STILLWATER — Da’Wain Lofton was a junior in high school the first time he met Doug Meacham.
A star receiver at North Side High School in Fort Worth, Texas, Lofton had been invited to a camp at TCU, where Meacham had just returned for a second stint, this time coaching receivers.
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“They ended up offering me about a year later,” said Lofton, now a redshirt senior receiver at Oklahoma State. “Took a couple visits up there, got to talk to Meacham and a couple other coaches there at the time.”
Lofton chose to sign with Virginia Tech rather than the hometown Horned Frogs, yet here he is, five years later, playing for Meacham after all.
And Lofton, like so many of his teammates at Oklahoma State, is excited by the new offensive style Meacham brought to Cowboy country.
“We throw the ball,” Lofton said with a smile that just kept growing. “We throw the ball almost every play and that’s a receiver’s dream. Hopefully during the season, a lot of teams give us those one-on-one matchups and we go make those plays.”
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Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Doug Meacham speaks during a press conference at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater Okla., on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025.
While Meacham’s offense has generated excitement, his personality has been key to blending his schemes with both returning and incoming players.
“He’s cool. He’s funny,” redshirt junior receiver Gavin Freeman said. “Yeah, I love Coach Meach. How he works and how he wants to compete.”
Meacham approaches football with a stringent focus on detail and structure, wrapped in the warm hug of a Matthew McConaughey movie character.
“I feel like his coaching style is loose,” Lofton said. “He can be out there loose. It just makes the player feel more comfortable and actually be able to show off his creativity.”
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Meacham, of course, was an offensive lineman at OSU in the late 1980s and began his coaching career at the junior-college level. He worked his way back to his alma mater as the tight ends coach when Mike Gundy got the head job in 2005.
After eight seasons, he ventured off, serving as the offensive coordinator at Houston, Kansas and TCU twice. But now he’s back, ready to rebuild Gundy’s offense with the Air Raid influence Meacham gained throughout his travels.
“Meach, oh my gosh, he’s the guy. He’s cool,” running back Trent Howland said. “I like the offense that he’s bringing in, and I like the enthusiasm that he brings.
“When we’re doing walk-throughs, we mess up a play, he’s not, ‘All right, move to the next one.’ He wants to make sure that we’re understanding our offense and that we’re executing it to the highest level that we can. And he stays on top of us. He’s going to make sure that we know what we’re doing when we get out there on the field.”
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Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Doug Meacham speaks during a press conference at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater Okla., on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025.
Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at swright@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @ScottWrightOK. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Why Oklahoma State football players are excited about Doug Meacham
