The Mean Green of North Texas has never enjoyed such a unique season. They set the show’s single-game and season-long attendance record, as Denton, TX shows up in droves to see something special brew in the air. North Texas generated its first 11-win season Friday night when it routed Temple 52-25, a style of winning that has become so routine for the nation’s No. 1 offense that it’s almost taken for granted.
But this season’s uniqueness took an entirely different form on Tuesday, Nov. 24, just three days before North Texas’ important regular-season home finale against Temple. Head coach Eric Morris officially accepted the vacancy at Oklahoma State, effectively concluding his three-year tenure in Denton. However, unlike most coaches who change jobs before the end of the year, Morris is determined to finish what he started and will remain North Texas’ head coach until the end of the season, an unusual circumstance not seen in the college football universe since Scott Frost coached UCF in the Peach Bowl, despite operating under Nebraska’s payroll.
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Morris explained why he wanted to make his position at Oklahoma State official now, rather than letting rumors lurk for the next few weeks.
“To get it off our backs,” Morris said. “I don’t want to coach games or players who believe in me and don’t know what’s going on. Whether that’s right, wrong or indifferent, I don’t know. You can attack me if you want, don’t attack our players because they’ve done a phenomenal job trying to block it out and stay committed to each other.”
Morris’ first stint as North Texas/Oklahoma State co-head coach involved defeating Temple. North Texas didn’t let the obvious distractions prevail and instead took care of business. The Mean Green posted their seventh 50-point game of the season and essentially secured the victory at halftime.
“I’m very proud of our kids, first and foremost,” Morris said. “This is a player’s game, always has been, always will be. Obviously, a lot of distractions this week, and really, that starts with me. I’m not ignorant enough to not realize that. We’ve had so many distractions throughout the year and for our coaches to continue to keep these kids on their toes for these moments and create history for this program, this team has been phenomenal. Our kids had one goal in mind today, and we came out and played at a high level. Our recipe for success “proved to be true today.”
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Fans noticed a certain Easter egg in Morris’ press conference the day he accepted the job, as he was left without a North Texas team for the first time all year. But even with the move official, the 40-year-old future head coach kept the orange and black on the shelf for now, representing a black and green North Texas hoodie with a white Mean Green visor.
“I told (athletic director) Jared Mosley when all this happened that I am very committed to this team and I am still fighting for the postseason,” Morris said. “There’s also a lot to play for next week. My commitment won’t change at all as far as preparing and preparing this team to go out there and potentially face a very good Tulane team. We’ll continue to win and see what happens and transpires. Hopefully it’s not a bowl game. Hopefully we go to the College Football Playoff and there’s a lot more ahead of this team.”
Morris understands any frustration or negative reaction from the fan base in taking another job, especially in the midst of the best season in North Texas history. As he reflected on his time in Denton, he left a message for the Mean Green faithful, grateful for the support that allowed North Texas to build to the level it is at today.
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“I get it,” Morris said. “To our fans, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting me, for supporting this team. Our home crowd was phenomenal. It just shows what a football program can do for a community with alignment from the top down. You look at our president and our athletic director believing what we could build here… And I sat in my office before this game, and it was hard for me to look at DATCU Stadium because these people mean a lot to me, Denton means a lot to me, and I’ll be around forever. grateful. And always grateful for every experience I have had here.”
He has one major regret throughout the entire process, which continues to eat away at him. Instead of breaking the news at a team meeting, North Texas players learned of Morris’ transfer to Oklahoma State through social media, rather than directly from the source.
“I’ve always believed in being transparent,” Morris said. “That’s how I was raised. That’s what my father taught me. That’s what my grandfather taught me. I preach that in these meetings all the time, and that’s how you tell the truth and build something special. To me, I thought I would have been a hypocrite, and unfortunately, as it all turned out, we called a team meeting for Tuesday afternoon and it hit the Internet a little early. And I apologize. I apologize to the team for not hearing it from me, and it’s something I’ll have. “I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life. I thought they handled it phenomenally, but it’s never fun to hear about it on your phone.”
As for why he accepted Oklahoma State, the former Texas Tech wide receiver cited his roots in the Big 12 and the Stillwater atmosphere he had grown so accustomed to success during his 18 consecutive winning seasons under Mike Gundy from 2006-23.
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“I grew up in the Big 12,” Morris said. “I got to see Coach Gundy build that thing, and I went there a lot. The atmosphere is electric. I don’t think I’ve ever won a game there as a player or a coach. That’s what made it intriguing to me.”
But for the remainder of the 2025 season, Morris will remain the head coach at North Texas. His Mean Green will take on Tulane on Friday night, and a win essentially clinches a spot in the College Football Playoff, which would have seemed an unthinkable accomplishment in North Texas just a year ago.
“I always try to stay away from situations because it’s about the kids,” Morris said. “I’ve had my moments myself playing college football and being there and competing with my brothers. For me, I love football, I love game planning, I love all those things, so staying in the routine with the guys that we’ve worked on all year game planning this week has been like it has been all year. Emotional for me, but now we’ve earned the right to go play next week.”