RUMORS! Eric Morris to Oklahoma State? Jared Mosley to Baylor? | UPDATED With On3 Story About Morris-To-OKST

We sort through some rumors and things

A book titled "RUMORS" that has an green and white eagle on the cover

We wrote this the morning of 11.25.25 and the afternoon of the same day Brett McMurphy reported that Okahoma State has hired Eric Morris as head coach, effective “after the season” which include the American Championship game and possible playoff.

Sources tell On3 that a deal has been signed between Morris and Oklahoma State. Morris will remain with North Texas through the end of the season, including the playoffs.

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The consequences of a bad season are that you get fired. The consequences of a good season are you get hired … or extended. Such is life. I don’t blame coaches for keeping one eye out on the coaching carousel because the fact is that only rare situations provide the kind of long-term security that people want. So you get security in the form of a large contract. A couple of million should tide you over through a fallow period, right? The other thing to consider is that the money isn’t great going up the ranks. Head coaches make good money but coordinators do not. Position coaches are cheap. Coaches look for money for their staffs but the incentives are to rise up the ranks in part for prestige but mostly so you can eat a little better.

Eric Morris played for Texas Tech but has coached for Houston, Washington State, Tech, Incarnate Word, and now North Texas. He is paid roughly $1.5MM for the job, and while he is in line for a big extension from the boosters and the University Oklahoma State is offering something in line with $5MM. That’s a lot nicer. Suddenly Stillwater, Oklahoma doesn’t look so boring. The real kick is the prestige of the Big 12 conference and the boost in resources. Oklahoma State — thanks to Mike Gundy — has had 20 years of success, and built and re-built facilities thanks to billionaire benefactor T.Boone Pickens for a large portion of that time.

North Texas has had no such benefactor — I don’t mean the program doesn’t have boosters, just none with the same kind of bank account. The tools are just much better. It is much easier to recruit a high caliber of player to Oklahoma State than to North Texas. This season aside, the history of footballing success in Stillwater is superior to that in Denton.

Eric Morris has had a great season (out of three) and in that three-year run has seen some sparsely attended games, some low numbers in donations, and just-recently saw a student fee turned down. I can see how he wouldn’t be swayed by the events of one season’s worth of success to stay and do it again. We have asked him to find a QB from the walk-on ranks. If he had $2MM to pay his QB before the season we would likely see Chandler Morris still running the show.

All that to say is that Oklahoma State looks like the likely place. He was reportedly in the running for the Arkansas job, but that looks to be Kane Wommack’s gig. It fits, also. Kane Wommack is a good defensive coordinator, and in his time as as head coach at South Alabama, he won ten games. The SEC has a lot of talent and you need a recruiter there, and someone to compete with the big budgets there.

Oklahoma State is a little-brother school to OU in the state. The Big 12 is not what it once was, and the departure of Texas and OU — and a long time ago, A&M — has created a void. You can see the vision where Baylor, Tech, and OSU are the tops of the league. Tech and OSU can be the Texas-OU of what is left. The pressure is lower. The funds are there. I can see the vision, for Morris. Gundy left a legacy of offensive football, with lots of wins. He couldn’t adapt as quickly to the new college football landscape but Morris has taken to it quickly and easily. He will install a GM, budget the roster and go about installing his offense. He likely will try to bring along Cassity with the promise of a prestige jump and a raise.

Morris’ success has pushed him forward. We’ve seen some plane-tracking suggesting there was some going back-and-forth there. It has not affected the program — wins have still been tallied — but the situation is such that the other options don’t look so nice: Colin Klein, Alex Golesh, Zac Robinson.

When NT was considering coaches, I was bullish on Morris because I liked what he did at Incarnate Word — thinking he did more with less. NT has more, but still less than other programs. Oklahoma State has more than NT, and less than others. I think it fits.

Who then, does NT hire? Well that depends on who is doing the hiring. Morris was once rumored to Baylor but the AD is now gone and the rumors suggest …. Jared Mosley is one of the candidates for the job.

North Texas is in a good spot. The program has improved in the 20 or so years since Darrell Dickey was winning Sun Belt titles. The stadium is good, the facilities are improved, the organization of the recruiting and athletic staff has been modernized.

There is a ways to go to get to even Memphis or USF levels, and well that kind of work is tough. I can see Mosley taking the gig and leaving North Texas with a double vacancy to fill.

The question becomes — when will we learn the results of all of this? Oklahoma State wants to make a hire this week, after the final game. That’s Saturday vs Iowa State. North Texas plays Temple at home on Friday. We could see a possible announcement, and Eric Morris either saying “I will coach until the end of the season” or stepping down and letting the staff carry the team. The problem there is that it severely hinders the program. Morris calls the plays. Jordan Davis can probably do that, but the whole system is a machine working amazingly well. Still, expect Oklahoma State to announce their decision this week.

Jared Mosley has been working on an extension, but absent a lottery win, the numbers cannot compete with Big 12 dollars. The commitment from the boosters —reported by Vito— should help recruit the next coach here. Much like Oklahoma State, there should be no shortage of interest from coaches within “our” range. Eric Morris has the offense humming, but there are plenty of guys out there moving the ball up and down the field. Winning is the most important thing. Cignetti, Keeler, Sumrall, and the rest came up winning at smaller programs and have kept doing it at new spots. There will be candidates.

Baylor has started an “aggressive” search but there’s no telling. The new North Texas head coach is likely to be made by Jared Mosley. The Eric Morris era was always going to be thus. He was leaving because he couldn’t win (defense) or because he was winning too much. It would have been great to get at least one trophy in the cabinet before this happened (shout-out to Grant McCasland) but the chance still remains.

Remember to enjoy it, while we have it folks! It could be worse: we could be Ole Miss!