Eric Morris said he shot an armadillo in his yard at about 2:30 a.m. after the animal tore up his flower beds, a strange middle-of-the-night moment that fit the first-year Oklahoma State coach’s wider admission that he has not been sleeping well.
He said he had been up because his mind would not shut off with the college football season quickly approaching. Morris said he texted his neighbors afterward to apologize for the gun shot, then explained that he got rid of the armadillo because he was awake and looking at a problem that had already hit his lawn more than once.
Morris said he had dealt with a couple of armadillo problems before that night, and this one was bad enough to wake him into action. He described the animal as crushing his yard and flower beds while digging everything up, then said he found it around 2:30 a.m. after deciding, in his words, that it was a good time to go outside. That makes the incident less a random anecdote than a snapshot of how little quiet he has found since taking over a program that is still taking shape.
There is also a sharper edge to the story than the one Morris told about being out in the country. He said it was not illegal because he was outside the city, but the Oklahoma State landing page on armadillos says shooting can be effective while still being limited by local ordinances within city limits. That gap matters because the rules change depending on where the animal is found, and the coach’s own explanation is doing more work than his setting alone.
Morris’s remarks also offered a window into how crowded his head has become as he starts his first season at Oklahoma State. He said 85 new players are on the roster, including 60 who arrived through the transfer portal, and said his thoughts keep racing over what the team is doing well and what still needs to be built. He also brought Drew Mestemaker, Caleb Hawkins and Wyatt Young with him from North Texas, part of the turnover that makes every day feel a little less settled.
What remains unclear is whether the armadillo was a one-off nuisance or the start of a longer problem for Morris in Stillwater. For now, he has answered the immediate one with a late-night shot, a text to the neighbors and a coach’s weary shrug, but the bigger story is that he is beginning a season while already sounding like someone who is sleeping far less than he wants.
