STILLWATER — Doug Meacham has certainly learned things this season.
The Oklahoma State football interim coach was thrust into his role after the late-September firing of Mike Gundy. Meacham went from being an offensive coordinator to a first-time head coach as well.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAlthough he and OSU (1-11, 0-9 Big 12) didn’t earn the wins to show their learned lessons, he’s looking forward to what the future holds.
“Who knows what the future holds? We’ll see how it goes,” Meacham said after the Cowboys’ 20-13 loss to Iowa State on Saturday. “Just appreciate Chad Weiberg giving me the opportunity to do it.”
With North Texas coach Eric Morris set to become the Cowboys’ next leading man, the staff’s future is unclear. However, if Morris wants to keep Meacham, the former OSU offensive lineman, on staff, he would welcome it.
More: Wins evaded Oklahoma State football, but effort never faded in 1-11 season
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“Oh, absolutely, yeah,” Meacham said when asked if he’d like to stay. “One of the biggest things that can bring a guy down is not to be wanted. You know what I mean? You can work hard on the other things, (but) if you’re not wanted, it just makes you feel bad every day.
“But if they want me to stay here, man, I’d love to, but I’m not trying to position myself or promote myself for it. We’ll see how it goes. If it happens that way, great; if it don’t, then I’ll be fine. I’ll move on, and that’s what we do as coaches. We find the next one.”
Meacham is a fan of Morris — who OSU announced as its next coach Tuesday — and how his teams play. In fact, Meacham said he’s cut UNT’s film “every week for the last two years.” The two also occasionally talk about football, Meacham said.
Although he wasn’t trying to promote himself, Meacham certainly gave interim defensive coordinator Clint Bowen a shoutout postgame.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“That guy is all business, and he is a hell of a football coach,” Meacham said. “And if I’m Eric Morris, I might want to call him pretty quick, because somebody’s gonna scoop him up. He did a fabulous job. If you look at their numbers, the last five, six, seven games, once they kind of got their system in place — that’s winning defense. And without a ton of depth.
“My hat's off to him; he did a great job, and I’m kind of cheering for him professionally. I think he’ll have a ton of opportunities.”
The last three games, in particular, the Cowboy defense found its stride, holding opponents (Kansas State, UCF and Iowa State) to 14.7 points per game.
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Oklahoma State interim head coach Doug Meacham watches a play in the first half of the college football game between the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Iowa State Cyclones at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday Nov. 29, 2025.Bowen, too, said he’d love to return.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“Oh, yeah. I love this place,” he said. “… I haven’t been a ton of places in the college football world, but I don’t know how it gets much better than this.”
He also recognized the business of the sport — “not a fairy-tale world,” he called it — but spoke highly of how Meacham did in his return to his alma mater.
“You go and look at the scores; you go and look at your alma mater’s score,” Bowen said. “You may not look at 120 other scores, but you check your own. And this is the place he checks the score for.”
When it comes to this season, Meacham reflected on a memory that will stick out — halftime at UCF. The Cowboys led 14-0 before eventually losing 17-14. But for a few minutes, he said, the players and staff felt what they deserved.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementA winning feeling.
Although the Cowboys didn’t feel that after 60 minutes of football under Meacham, his care for the players was always evident. It’s why he wants to remain on staff; why he’d check the score if he wasn’t retained, to use Bowen’s analogy.
It’s why he’ll have less wall space, too.
“Hopefully, those guys coming back will learn some lessons from what they went through this year; I know I certainly have, and everyone else has as well,” Meacham said. “And I wish everyone luck.
“We took a big team photo in the hotel today that I’ll probably have on my wall, just to remind me how special all these guys were.”
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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Doug Meacham would 'love to' be on Oklahoma State football staff
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