him here, he trusted they could win in the Big 12. The positive momentum after nine long months of rapid rebuilding felt real.And then Oklahoma State totally flopped against Tulsa. The 24-10 road defeat on opening day was uglier than the final score indicated. Cowboys quarterback Drew Mestemaker said Morris called it the most embarrassing offensive performance he'd ever been a part of, and nobody disagreed."That's not us," Mestemaker said after the loss.What did it take for the Cowboys to suddenly become giant killers against a national title contender, delivering the first massive upset of this college football season, just seven days later? Morris said it began with sleepless nights of contemplation."I spent a lot of time questioning myself at first," Morris said. "It's really easy to lead when you're having success, right? It's really hard when you're not."You lay up at night and didn't sleep all week thinking about, man, are we that bad?"In his first head coaching job at Incarnate Word in 2018, he got blown out in his first two games. Morris lost his first two at North Texas, too. He didn't see it coming this time. But it didn't take long to identify where to begin."I just said: Hey, there's too much here," Morris said. "These kids, there's so much new, there's so much pressure. I've gotta simplify this. ... When you lose like that and everything turns so sour so fast, I just felt like we didn't need all this noise. We needed one thing to focus on."He told his staff that, for Week 2, they were tossing out all the usual keys to win and metrics they focus on to judge players' performance. As Morris put it, they had way too many issues to resolve in one week's time."The only thing we're grading this week is how fast we play," he said. "I told our coaches I don't wanna hear one thing about technique or he didn't do this. I wanna know if they played fast. That's what they're evaluating. I told our players the same thing."The Monday team meeting after Tulsa was unsparing. Morris said he called out everyone on the team and staff. He admits he has a lot of "militant qualities" in the way he runs things, unafraid to call out his people and make them accountable. He learned them from playing and working for Mike Leach. When he pulled up clips of bad plays to discuss, he started with his stars, Mestemaker and running back Caleb Hawkins."They can get their butt chewed and come back, bounce back the next day and perform," wide receiver Wyatt Young said. "On Monday, we came in and got the bad taste out of our mouth and we rolled from there."They followed that up with hard, physical practices on Tuesday and Wednesday out in the heat, knowing they'd need to prepare for 100-degree temperatures on Saturday. Mestemaker has been with Morris for three years and called it the best week of practice they've ever had. The head coach could tell by Friday."We just had a different sense about ourselves of being locked in and ready to go," he said. "But until it happens and you go perform on the stage against people, you don't know."In his entire coaching career, going back to his grad assistant days at Houston in 2010, Morris' teams had a 4-32 record against AP Top 25 opponents. Sure, he pulled off a few FCS upsets with future No. 1 pick Cam Ward at Incarnate Word. But he'd never been part of a team that took down a top-10 foe.Morris is a believer in the concept of momentum. It's a real thing to him, especially in college football. Oklahoma State needed to seize it early. Morris believed that was a must to get the home crowd loud and behind them against Oregon."It's been so long since they've been able to get excited about something, and obviously they're all here after a week of disappointment, after an offseason of encouragement," Morris said. "Rightfully so, they're probably saying, 'Oh, here we go again. What are we doing?'"Their loyal base had witnessed losses in 10 of their last 11 games at Boone Pickens Stadium. Mestemaker got them going with a 75-yard run off an RPO on their first offensive snap.When they needed more juice, Morris pulled an old trick out of his bag. In 2022, his Washington State offense lost a 44-41 shootout against Oregon. Morris had opened that game with a flea flicker to set up an easy 24-yard throw for Ward.The Cowboys ran the play all week in practice and pulled it out early in the second quarter, opening a critical drive with Mestemaker layering a perfectly thrown ball to Young for 33 yards. Six plays later, they led 17-7."Drew was on it today," Morris said. "I mean, he was locked in. That throw on the flea flicker is one of the best throws I've ever seen." It took 554 yards on offense to beat the Ducks. It took field goals and patience rather than fourth-down gambles. It took discipline and depth on defense to slow down projected first-round quarterback Dante Moore. It took fearlessness from Mestemaker on a leaping go-ahead score in the fourth quarter that knocked the wind out of him. And it took all his other teammates just trying to play as fast as possible."There's no secret, nothing like that," Young said. "We practiced our butts off all week and we went out there and did what we should've."And if Oregon doesn't deflect two Mestemaker passes for interceptions that turned into easy touchdowns, this one wouldn't have been close."We probably should've won by 25," Morris said.Not bad for a bunch of former North Texas players leading a totally rebuilt roster, or for a coaching staff that went 0-4 against top-25 opponents last season. Together, they proved against the Ducks that their best is more than good enough."Everyone on this team's been counted out their whole career," Mestemaker said, "and I think that's what makes us special."As police escorted their head coach through the mob of fans to his postgame TV interview, Morris kept his sunglasses on to hide his watery eyes. The joy on his players' faces after the week they'd endured, combined with their fans' elation after two years of losing, got to him."I don't know if I can top this," he said. "I'm not gonna retire, but I might think about it tonight."After celebrating with his team, the coach was already thinking ahead. The way they'd prepared gave them the opportunity to win. But the Cowboys still have so much growing to do before he'll know just how far they can go this fall.Morris was already bracing for the newfound hype late Saturday afternoon. As he sipped a cold beer, he knew what Leach would say in this situation."Everybody told us how bad we were last week and now everybody's going to tell us how good we are," Morris said. "I'm going to have to have a PhD in psychology this next week, right?"
