STILLWATER – Oklahoma State interim head coach Doug Meacham and several players met with the media ahead of Saturday’s Big 12 conference matchup against Houston. Some of their comments: Oklahoma State Interim Head Coach Doug Meacham Opening Statement: “Back to work. You have to have a short memory when things don’t go well. My message to the kids is there’s going to be a lot of things in your life that don’t go your way, how are you going to respond to them? It’s really easy to pull your hoodie over your face and put a towel over your face. It’s really easy to go into the locker room with the other guys who are upset and playing. Our message is not to do that because you want to turn it around. You want to do what you want out of it.”

On Zane Flores’ injury:

“Zane is probably not going to participate this week. We are still kind of looking at it. We have Sam Jackson, who has recently gotten some reps. He’s played quarterback before. Banks Bowen would be another option for us there; he’s got a ton of reps. We need to have our first practice to have that determination, so we’ll see. Obviously, I don’t want to give the opponent a two-day advance on the game plan.”

On having a normal

Monday-Saturday week:

“It feels good, obviously, most of us are up here at 6:30 a.m., sitting up here, discussing, watching tape, trying to get some plays together. Clint has been doing the same thing, which feels normal. We are sitting here talking amongst ourselves, talking to players, talking to each other, which makes a lot of the other stuff disappear a bit because it does feel normal. I think a lot of the coaches and players probably appreciate that a lot of that stuff is behind us, and we can continue to move ahead.”

On pieces of advice for Sam Jackson and Banks Bowen:

“It’s about being simple, knowing where your eyes should be, knowing what your checks are, knowing how to communicate, and the signals. The normal things you would teach any quarterback. I don’t think there’s anything special other than you can create anxiety, or you just treat this as business as usual. You can have paralysis through analysis. And so, we’re just trying to treat it like it’s a three-foot putt and knock it in.”

On Noah McKinney’s post-game comments and finding “foxhole” guys:

“I would say him for sure. I’ve heard him at practice, being vocal at times. And in this day and age, kids, that’s not really their thing. Everybody wants to kind of fade in the paint and just kind of not be that guy. So, when someone does become a leader, someone is vocal, and they step out; you really appreciate it. We need all that we can get. I’ve heard him do it at practice, so he’s definitely one of those guys.”

On what he liked about Sam Jackson as a quarterback at TCU:

“His high school film was un-believable. He played receiver his tenthgrade year, then quarterback his junior year, then Covid happened, and they had no school and athletics in his senior year. He reminded me on tape of Trevone Boykin. That’s what really stuck to me. Unbelievable release, huge hands, throws a light ball, he can run, and he’s pretty twitched up. He just kind of reminded me of the stuff Trevone had. We already have this package that fits a guy like that, so we just took that, and one of our graduate- assistant coaches went to high school where he came from... He can make plays when they break down, the reality of football is half of them do break down, run game or pass game, some guys make plays. He’s a guy who can do some of that when some things don’t go correctly.”

The Oklahoma State Cowboys return to their home field to take on the Houston Cougars Saturday the 11th at 11 a.m. The game will be televised on TNT, Sling and YouTube TV.