Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State Hiring Eric Morris

More often than not, coaching searches feel like a sprint. This one was a marathon, but at long last, it is done. Eric Morris will be Oklahoma State’s next football coach.

News broke Tuesday from Brett McMurphy and Pete Thamel before OSU confirmed the news itself.

“Today begins the next era of Oklahoma State Football,” OSU AD Chad Weiberg said in the release. “I am thrilled to introduce Eric Morris, his wife Maggie and their boys Jack and George to the OSU Family. Coach Morris has proven his ability to build and lead winning football programs. He has consistently identified, recruited, and developed some of the best players in college football.”

Here are five thoughts on the hire.

1. An Outstanding Hire

As the search played out and the realistic candidates started to become more clear, I tried my best to not pick a favorite.

It was pointless to. I wasn’t in the interviews. I didn’t know what vision they sold to Chad Weiberg as to why they would be good in Stillwater. But it was hard to not get excited about Eric Morris.

For starters, he’s operating the best offense in the country, as his North Texas squad ranks first nationally in points and yards per game. For someone who was raised on the era of OSU football where games ended 45-42, thank goodness.

Then you look at the success he’s had at the quarterback position with the likes of Cam Ward, Patrick Mahomes and, more recently, redshirt freshman Drew Mestemaker, who leads the nation in passing after having not started a varsity game at QB in high school.

Then roll that all into the fact that he is familiar with the Big 12 (being a Texas Tech alum) and recruiting the state of Texas (having spent time at Houston, Texas Tech, Incarnate Word and North Texas — aka all around the state), and what’s not to love?

Will it work out long term? I don’t know. “Home-run hires” don’t work out sometimes (see Brian Kelly). But here on Nov. 25, I’m not sure many (or any) could argue that this wasn’t a outstanding hire for OSU football.

2. OSU Moving When It Did Seems Well-Timed Given Hindsight

Moving on from Mike Gundy when OSU did couldn’t have been easy for Weiberg and company, but it feels like it was the right move on the other side of this search.

I still think it probably should have been done on the Sunday before that way Gundy didn’t have to do a news conference and a coach’s show the day before he was canned. But, it’s going to be hard to convince me otherwise that OSU having time to methodically move through this process helped massively in OSU getting to this outcome.

OSU got out ahead of the Lane Kiffin domino game that could be about to happen. If Kiffin goes to LSU or Florida, who knows what’s going to happen on an already busy coaching carousel? Ole Miss would be open in that scenario, as would whichever other school Kiffin didn’t pick. So then those two schools would have to hire someone. Then that would compound into more openings. And that’s on top of Auburn, Arkansas and Penn State already being open.

If this was ridden out until the end of the season (an honor you could definitely argue Gundy deserved given all he’s done for the program), it’s tough to imagine OSU is in this spot right now. Even if they waited until November to make a move, it’s tough to say whether OSU would’ve truly been able to get the ducks in a row by Nov. 25.

3. OSU > Arkansas?

The Cowboys’ biggest competition throughout this search very much appeared to be the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Arkansas moved away from Sam Pittman on Sept. 28 — less than a week after OSU let Gundy go.

There were a lot of similarities on all the hot boards, most notably Morris and USF coach Alex Golesh. On3’s Pete Nakos and CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello have both since tweeted that Morris was involved in the Arkansas search, and an Eli Lederman article from earlier this month pointed out that Morris has cotton farms in northwest Arkansas.

Given all that, it sort of just feels like SEC be darned, OSU is a better job than the school than the one about a three-hour drive east.

And while the OSU job might’ve not been high on all those national “which job is best” lists that came out when people started firing their coaches, that tune has started to change of late.

Here’s what ESPN’s Greg McElroy said in his pod Tuesday morning:

“If you talk to people within the coaching search world, you talk to people within the agent world and you talk to coaches, the Oklahoma State job is highly desirable,” McElroy said. “What does every coach want? They want continuity. They want comfort. They want to know that they’re gonna be somewhere for a very long time, so the fact that Mike Gundy was there for 21 years, one of the longest-tenured coaches in college football, makes this job really appealing.

“What also makes this job very appealing is they are very competitive from an NIL standpoint compared to some of the teams they’ll be competing against in the Big 12. They also have another thing going for them: they have a ton, a ton of infrastructure in place by way of skyboxes and a great gameday atmosphere that continues to flush a lot of money into the program. So, this is a really appealing job.”

So, if it wasn’t evident by the fact that an OSU team that finished 3-9 last season was still good enough to beat Arkansas, it certainly feels like that’s a for sure thing now. (By the way, these teams play in Fayetteville next year CORRECTION: the game is in 2027.)

4. Who Is All Coming with Him?

This is the crummy part for North Texas, as the university gets rewarded for its outstanding season by likely having to pound the reset button. It’s a no-fun aspect of college football, and I truly feel bad for the Mean Green.

With that being said … Drew Mestemaker is leading the country in passing as a redshirt freshman.

UNT running back Caleb Hawkins has ran for 1,030 yards and 19 touchdowns (tied for the national lead), and he is from Shawnee. Out of North Rock Creek High School, Hawkins is listed at 6-foot-2, 200 pounds.

Wyatt Young is a true sophomore wide receiver who has caught 56 passes this season for 1,076 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Any or all of those guys would be great additions not only because they’re good, know Morris’ system and are having a great season, but they’re also young. If that group is going to hit the portal with Morris’ exit, OSU might as well go after them.

Again, I’m so sorry, North Texas. It stinks.

5. #KeepDougHome

Coming out of the bye week, Doug Meacham was asked how much football he gets to watch.

“Yeah, I watch,” Meacham said. “There are a handful of teams that I watch that are air raid-type teams that match some of my thought. Then I cut up two NFL teams and two college teams every week. I cut up everything out of their tapes that might give you a screen idea, a run idea, or an RPO, or a trick play, something like that.

“The Chiefs and Washington because Kliff (Kingsbury) is at Washington. Then North Texas because they are air raid friendly with the things they do, and then USC. I watch a good bit of football on the side. Then I try to watch any Big 12 game and that is usually what I gravitate to, just like you guys probably do too.”

Meacham has, at least from the outside, handled some unwinnable circumstances like a champ. His beliefs on offense are similar to Morris’. Meacham is an alum who just got back to Stillwater. I’m sure he could have some value to Morris’ operation.

If he wants to stay in some sort of role, I think OSU should keep him.

“It means a lot,” said Meacham on Monday of what this opportunity has meant to him. “I mean, obviously I don’t like the record, numerics of it, but just the opportunity for Chad Weiberg to have the faith in me to be able to get us to the finish line means a lot. They saw something in me that they felt like I could be the front man for this football team. I’m kinda tired of saying ‘through these tough times’ because who cares? No one cares. It’s been an honor to do it. …

“When you go through life, at the end of the thing, you look back and there’s moments. This will be one of them for me. So, it was awesome.”