Eric Morris Is Building a New Oklahoma State Without Forgetting What Made the Old One Special

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Brandon Weeden remembers what Boone Pickens Stadium feels like when Oklahoma State football is rolling.

Terry Brown remembers Oklahoma State before Boone Pickens Stadium looked anything like it does today.

Different generations.

Different eras.

Same message.

Don't forget what playing for Oklahoma State means.

Weeden and Brown met with the Cowboys following practice Monday, giving one of the newest rosters in college football an opportunity to hear directly from two men who helped build the program's history in completely different eras.

For Eric Morris, that's more than bringing a couple of former players around practice.

It's another example of how he's handling this rebuild.

Oklahoma State is changing.

Morris doesn't want that change to disconnect the Cowboys from everything that came before it.

A New Team Needs to Understand the Old One

Think about how unusual Oklahoma State's situation is.

The Cowboys have 87 newcomers.

Many weren't in Stillwater last season.

Some weren't even playing Power Four football.

They're learning new teammates, new coaches, new schemes and an entirely new program.

So how do you teach them what Oklahoma State football is supposed to look like?

Bring in people who lived it.

Weeden represents one of the greatest periods in program history.

He led Oklahoma State to 12 wins, a Big 12 championship and a Fiesta Bowl victory in 2011. He still ranks third in school history with 9,260 passing yards and second with 75 touchdown passes.

Brown represents something completely different.

He played at Oklahoma State in the 1960s, when, as he reminded the current team, Perkins Road was dirt, Highway 51 had two lanes and freshmen dressed underneath Gallagher-Iba Arena. He later reached the NFL and became the first Oklahoma-born player to score a touchdown in a Super Bowl.

That's decades of Cowboy football standing in front of one team.

Weeden Recognized Something

What caught my attention most from Weeden wasn't the history lesson.

It was what he saw at practice.

Energy.

Or, as he called it, “juice.”

Weeden specifically praised the energy on both sides of the football and said he hadn't seen that type of juice from the defense in a few years.

That's notable.

We've spent much of the offseason talking about Oklahoma State's offense.

Mestemaker.

Hawkins.

Young.

Coleman.

Bowick.

Everyone expects Morris to make that side of the football entertaining.

But if a former player walks into practice and immediately notices the energy defensively?

That's worth filing away.

It doesn't mean Oklahoma State suddenly has an elite defense.

It means something feels different.

Then He Talked About Togetherness

This is where Weeden's message connected perfectly with everything Morris has been trying to establish.

Enjoy your teammates.

Stay together.

Play for each other.

Weeden reminded the Cowboys how quickly their college careers will disappear.

He's right.

Players spend so much time worrying about depth charts, NIL, statistics, the NFL and whatever comes next that it's easy to forget what's happening right now.

Weeden knows.

He experienced Oklahoma State football at its absolute peak.

And more than a decade later, what does he remember?

His teammates.

The stadium.

The atmosphere.

Winning together.

That's the part this new Oklahoma State roster has an opportunity to create for itself.

Brown's Message Was Almost Identical

Then a Cowboy from an entirely different generation essentially delivered the same lesson.

Unity.

Teamwork.

Enjoy working together.

Get the job done for the guy standing next to you.

Think about that.

College football is almost unrecognizable compared with Brown's era.

Transfer portals didn't exist.

NIL didn't exist.

The facilities weren't remotely comparable.

Even freshman eligibility worked differently.

Yet the fundamental message hasn't changed.

Football still requires 11 players trusting each other.

That's something no amount of modernization can replace.

This Matters More With 87 Newcomers

That's why I think Morris bringing former Cowboys around this particular team is so valuable.

This isn't a roster filled with players who have spent three or four years learning Oklahoma State traditions.

Morris has essentially assembled a new football team.

They need something connecting them.

The “Misfits” mantra can give this roster its own identity.

Former players like Weeden and Brown can show them the identity they're inheriting.

Those two ideas don't have to compete.

They can coexist.

Morris Isn't Trying to Erase the Past

This is becoming one of the things I appreciate most about Morris' approach.

New coaches sometimes arrive determined to prove everything will be different.

New culture.

New system.

New expectations.

And yes, Oklahoma State needed change.

But change doesn't require pretending nothing good happened before you arrived.

Morris has already shown respect for the program's history.

Now he's bringing the people who created that history directly into his locker room.

That's smart.

Take what worked.

Respect the people who built it.

Then add your own identity.

Imagine Boone Pickens Stadium Rolling Again

Weeden also gave the current Cowboys a preview of what awaits if they can get Oklahoma State football moving again.

He knows what Boone Pickens Stadium becomes when the Cowboys are winning.

He lived it.

When Oklahoma State won 12 games during his senior season, Stillwater became one of the most exciting places in college football.

This roster hasn't experienced that together yet.

That's the opportunity.

Bring the energy back.

Give fans something to believe in.

Get Boone Pickens Stadium rocking again.

Then let this new generation discover for itself what Weeden was talking about.

Final Thoughts

Eric Morris is trying to build something new at Oklahoma State.

He should.

That's why he was hired.

But building something new doesn't mean tearing down everything that came before it.

Brandon Weeden represents what Oklahoma State can become when everything comes together.

Terry Brown represents the generations of Cowboys who helped build the foundation long before that success arrived.

And the 2026 team?

They get to decide what comes next.

Eighty-seven newcomers don't share much Oklahoma State history yet.

So Morris is bringing that history to them.

The Cowboys are building a new identity.

The smartest thing Eric Morris can do is make sure his players understand the one they're inheriting first.

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