Oklahoma State is hiring a 40-year-old man to revamp after going 1-10. The Cowboys have spent two straight seasons wandering the conference desert at 0-17, and now they’re betting the keys to the man who’s turned North Texas into a 10-2 team this season. For weeks, the smoke pointed one way to Eric Morris. Now the smoke is cleared. 

“SOURCE: Oklahoma State is targeting North Texas head coach Eric Morris to be its next head coach, @TheAthletic has learned,” Chris Vannini reported on X on November 25. “North Texas is 10-1 this year, and Morris would finish the rest of the season with the Mean Green, including a potential conference title and CFP bid.”

The interesting part is this isn’t just a hire. It’s a historic poach Oklahoma State has never pulled off before.

For the first time ever, Oklahoma State is hiring a sitting FBS head coach. Eric Morris is 21-15 at UNT and has the No. 1 offense in college football. His team is averaging 503.3 yards per game, 46.3 points per game, six 50-point games, and is the only FBS team to score 30+ in every game. He’s also the QB whisperer behind big names including Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech, Cam Ward at Incarnate Word, John Mateer at Washington State, and now Drew Mestemaker, college football’s unlikeliest star. And that QB whispering might matter a whole lot in Stillwater very, very soon.

Eric Morris’ fingerprints stretch everywhere. Mike Leach’s Air Raid tree, Kliff Kingsbury’s Texas Tech era, resurrecting Incarnate Word into a top-15 FCS menace, then flipping North Texas into a scoring machine despite a $2M roster budget, roughly half of what AAC rivals spend. Oklahoma State wanted Texas ties and offensive firepower and their new hire delivered both on a silver platter.

“Eric informed me earlier today that he has accepted the head coaching position at Oklahoma State University,” UNT athletic director Jared Mosley released a statement confirming the move. “He took over at one of the most chaotic times in college athletics and brought great success on the field including two bowl-eligible seasons and the program’s first national ranking in over six decades… Coach Morris has committed to leading our team through the remainder of the season as we look to finish this year strong. We wish Eric, Maggie, and the entire Morris family nothing but the very best at Oklahoma State.”

And that statement sets the stage for what OSU is really gaining.

Eric Morris’ coaching change could lead to a player exodus 

Oklahoma State may get more than Eric Morris alone. Shortly after the news leaked, North Texas players were abruptly summoned to a team meeting. Multiple program sources expect their coach not only to accept the OSU job, but to bring several Mean Green players with him. And the biggest name in that group might rewrite Oklahoma State’s future overnight.

Drew Mestemaker, a 6-foot-4 redshirt freshman who never started a varsity game in high school, now leads the nation in passing with 3,469 yards, 26 touchdowns, and a 70% completion rate. He’s thrown for 200+ in every game, including 608 yards against Charlotte and 469 last week vs. Rice. And yeah, that QB might be entering the portal. And he’s not the only one Eric Morris could flip.

Star RB Caleb Hawkins, an Oklahoma native, is a name insiders expect OSU to chase. If DC Skyler Cassity joins Eric Morris, the Cowboys might pull off the rarest thing in college football which is a coaching hire that imports a competitive roster overnight. And suddenly, the Big 12 outlook changes.

Oklahoma State needed a reset. Instead, they might be getting a reboot with a new coach, new system, new stars, and a recruiting pipeline straight from Texas. The path to winning the new-look Big 12 is wide open. And if Eric Morris brings half of what he built at North Texas, the Cowboys may have just jumped from crisis to contender in one hiring cycle.