What Eric Morris Big 12 Coaching Ranking Says About Oklahoma State’s Future
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When it came to grading head coaching hires during this year's carousel, many outsiders gave the Oklahoma State Cowboys high marks for landing Eric Morris.
In hiring Morris to replace program legend Mike Gundy, the Cowboys hired a former Big 12 assistant at Texas Tech who had experience with two different programs, both of which he made successful.
In four seasons at Incarnate Word, he led the Cardinals to a 24-18 record and two FCS playoff appearances. In three seasons at North Texas (2023-25) he went 22-16 and qualified the Mean Green for two bowl games. Last season’s performance landed him the job at OSU. North Texas went 11-2, claimed a berth in the American Conference championship game and he left after the Mean Green lost to Tulane.
The hope is that he can restore the luster to Oklahoma State that has faded the past two seasons. Recently, he received a ranking among Big 12 head coaches that should leave Cowboys fans optimistic.
Why Eric Morris’ Big 12 Coaching Ranking Matters
Recently, On3 (subscription required) ranked each of the 16 head coaches in the Big 12. At the top of the list was a bit of a surprise. It was BYU's Kalani Sitake, who led the Cougars to a terrific season in 2025, but they fell short of making the College Football Playoff. Texas Tech boss Joey McGuire, whose Red Raiders beat BYU in the Big 12 title game and made their first appearance in the College Football Playoff, was ranked No. 3.
Morris ended up No. 8 on the list. That's an important spot for him because he was the highest ranked of the league’s four new head coaches. The others were Utah’s Morgan Scalley at No. 12, Iowa State’s Jimmy Rogers at No. 14 and Kansas State’s Collin Klein at No. 16.
It’s more validation that the Cowboys got it right in hiring Morris to replace Gundy. He was not only ahead of the three new head coaches, but he was also ahead of Arizona’s Brent Brennan, Baylor’s Dave Aranda, Cincinnati’s Scott Satterfield, UCF’s Scott Frost and Colorado’s Deion Sanders, all of whom coached in the Big 12 last season.
Given Morris’ late hiring, he leaned heavily into the transfer portal for his first roster, which will make its debut against Tulsa on Sept. 4. Included among those transfers was nearly 20 former players from North Texas, including quarterback drew Mestemaker. Those are the players he'll be leaning on to help the Cowboys bounce back from what has been an awful two seasons in Stillwater.
Since appearing in the 2023 Big 12 title game, the Cowboys are 4-20 and have not won a game in Big 12 play. That cost Gundy his job and paved the way for a new era led by Morris.
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Matthew Postins is the publisher of Oklahoma State on SI. He is an award-winning sports journalist who was formerly the editor of the College Football America Yearbook and covers the Big 12 Conference for Heartland College Sports.
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