STILLWATER NEWS PRESS - Eric Morris walked up to the stage and sounded like a seasoned Cowboy, hitting every note Oklahoma State fans wanted to hear.

Morris, OSU’s new head football coach, brought up Bedlam unprovoked.

“If anyone asks Coach Morris if I welcome that game, I welcome it with open arms,” he said.

He mentioned Boone Pickens Stadium being voted as a top stadium and praised the game day environment, from Homecoming to the Paddle People.

“I’ve come here, I think, seven times as a player and a coach. I still have not won a damn game at Boone Pickens Stadium, and it pisses me off,” Morris said. “It haunts me.”

Most of all, for a starved fan base that just witnessed a 1-11 season and back-to-back winless seasons in Big 12 play, Morris shared his ambitious vision – can OSU win championships?

“Sorry, Chad (for the language),” Morris said, looking to OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg, “but my answer to that is hell yes, we can win a damn championship here.” Morris said all the right things during his official introductory press conference Monday afternoon at the OSU Alumni Center. If there’s such a thing as “winning” a press conference, he did it. With energy and openness, Morris showed why he was picked for the job, and he explained why it was a good fit for himself and the program.

And he already had Weiberg back answering questions about Bedlam football.

“My answer has not changed on that. We’re not against playing that game. It just has to work out for the schedules,” Weiberg said. “They’ve got new scheduling parameters now. We’ll continue to have to work through it when the timing is right.”

As Morris reached the stage and took the microphone, he first pointed out his fancy suit, saying his wife, Maggie, makes sure he looks sharp. That’s the only big-city flash Morris said he has, though.

He grew up in Shallowater, Texas, a town of about 3,000 people just 12 miles northwest of Lubbock. Maggie is from Rector, Arkansas, a town of nearly 2,000 in the northwest corner of the state. Through and through, Morris and his family are small-town people, he said, and he made sure the Stillwater crowd knew it.

“We want to embrace ourselves in the community. My kids will be going to Stillwater Public Schools,” Morris said of his two sons, Jack and George. “It’s something we believe in. My father is a public educator. We believe in smalltown people.”

Many of Morris’ past stops were at small programs. He was offensive coordinator at Washington State, which is located in secluded Pullman in eastern Washington. He head coached Incarnate Word, a small San Antonio FCS program that began in 2009. That mattered to him and his family.

So did other things, and Morris was mindful of that during the interview process, in which he had interest from other schools. He interviewed with Weiberg and university president Jim Hess, and he said he came away impressed.

“Vertical alignment from my two direct reports in having a president that really believed in the vision in athletics and how that’s the front porch of this whole entire university. You need support from the top to make this work,” Morris said. “… Hess and Chad Weiberg were two guys that I wanted to lock arms with and let’s go attack this thing together. I was super comfortable with that.”

Morris said he only became more confident. He learned the importance of having that alignment during his time with the late Mike Leach, who was his head coach during his playing days at Texas Tech, and seeing how those relationships mattered.

“We didn’t get into it very long, and Maggie and I looked at each other and said, ‘Those are people that we want to embrace and go to work with every single day,’” Morris said.

Morris led North Texas to an 11-1 season and appearance in the American Conference title game this past Friday. Since being hired Nov. 25, Morris has been juggling both jobs. Morris said he was thankful for getting to continue with his Mean Green team during that time, but it wasn’t easy balancing his coaching duties at UNT and recruiting and building a staff at OSU.

On Monday, Morris made the full transition official.

“Now my 100% attention has switched over to the focus of Oklahoma State football, and super important for me to build relationships with our current players right now and then to go out and hire a great staff, that way we can prepare ourselves for the portal window that’s coming up in January,” Morris said. “It’s been nice to finally feel like my feet are on the ground in Stillwater and have one focus – and that’s making Oklahoma State football the best it possibly can be.”

With attention fully shifted, Morris said his next two or three days will be “consumed” with rounding out his staff.

“I’ve had some time to think about it and have some great visions in my head on the way that’s all gonna line up for me,” Morris said.

Now comes the work of backing up those words of championships and wins. Morris said he knows there’s a lot to do, and the transfer portal opens Jan. 2.

He remembers the days of OSU teams competing for Big 12 titles and fielding great players. He played and coached against many of those teams and players. As Morris reminisced on those memories of OSU, he said his mission is re-turning the program to that.

“We want those feelings to come back of magical feelings in the greatest stadium in the nation, and let’s do something special that’s never been done together.”

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