Oklahoma State announced it is hiring North Texas head coach Eric Morris to fill its vacancy.
Morris is 21-15 at North Texas, including a 10-1 start to this season, and the Mean Green would make the American Conference championship game with a win against Temple on Saturday. Morris plans to coach North Texas through the rest of its season, including any potential College Football Playoff bid.
The 40-year-old Morris has helped develop several star quarterbacks in his career, including Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech, Cam Ward at Incarnate Word and Washington State, John Mateer at Washington State and now Drew Mestemaker at North Texas.
The Mean Green have scored at least 50 points in six of 11 games this year and lead the nation with 46.3 points per game.
North Texas has found itself tied atop the American despite a roster budget of just around $2 million, as The Athletic has reported. Some teams in the conference have double that amount.
The Texas native Morris played at Texas Tech under Mike Leach from 2004 to ’08. He rejoined Leach’s first Washington State staff in 2012, before going back to Texas Tech under Kliff Kingsbury from 2013 to 2017.
He became FCS Incarnate Word’s head coach in 2018 and turned it into a top-15 program before spending one year as Washington State’s offensive coordinator, then taking over at North Texas.
Morris was also in the mix in coaching searches at Arkansas, UCLA and others. Oklahoma State was expected to target coaches with Texas ties in replacing Mike Gundy. With those ties and an explosive offense, Morris checked off those boxes.
Mestemaker is expected to receive many high-money offers if he enters the transfer portal, and with Morris now heading to OK State, the Cowboys could also be a team to watch.
Potential names to watch for the North Texas opening could include Clemson offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, Texas State head coach GJ Kinne, Oregon running back coach Ra’Shaad Samples, TCU offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, Baylor offensive coordinator Jake Spavital, Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson, current defensive coordinator Skyler Cassity and current special teams coordinator Drew Svoboda.
