Chad Weiberg Says Morris ‘Burning the Midnight Oil’ as He Pulls Double Duty Between OSU and UNT

The Tuesday before the final week of the regular season felt like a surprising time for a sitting coach to be announced as taking another job.

But, as detailed by Oklahoma State athletic director Chad Weiberg in a chat with Robert Allen on the radio Wednesday morning, it was Eric Morris’ call to make the early announcement and get out in front of any rumors that could linger throughout his remaining days in Denton.

“It becomes very difficult, especially in this day and age to keep it quiet,” Weiberg told RA. “And once it became pretty evident that it was picking up some significant steam nationally, as well as locally, Coach Morris just made the decision that, ‘Look, I’d rather at this point just be up front and honest with my team, address it with them,’ which is much better than trying to get to the weekend with all the speculation and rumors and all that.

“That just reinforced, to me, a lot of what we saw in Eric in the process, just the decision-making that he makes, especially as it relates to his players.”

Morris will stick with the Mean Green as UNT tries to push its way into the College Football Playoff. A win on Friday against Temple would mean Morris and North Texas are in the American title game (likely against Tulane). Should UNT win the American, the Mean Green would likely earn a spot in the playoff, with the opening round games happening Dec. 19 and 20.

But just because Morris is working at UNT still doesn’t mean he’s not working with OSU. Less than six hours after officially being announced as OSU’s coach, a four-star linebacker from Texas announced Morris had offered him a scholarship.

“He’s working two jobs, so he’s gonna be burning the midnight oil, so to speak,” Weiberg said. “They’re doing that right now, kind of evaluating all of that — evaluating our current roster, evaluating who we’ve got commitments from, evaluating who maybe we had commitments from, evaluating what’s out there in high school and also in the portal. So, it’s a big task and a lot to do in the coming days, but I know they’re already working on it.”

Of notable upcoming dates, the high school signing day comes up first. The early signing period opens next Wednesday (Dec. 3). The Cowboys have eight commitments in their 2026 class, a class that took its lumps in the months following Mike Gundy’s firing.

Guys like KD Jones (Jenks), Tajh Overton (Owasso), Landen Anderson (Edmond-Santa Fe) and others decommitted, with those three all picking new programs since then. So, there could be a push coming quickly of Morris trying to get some guys back on board before they put pen to national letter of intent, or Morris could look to add others.

The most important of the upcoming dates is probably Jan. 2 — the day the transfer portal opens.

Portal additions will obviously be a big part of this offseason, but there are also guys on this current roster that Morris will need to vet and try to keep on board.

Anything is possible, but the odds will probably be against UNT making it to the quarterfinal round of the playoffs, which would be Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. So, Morris would be in Stillwater full time before the portal starts going crazy.

So, it’ll be a pretty busy couple of weeks for OSU’s new coach, but OSU’s AD sure seems excited about his hire.

“I think, first and foremost, it’s just the kind of person that he is,” Weiberg said. “And I think the character that he has and knowing that that’s who’s going to be in front of our young people every day, teaching them everything, obviously about football, but everything that goes along with that about life.

“I was in Lubbock the same time. The two years that I was in Lubbock (as deputy athletic director) Eric was there, so got to know him there. I always liked being around him, just his attitude and what his makeup is. So, I think that is first and foremost, but then you start adding in all the other pieces to it. He’s a Texas guy, and we all know the importance of Texas to being successful in this part of the country. He’s obviously very familiar with Oklahoma, as well, so just from a recruiting standpoint. … Just the connections that he has and the relationships that he has with the high school coaches and other coaches in the state of Texas, they all say great things about him.”