Meacham, players preview road contest at UCF

Saturday, November 22

Orlando, FL

3 p.m. CT

Oklahoma State University

UCF

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November 17, 2025 | Cowboy Football

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State interim head coach Doug Meacham and several players met with the media ahead of Saturday's road contest at UCF. Some of their comments:

Oklahoma State Interim Head Coach Doug Meacham

On Clint Bowen and defensive improvements:
"What Clint Bowen has done, the last three games, they've given up 323 yards a game. In the last four or five games, they consistently decreased the amount of yardage our opponent has gotten five weeks in a row. They have gotten better with a not-so-deep group of guys. You look at guys like Parker Robertson. Who wanted him? No one. That guy has a pick, led the team tackles, had a sack or something, tackle for loss. He embodies what fans really love about football, and I'm super excited to see a great kid have good things happen to him that no one gave a second thought to coming out of high school. To come from a different state, pay out-of-state tuition at the time. Holy crap… Kenneth Harris, I know he gave up a couple, but they targeted him a lot. He did well on some of the deep balls, and he made some tackles. [Brian] McCoy has always been a constant, solid player in the middle. I'm just really proud of what they've done, and just moving forward, I think they'll probably end up doing it again. My hats off to those guys. I'm really pleased with without Clint Bowen is taking the reins and doing what they've done."

On defensive line coach Ryan Osborn:
"He gets after it, and it's not a scream fest, it's constructive criticism, and it's a lot of work. The energy level that guy has is hard to maintain, every day, at every practice, in every drill. He's from Boston, and I think a lot of those people just kind of like that, but he's a really good football coach. He's done a really good job in that unit, and they love him, too. Players can sniff out things a lot quicker and a lot easier than you think. They are more intuitive to what's going on than you think they are. They know [Coach Osborn] is straining every second of the day trying to find ways to make them better."

On Gavin Freeman:
"He has ability, ball skills, is fearless and makes plays. When his number's called, he makes it happen. Which means you should probably call his number a little more. Now, I don't know if he needs to be throwing more passes, but you can't say enough good things about him. He's like that practice; he's the guy with grass stains all over his uniform at practice, laying out for everything at practice. He's a great kid, I'm glad he's on our team, and he kind of embodies what our fan base looks to have on their ball team. I love him. He's done great and I would say, probably most productive one we have to this point."

On having players with good character:
"We may have 60 guys on this team right now. I think a lot of people are giving us credit as coaches, and trust me, we'll take some of it, but at the same time, if we didn't recruit the type of guys that we have, if we didn't dive deep into what kind of person they are, we'd probably be down to about 50 guys. So, we did a good job picking the right guys for the most part. So, it means a lot to coach guys that it means something too. That bottom line is you don't want to fail or mess up or do the wrong thing, because you're worried about what your teammates might think. That's what you're after."

On UCF head coach Scott Frost:
"Scott, obviously, you know his history at Nebraska and all that stuff. I was at the Broyles Award finals, and he was one of them (the finalists). I got to know him, and he looks like this stoic, super quiet guy, but he's actually funny as hell. He's got that dry sense of humor, and he's really smart, and he's really a good guy. He's not going to be the life of the party, but when he does talk, it's fun. He's fun to be around, I like him."

On UCF:
"They've had some close games, and they have some good athletes. I know they've maybe had some ups and downs at quarterback. I was watching them a week ago and the starter wasn't doing much, so they put in some other guy that I didn't know a ton about. He seemed to kind of ignite them a bit, then he went down there and threw a pick at the very end. They're just like all of us, I mean all of us have issues, we all have things we're lacking, or we all have depth problems this time of year. I think they've run into a lot of the same stuff we've run into. They're close in a lot of games. When you look at their stat lines, they're not bad. But their outcomes haven't been great. It's going to be a good game, though."

On Armstrong Nnodim:
"I want him to go be a leader of a business or organization, but he looks like he could be a lifetime bouncer with the way he's built. He's a scary dude, and he is jacked up. I wouldn't want any piece of that guy. But he's a great kid, he's another one like (Parker) Robertson or (Gavin) Freeman, he always has a smile on his face, he's always energetic, always high-fiving. He's a pleasure to coach. You don't have to move him along; he's already going. He's a great kid, and he is really strong."

On Zane Flores' improvement since returning from injury:
"Yeah, he's getting it out quicker. As you keep getting reps and reps and reps, you just keep getting better, and the game slows down for you, and you can make determinations on where you're going to throw the ball a lot quicker, too. He's done a better job of that for sure. As a quarterback, you have certain guys you're going to feel confident in. (Gavin) Freeman is one of those guys, (Terrill) Davis is working his way into that, too. Some of those guys can help expedite your read by just cutting loose and reading the one or two and throwing to that guy based on the particular coverage. Both of the sacks were shot passes that take a while to set up, so that was just unfortunate that we drove all the way down, and it happened in the red zone. We would've liked to at least get a field goal out of it."

Defensive lineman Armstrong Nnodim

On defensive line coach Ryan Osborn:
"He always brings out the best in me and everybody in the room, even the coaches, too. He brings the energy. He knows how to balance the humor with the players and also turn on the football. He's really a football fanatic, too. He has a lot of knowledge on it. He taught me a lot about football. He really cares about the guys in the room."

On the relationship he has made with his teammates:
"Relationships are always the best thing in life, keeping relationships with everybody. This team always wants to get wins and everything, but sometimes it doesn't happen in our favor, but I value relationships, I value wins, I value you, everything."

On the defense against Kansas State:
"I want to give a shout-out to Parker Robertson and Brandon Rawls; they had a phenomenal game. With them having a phenomenal game, the defense just feeds off their energy. Also, the D-linemen playing together for the brotherhood, coaches on the sideline encouraging one another, so it's a blessed feeling to be a part of this defense, no matter what happens."

Tight end Grayson Brousseau

On Gavin Freeman:
"Gavin Freeman, since I've been here, has been outstanding. You can watch it all the way back to summer ball, when it really doesn't truly matter that much. Gavin is giving 110% every play. It's just who he is, the character about him. He's a great player, he plays so hard, and you really respect that out of the guy. The same thing goes for Parker [Robertson], he shows up every day and works hard, and you can see it on the field. It's consistency, that's what makes those guys special."

On his message to the seniors:
"Thank you. You can't have any emotion towards the seniors except for gratitude. Guys like Quinton [Stewart] are setting me up so well and have taught me everything that I know here, and you can't have any feelings towards them except for gratitude, and it's sad that they're leaving soon. That's my message, thank you guys."

On if he's thought about his future:
"You can't think too far ahead. I'm just taking it one day at a time and really trying to get better at football each day, and more importantly, get better as a human being each day. That's how I've been raised, just do the next right thing and we'll go from there."

Offensive lineman Grant Seagren

On his offensive line coaches:
"Those guys come ready every day to plan and to get better and win every single day. They do what they can to put us in a position to win."

On the growth within the offensive line room:
"It's always encouraging to see guys continue to grow and improve. There's been a lot of injuries, and there's been a lot of guys who've played that wouldn't have played most years, so they can take pride in the fact that they're stepping up. What are big moments for them now won't seem so big anymore, now that they've had that experience."

On shared goals with teammate Nuku Mafi:
"The goal for Nuku and me is to someday be the best pair of tackles in the country; that's what we talk about all the time. Obviously, we're not there yet, and there are always things to grow and improve on, but it's just like setting the bar for where we want to get. And now we can start working backwards, like 'OK, what do we have to do this week to get better for these guys so we can get one step closer to our goal every day?"

On teammate Bob Schick's impact on the offensive line:
"It's really big. When we all get in there and watch film, Bob's always pushing us. Just having the experience that Bob does playing college football, we've just learned a lot from him. You can take a lot of the processes that he does to take care of himself; Bob's always in the training room getting something worked on so he can be ready to go on Saturdays. So, we're just learning how Bob does this every week, how he gets prepared as a player that's had success, and how we can replicate that for ourselves."

Linebacker Ike Esonwune

On how he has seen the season:
"A lot of ups and downs. It's all about sticking strong, knowing that we have to face adversity. We're here to do one job, and that's win. We're in the business of winning, like Meach always says. We have to make sure we're prepared to do that, with the practices that we have and with the energy that we're supposed to have, every practice with that mindset."

On his involvement in the game:
"My involvement in the game is just trying to be the best I can be for the team, not just for me. Again, we're all going through it, not just me personally, but everybody else is going through this as well. We might be one of the teams that might not be looking the best, but on the inside, a lot of people don't know what is going on."

On the influence Brandon Rawls and Bryan McCoy have had on him:
"They've been a big improvement for me, they really helped. Even coming in this spring, they always just kept me steady. I felt like they improved me more physically. Just being there and knowing that, though you made a mistake, though you might be wrong, make sure you can fix the next, because a repeated mistake is a problem. You could make mistakes, but if you continue to repeat the same mistake over and over, that's when it gets bad. They helped me get into studying film."

On the defense's performance against Kansas State:
"It was amazing. We had about two weeks to prepare for this team, so everybody knew what they were doing. We knew what they wanted to do, so shutting down their run was the first step, and then seeing what they wanted in situational third downs, seeing if we could take those away. So that's what we did."

On facing adversity this season:
"I feel like that's what football is all about, both wins and losses. I was told as a kid, you got to take a thousand losses before you're going to win. Knowing that, we stay strong, we stay together, it's going to help us continue to perform."

On the overall defense this weekend:
"We all have our days, we all have our ups and downs. I feel like we played great as a defense. Sometimes teams have better schemes than us, sometimes we have to be ready to prepare for whatever happens."