Now that Eric Morris has put himself in a league with Lane Kiffin and Tommy Tuberville in the category of poor exits and become a world-class distraction in North Texas’ historic season in the bargain, the first question is how the Mean Green finishes under a coach with one foot out the door.
The next?
Is this why I saw Billy Napier sitting outside Morris’ presser last week?
Speculation has swirled around Morris’ career arc pretty much ever since Mean Green officials started putting up historical markers in their game-day stats. UNT is one of college football’s best stories. Now it’s also an example of the hypocrisy over the hand-wringing about the transfer portal while coaches walk away whenever they fancy.
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Look, no one can begrudge Morris for moving up in programs, conferences and payscale. He’s earned it. One of Mike Leach’s brightest disciples. Wouldn’t surprise at all if he revives an Oklahoma State program Mike Gundy pulled out of the ditch a couple decades ago and took to unprecedented heights before its ultimate collapse.
Morris apparently had his choices, too. He was mentioned Saturday on ESPN as one of four favorites for the Arkansas job currently occupied by Bobby Petrino, another coach with a résumé of ugly exits.
BTW, until Razorback officials get the Waltons, Tysons and Hunts to pony up for football like they do for the university at large, the Arkansas program will be a coach-killer. Not enough NIL money or high school talent to keep up with the rest of the SEC.
All things considered, Oklahoma State was probably the right call. Easier to win the Big 12 than the SEC, especially since the Cowboys don’t have to go head-to-head with Oklahoma every year.
The point isn’t if Morris should have taken the job in Stillwater. A no-brainer. The problem is the timing. He shouldn’t have been talking to Oklahoma State officials now, what with the Mean Green on the cusp of a once-unthinkable College Football Playoff berth.
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Doesn’t matter if Oklahoma State fired Gundy at midseason just so it could get a head start on finding a new head coach. Morris should have told the Cowboys he already had a team to coach. If they really wanted him, they could wait a few weeks. Not like he wouldn’t be up for something else.
If that sounds naive, it also sounds a lot like what coaches preach every day. Focus on going 1-0. Don’t get caught looking ahead. Be a good teammate. Remember, it’s the name on the front of the jersey, not the back.
Blah, blah, blah.
Morris made a mockery of all those homilies when he took another job during the greatest UNT season in seven decades.
If the Mean Green rises above this Richter-rattling jolt and beats Temple, wins the AAC title game and makes the CFP, the players deserve all the credit. A little like Bill Murray taking over training of his fellow recruits in “Stripes,” then winning graduation.
UNT’s administration had little choice after Morris backed it into a corner. The university is riding this season for everything it’s got. Jared Mosley, the Mean Green athletic director, couldn’t take the chance that an interim coach would screw up everything Morris has built.
In a statement, Mosley was nicer than I would have been, but that probably goes without saying. He cited Morris’ work over the last three seasons in a “chaotic” time for college athletics, then wished him “nothing but the very best at Oklahoma State.”
Of course, if you’re an athletic department administrator at a school like UNT, it’s not exactly a shock when coaches and athletes use your program as a steppingstone. Happens all the time. Can’t get too worked up about it. As it is, the Mean Green started this season with more than 60 new players to make up for all the people going out the door.
Among the players who distinguished themselves this season in their predecessors’ absence was Drew Mestemaker, who never started a varsity game at quarterback in high school, and Caleb Hawkins, scoring touchdowns at a record rate. Chances are they’ll also leave. Skyler Cassity, too, unless the defensive coordinator gets promoted to head coach.
If you’d really like to know, these potential moves have been coming for weeks. So why didn’t I write about any of it? Because there was nothing solid, and I had no desire to rain on UNT’s parade.
Not until Morris did first.
About that Napier sighting: Before last week’s presser, running late as usual, I practically fell over the former Florida coach while walking into the interview room. He looked a little embarrassed to see a reporter. Word eventually got out that he was there to watch practice. Maybe that’s all it was. He’s got nothing else to do.
On the other hand, I’m not putting it past anybody that Morris was already close to a decision last week and Napier was out for a head start on the vacancy. He’d be a good hire, too. A top offensive mind. Given his record at Florida, it’d also be years before anyone pulled him out from under a work in progress.
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