Eric Morris’ Coaching Staff Has More in Common with Contenders than Big 12 Newcomers

STILLWATER — Eric Morris is one of four new coaches in the Big 12 this year, but there’s a cohesiveness on his staff that elevates the Cowboys from newcomer status.

Morris brought almost every single assistant with him from North Texas, giving him 1.8 years of average experience coaching alongside his top assistants.

That puts him ahead of five other Big 12 programs and just under the conference average of 2.3 years familiarity between head coaches and their top assistants.

“I always think continuity in this sport is huge,” Morris said back in February. “It was really important for me to be able to bring the coaching staff over and you pick up where you left off.”

In this instance, that was the doorstep of the College Football Playoff with a chance for Morris to win his way into the field in the American Conference Championship Game.

Although Morris and his staff will have to adjust to the increased level of competition this fall, those guys won’t have to waste any time learning how to work together, as receivers coach Nick Edwards is the lone newcomer among the position coaches.

The same can’t be said for the other three programs introducing new head coaches this fall.

Kansas State coach Collin Klein’s staff includes 12 of 16 assistants who will be serving under him for the first time ever. Iowa State coach Jimmy Rogers has eight newcomers out of 12, while Utah’s Morgan Scalley has eight newcomers out of 11.

Note: This will sound a little complicated, but to avoid shifting data too heavily toward older coaches, if a current head coach served as a coordinator during the last five years, all position coaches serving on that side of the ball with him were counted as returning assistants for the chart above and all data collected for this article.

Here’s how the math works out for Oklahoma State and the other Big 12 newcomers.

Success and failure both lead to high levels of turnover in college football, so Morris’ ability to keep this group together during the transition from North Texas is impressive.

It’s worth pointing out that his experience with coordinators Sean Brophy (three seasons as a quarterbacks coach, plus additional responsibilities as a passing game coordinator in 2025) and Skyler Cassity (one season) puts him ahead of nearly half his peers in the conference.

In fact, only five head coaches have eight-plus total seasons of experience with their two coordinators.

BYU leads the way (12 seasons), followed by Houston (10), Kansas (10), Cincinnati (eight) and UCF (seven). It shouldn’t be a surprise that three of those teams lead the way when it comes to head coach familiarity with assistant coaches.

Kansas leads the way as the average position coach or coordinator has 6.4 years of time under the head coach. BYU (3.5) and Houston (3.2) coaches followed, with no other Big 12 staff finishing higher than 2.5.

Only five teams in the conference had fewer top-level assistant coaches with 3-plus seasons of experience under the current head coach than the Cowboys. However, another four matched the Pokes with exactly four, putting Morris and staff very much in the norm heading into the season.

It remains to be seen how long Morris can keep these guys together, but that familiarity should give him a chance to make some noise during his first season of Big 12 play this fall.

For skeptics, it’s worth noting that Indiana coach Curt Cignetti brought six assistants with him from James Madison who totaled 30 years under Cignetti’s leadership at the time of his first season there. Morris isn’t as far along in his career (in years) as Cignetti was at that time, but nine assistants totaling 18 years of experience is nothing to sneeze at, especially since those guys brought several players too.

“There’s a lot of things that they did extremely well (at Indiana). … I think it’s exciting for coaches,” Morris said when asked about Indiana’s path to a national championship. “And exciting that someone’s now done it and there’s a blueprint to do it. Now, is it easy? Hell no.”