How Eric Morris’ 2025 North Texas Team Stacks Up to OSU’s Best Offenses

Oklahoma State has a new head football coach, so what do we do now?

We squint our eyes at the stat sheet and grasp for abstract associations to project onto next year, of course. Fortunately, Eric Morris has a pretty good North Texas team, so we don’t have to squint too hard.

10-1 heading into their season finale and have scored over 50 points in six games and in four of their last five. That sentence alone is enough to sell most OSU fans, but why not continue?

Let’s take a look at the Mean Green’s potent offense and how it compares to some of the best that Oklahoma State has produced. We’ll compare UNT’s current season to the two most potent offenses (statistically speaking and in the modern era) to ever originate in Stillwater.

Here are some of the more important numbers. I’m using per-game averages since UNT is not done playing football this season.

A couple of things that occurred to me.

The two OSU squads have the edge in total offense per game but not necessarily points. This could have to do with offenses adjusting for style and efficiency, but probably also has a lot to do with the kickoff touchback rule that went into effect in 2018.

Morris is known for passing but this Mean Grean squad is more balanced. Again, this can be partly chalked up to style nuances since the Air Raid days, but it adds credence to Morris’ offensive expertise.

Points Per Drive

BCS Toys, AKA the nerdist’s niche for college football analytics, tracks points per drive against FBS opponents, adjusted for non-garbage time and removing end-of half drives. Basically, it’s a more accurate view of how potent and efficient a team is with the ball in its hands.

The Mean Green has a decided edge over both Cowboy squad scoring an adjusted 3.93 points per drive, currently leading the FBS. For reference, UNT ranked 31st at 2.62 ppd last season and in his first year in 2023 his team ranked 23rd at 2.73.

In 2017, the Mason Rudolph-led, 10-win Cowboys ranked second nationally scoring 3.45 ppd. In 2011, the grand standard of OSU offenses ranked sixth at 3.41 ppd. Other honorable mentions were the 2010 Cowboys (13th/2.94 ppd), 2008 (9th/3.14 ppd) and 2012 (9th/3.03 ppd).

Where UNT Sits in 2025

North Texas leads the FBS in scoring and total offense and is second in passing offense. For reference, OSU is 134th, 129th and 118th, respectively in those categories. And Morris is doing that with the budget and recruiting reach of what was a mid-tier American Athletic school when he arrived.

According to Pro Football Focus, UNT ranks eighth overall with a 93.0 rating. The Mean Green currently rank 3rd in offensive rating (91.5), T-2nd in passing (90.4) and 3rd in rushing (92.7).

There’s no accurate way to way to compare teams from different eras, and I’m not implying that this North Texas team doesn’t get lapped by either Weeden-to-Blackmon or Rudolph-to-Washington. But I am pointing out just how impressive a job Morris has done at a place like UNT and how exciting it might look to see how that translates at a place like OSU.