Eric Morris said he shot an armadillo in his yard at about 2:30 a.m. after the animal had been tearing up his lawn and flower beds. The first-year Oklahoma State coach described the incident on Tuesday, Aug. 18, as fall camp questions kept circling back to the bigger work in front of him.
“My brain's going constantly,” he said, adding, “I don't sleep very well. I've had a couple armadillo problems tearing up my lawn.” A few days earlier, he said, “A couple days ago I just popped up at 2:30 (a.m.) because I couldn't sleep about something and I thought it was a great opportunity to go outside, and luckily I found him.”
Oklahoma State and the yard
Morris said, “It was my first experience with an armadillo. He was crushing my yard and my flower beds just digging everything up.” He said he texted his neighbors to apologize for the gun shot, a small but telling step that shows how quickly a private nuisance can spill outward when it happens before dawn.
He also said, “I am in the country so it wasn't illegal.” The complication is that the Oklahoma State website says shooting is very effective but limited by local ordinances within city limits, so the legality turns on where the yard sits rather than on the animal itself.
85 new players
Oklahoma State has 85 new players this season, including 60 brought in via the transfer portal. Morris also brought Drew Mestemaker, Caleb Hawkins and Wyatt Young from North Texas, a roster reshuffle that gives the armadillo story a sharper edge: he is still learning the rhythms of a new job while dealing with the ordinary disruptions that come with a new house and a new season.
For a first-year coach, that is the real takeaway. Morris can dispatch one armadillo at 2:30 a.m., but the larger task is keeping his head clear while his brain keeps racing through what Oklahoma State has and what still needs to be built.
Stillwater at 2:30 a.m.
The unresolved issue is simple: Whether Morris was inside city limits when he shot the armadillo is not answered. That leaves the cleanest reading of the episode as a boundary case, not a broad rule for anyone else trying to handle a similar problem around Stillwater.
