It turns out that dealing with a head coach taking another job isn’t as big of an issue for others as it is for Mississippi during this convoluted coaching carousel.
North Texas head coach Eric Morris has been hired in the same role at Oklahoma State, Sports Illustrated confirmed Tuesday. Crucially, Morris will remain with the Mean Green through the conclusion of their season. Morris’s current team is one of the favorites to reach the American conference championship game going into the last weekend of the regular season and is still aiming to make the College Football Playoff should they win ahead of Selection Sunday.
So, what are the Cowboys getting in the veteran head coach?
What it means for Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State has benefited from needing to do just two coaching searches in the past quarter century and did not have much trouble finding a quality replacement for longtime stalwart Mike Gundy. The school prioritized looking for an experienced head coach on the young side who had a high degree of acumen on the offensive side of the ball, and that’s just what they’ve landed in Morris.
The 40-year-old has already been a head coach seven seasons and is highly regarded for being one of the best quarterback whisperers around after recruiting and coaching the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Cam Ward, John Mateer and the FBS leading passer in 2025, Drew Mestemaker. Morris is 21–15 overall and has done an excellent job in Denton, Texas, turning around a North Texas program that always had plenty of potential but never could tap into it consistently. The Mean Green are 10–1 this season and on the doorstep of the playoff after turning into one of the teams atop the American that is anything but easy to navigate.
Naturally, the ability to throw the ball around, put up points and energize the fan base was attractive for Oklahoma State in hiring Morris, but his ability to find undervalued talent should really resonate in a place like Stillwater, Okla. There will be a lot of parallels made to his predecessor Gundy in terms of career trajectory and similar background, but Morris is going to be far better to deal with from the administration standpoint while also getting Cowboys fans on board quickly given his track record.
Also don’t discount what this means for Oklahoma State in terms of potentially flipping the roster quickly from the current state of affairs amid a lost season. Mestemaker is a prime candidate to enter the transfer portal and follow Morris north of the Red River, and North Texas star tailback Caleb Hawkins is an Oklahoma native. If defensive coordinator Skyler Cassity also joins the exodus, then the Cowboys may have run a textbook coaching search in terms of landing a perfect long-term fit that also imports the bulk of a roster that is pretty successful in its own right.
Why it’s a win for Eric Morris
Morris figured to be one of the hottest names in the coaching carousel based on his work this year at North Texas, but he’s been a rising name in the industry pretty much since his days as a player under Mike Leach at Texas Tech. He’s been around some of the best play-callers in the country and has his own version of the Air Raid that is highly adaptable which should translate well at a place that typically has won big when it’s been able to put up points in a hurry.
While Morris was in the mix for several other open jobs, like at Arkansas, landing in Stillwater makes plenty of sense. It has great facilities, easy access to talent in the state of Texas plus a league that is very winnable in the Big 12. If you’re going to move up to the Power 4, it’s hard to overlook the path that Oklahoma State offers.
Final Grade: A
He’s not going to be Gundy 2.0, but Oklahoma State checks off all the boxes in landing a proven head coach who can win in tough places and has plenty of connections to the talent-rich state to the south. Hard to argue with either side given how perfect a match this looks to be on paper.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Grading Eric Morris to Oklahoma State: Why Cowboys Found Perfect Post–Mike Gundy Fit.
