There will surely still be more head coaching jobs to come open across college football in the next week as the regular season wraps up, but the dominos are already tumbling on the hiring end of the coaching carousel.
Virginia Tech struck first last week in hiring former Penn State coach James Franklin, and now another Power 4 program has locked in its next head coach as well.
Oklahoma State, which fired long-time head coach Mike Gundy in September, announced Tuesday it has hired North Texas coach Eric Morris, landing one of the most intriguing coaches from the Group of Five level who was sure to get scooped up by a bigger program this cycle.
Morris took over a North Texas program coming off four straight non-winning seasons and one that hadn’t been nationally ranked in the AP poll since 1959. After finishes of 5-7 and 6-7 in his first two seasons, Morris showed his program-building ability this year in leading the Mean Green to a 10-1 start and back into the AP poll (No. 21 this week) while building quite a reputation as an offensive guru.
North Texas leads all FBS teams in scoring at 46.3 points per game and total offense at 503.3 yards per game, led by a former walk-on in quarterback Drew Mestemaker (FBS-best 315.4 passing yards per game).
Before building up that program, though, Morris had already made a name for himself as the head coach at FCS-level Incarnate Word from 2018-21, winning 10 games his last year there with future No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Cam Ward passing for a jaw-dropping 4,648 yards and 47 TDs. Morris then followed Ward to Washington State, becoming the offensive coordinator there for one season before taking the North Texas job.
(Morris has also been credited with getting Texas Tech to bring future Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 NFL draft pick Baker Mayfield in as a walk-on, and he was the offensive coordinator there during Patrick Mahomes run as QB of the Red Raiders.)
From developing Ward from the FCS level into a future No. 1 NFL draft pick and now turning an unrecruited walk-on in Mestemaker, who didn’t even start at QB for his own high school team, into the leading passer in college football, Morris’ credentials should have Oklahoma State fans excited.
Especially if Mestemaker follows him to Stillwater.
“Today begins the next era of Oklahoma State football,” Oklahoma State athletic director Chad Weiberg said in a statement. “Coach Morris has proven his ability to build and lead winning football programs. He has consistently identified, recruited, and developed some of the best players in college football.”
For now, Morris is finishing out the season at North Texas, which closes the regular season Friday vs. Temple and then will likely take on Tulane in the AAC championship game with the winner vying to be the Group of 5 representative in the College Football Playoff.
So Morris could be tied for several more weeks, but he is worth the wait for an Oklahoma State program that is at a nadir as likely the worst Power 4 team in college football this year. The Cowboys are 1-10 with their only win over UT Martin.
Oklahoma State fired Gundy, who was the second-longest-tenured active head coach at the time, after a 1-2 start that included a 69-3 loss to Oregon and then a humbling loss to Tulsa. Gundy was in his 21st season with the Cowboys, posting a remarkable record of 170-90 with eight 10-win seasons since 2010. He got the program ranked seventh or higher in the AP poll at times during nine different seasons, with a final No. 3 ranking in 2011 after a 12-1 season and Fiesta Bowl win and a No. 7 final ranking in 2021 (12-2) with anther Fiesta Bowl victory.
But Gundy struggled to adjust to the NIL era of college football, going 3-9 last year before the slow start this season. He was owed a $15 million buyout, per ESPN.
In announcing his firing, Weiberg acknowledged as much at that time, saying, “College football has changed drastically in the last few years, and the investment needed to compete at the highest level has never been more important. As we search for the next head coach of Cowboy Football, we are looking for someone who can lead our program in this new era.”
Morris hasn’t had to navigate the NIL/revenue sharing challenges of college football at the level he will now in the in Big 12, but managing that essential component of program building goes well beyond the head coach and is more about the support from boosters/donors and their desire to invest to the level necessary to build nationally competitive rosters.
That’s why this hire was so important — landing a coach that will inspire the fundraising needed to get Oklahoma State back to national relevance and the peaks Gundy delivered in a different era for the sport.
It’s hard to imagine the program could have done that much better than hiring a fast-rising head coach and proven QB guru who is already thriving in the same region Oklahoma State prioritizes in recruiting.