Eric Morris Minimizes Oklahoma State Catching Oregon’s Pre-Snap Tells

While Oklahoma State’s defense has received praise this week for stopping Oregon, it hasn’t stopped the conversation about how they did it.

Oklahoma State's Jaleel Johnson. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

For the past few days, the college football world has had a hard time not talking about Oklahoma State, Oregon and offensive tells.

After Saturday’s 39-31 win over Oregon, Oklahoma State linebacker Tate Romney admitted that the defense had picked up on specific tells in run and pass situations when it came to Ducks quarterback Dante Moore. He only threw for 191 yards and two touchdowns in the loss. The Cowboys sacked him four times.

Breaking down film and finding tendencies is a way of life in college sports. This is not a Connor Stallions situation. The Cowboys simply broke down film, found tendencies that led to adjustments to their scheme and executed it. The last part is why head coach Eric Morris doesn’t think the “tells” are that big a deal.

“I don't think that had a huge influence in the in the game,” Morris said. “I think we have some really smart linebackers that study a lot of things right now, and then obviously our coaches are doing that, too.”

But he gets why the conversation continues. Morris had an appearance on CBS Sports Network earlier this week and he was asked about the tells, as he was during his Tuesday press conference with local media. His take? It’s a paranoid world and we’re all living in it.

The ‘Coaching Paranoia’ that Everyone Deals With

Oklahoma State Head Coach Eric Morris tells @JonesN4mo how they identified Dante Moore tipping run plays and pass plays.#ICF pic.twitter.com/f71kowyAZG

— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) September 16, 2026

Morriss said he’s no different than any other coach — he’s worried he’s going to give stuff away that could hurt his team.

“College football coaches in general are paranoid,” Morris said. “Like, ‘Are they stealing our signals? Are we showing this? Are we showing that?’ Like, at the end of the day, it's about us going out and executing our job, one way or another. There’s so many little things to be paranoid about, changing signals and all the different ways you can do stuff. I think most college coaches live in a paranoid world, no matter what.”

There's no question that picking up on tendencies helped Oklahoma State snap its 21-game losing streak against FBS opponents. There's also no question that picking up on tendencies help the Cowboys limit Oregon to just 281 total yards and 12 first downs.

There's also no question that Oklahoma State will do the same thing this week as it breaks down tape from Murray State, which is its next opponent on Saturday at Boone Pickens stadium. Every team across the country is looking for any edge it can find, and tape is sometimes the best way to pick up on tendencies.

On the other side, Oregon is likely to learn from this and work to minimize its tendencies on offense when it faces Portland State this week.

The constant state of coaching paranoia requires constant adjustment.