DENTON — North Texas head football coach Eric Morris cried on the team’s senior day before cornerback David Fisher waved it off. Fisher, an all-conference defensive back in his first season with the Mean Green, reminded Morris that he “didn’t come here just to come here.”
“We both want a ring,” Fisher said. “The entire team wants to finish this thing strong.”
The entire team will remain intact when No. 24 North Texas (11-1, 7-1 American) plays No. 20 Tulane (10-2, 7-1) in the American Conference Championship game Friday night at New Orleans’ Yulman Stadium.
Morris was officially announced as Oklahoma State’s next head coach last week after his name circulated rumor mills since the early stages of the regular season. He will leave North Texas after three seasons, the most recent of which has been a historic one, for power conference pastures.
Sports Roundup
It’s just a matter of when.
The Mean Green leadership will allow Morris to coach Friday’s championship game and, if applicable, any potential College Football Playoff contests despite his eventual exit. At Tulane, where head coach Jon Sumrall was hired away by Florida, the arrangement is identical.
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Former Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin was not granted the same opportunity after he accepted the LSU job as the Rebels await their postseason fate. The fallout — which has included reports from both sides that have conflicted each other and middle fingers thrown at an Oxford, Miss., airport — has been decisively messier than anything that the two American Conference finalists have experienced.
“We all expected [Morris] to stay [for the postseason],” senior offensive lineman Gabe Blair said. “We’re going to play for the conference championship and be able to play for the College Football Playoffs. We all expected him to stay and we’re very blessed for him to stay.”
It’s been a complicated last week nonetheless as the Mean Green have been simultaneously thrust into the carousel and postseason chase.
Oklahoma State officially announced that Morris had been hired as its next head football coach last Wednesday afternoon. The Mean Green trounced Temple 52-25 last Friday to clinch an American Conference championship game berth. North Texas officially announced that former West Virginia and Troy head coach Neal Brown will replace Morris Tuesday evening. The Mean Green will play Tulane in the league championship game Friday night at New Orleans’ Yulman Stadium with a potential CFP position on the line. The 12-team postseason field will be unveiled Sunday afternoon, on ESPN, and Morris is scheduled to be introduced by Oklahoma State the next day.
The win vs. Temple — in which the Mean Green totaled 605 yards of offense and certified themselves as the nation’s highest-scoring team — was devoid of an apparent letdown. Morris acknowledged Tuesday that he’s “smart enough to know” that his decision was a “distraction.” His players might disagree.
“It doesn’t affect us at all,” senior offensive lineman Gabe Blair said. “I feel like nothing has changed. We just practice the next day, get through it, the next day is practice, get ready for Tulane. Just keep doing what you’re doing, nothing’s changed.”
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Sumrall was introduced as Florida’s head coach Monday afternoon and, by Tuesday, was in Green Wave gear on Tulane’s campus in preparation for the league championship game. Morris asked Oklahoma State to stall his official introduction until after Friday’s game to limit at least one off-field disturbance while he balances the needs of both his present and future teams.
“The way I’ve handled it is the best way I know how to do it,” Morris said. “I’m trying to — not protect everybody involved — but be conscientious of what’s going on right now in the North Texas program and still understanding that, at the end of the day, I’m going to have a different responsibility here real soon.”
His different responsibilities could begin in a full-time capacity as soon as next week if the Mean Green are eliminated from playoff contention either by way of a conference championship game loss or a playoff committee decision that favors a different Group of Five program. Both Tulane and North Texas were ranked above No. 25 James Madison in Tuesday’s ranking, though, and American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti said Monday that there’s “no doubt in my mind” that the winner of Friday’s game will qualify for the postseason.
Morris may need to extend his split-duty tenure if that’s the case.
“His goal is the same as our goal this year,” Fisher said. “He committed to something.”
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