The North Texas Mean Green enjoyed their best season in program history in 2025. They set the program wins record at 12, qualified for the American Conference Championship Game, nearly crashed the College
Football Playoff, won the New Mexico Bowl, and will likely warrant a season-ending AP Poll ranking for the first time ever.
Prior to North Texas’ regular season finale, head coach Eric Morris accepted a position at Oklahoma State. Outside of Morris, the majority of players and staff finished the historic season in the Dec. 27 New Mexico Bowl — a 49-47 shootout win over San Diego State.
Now that the transfer portal has opened, there is a mass exodus of travel from Denton, TX to Stillwater, OK. Morris made the first move, and now his staff and players are following, looking to rebuild an Oklahoma State program, which after 18-straight winning seasons from 2006-23, has now dropped 20-straight contests vs. FBS competition.
Here are those involved in the North Texas to Oklahoma State 2026 pipeline:
Coaches
Here are the coaches — head coaches, coordinators, and primary position coaches — moving from Denton to Stillwater in 2026:
HC Eric Morris
OC/QB Sean Brophy
DC Skyler Cassity
AHC/ST/TE Drew Svoboda
RB Patrick Cobbs
OL Cody Crill
DL Greg Richmond
LB Reggie Johnson
DB Jordan Malone
CB Julian Wilson
Assistant defensive line coach Ike Eguae also joined Morris’ staff in Stillwater. The only primary position coach that arrived from somewhere other than North Texas is wide receivers coach Nick Edwards, who served the same role at Wake Forest in 2025.
Players
There are currently 17 players that committed to Oklahoma State after playing for North Texas’ historic 2025 team:
QB Drew Mestemaker (First Team All-American Conference, American Conference Offensive Player of the Year)
2025 stats: 14 GP, 14 starts, 319/463 (68.9%), 4,379 pass yards, 34 pass TD, 9 INT, 89 rush yards, 5 rush TD
RB Caleb Hawkins (First Team All-American Conference, American Conference Rookie of the Year)
2025 stats: 13 GP, 9 starts, 231 rush, 1,434 yards, 6.2 average, 25 rush TD, 32 rec, 370 rec yards, 4 rec TD
RB Dennis Moody
2025 stats: 4 GP
WR Wyatt Young (First Team All-American Conference)
2025 stats: 14 GP, 8 starts, 70 rec, 1,264 rec yards, 10 rec TD
WR Miles Coleman
2025 stats: 12 GP, 6 starts, 47 rec, 550 rec yards, 2 rec TD
WR Terrence Lewis
2025 stats: 12 GP, 11 rec, 184 rec yards, 3 rec TD
G Johnny Dickson III (Third Team All-American Conference)
2025 stats: 13 GP, 13 starts
OT Braydon Nelson (Second Team All-American Conference)
2025 stats: 14 GP, 14 starts
OT Desmond Magiya
2025 stats: 13 GP, 3 starts
DE Keviyan Huddleston
2025 stats: 14 GP, 2 starts, 31 tackles, 9.5 TFL, 5.o sacks, 2 FR
DT Fatafehi Vailea II
2025 stats: 4 GP, 4 starts, 15 tackles, 1 FF
DT Saadiq Clements
2025 stats: 13 GP, 8 starts, 30 tackles, 5.5 TFL, 1.5 sacks, 1 FF
OLB Ethan Wesloski (Second Team All-American Conference)
2025 stats: 14 GP, 9 starts, 113 tackles, 9.0 TFL, 1.5 sacks, 1 INT, 1 PBU, 2 FF, 1 FR, 1 defensive TD
CB Kollin Lewis
2025 stats: 13 GP, 1 start, 15 tackles, 1.0 TFL, 2 INT, 1 PBU, 1 FR
FS Evan Jackson
2025 stats: 14 GP, 1 start, 44 tackles, 1.5 TFL, 1.0 sacks, 2 INT, 2 PBU
SS Quinton Hammonds
2025 stats: 12 GP, 10 starts, 53 tackles, 5.0 TFL, 1.0 sacks, 2 INT, 3 PBU, 1 FF
LS Caden Yates
2025 stats: 14 GP
Quantifying the production lost to Oklahoma State
Here is all the 2025 production North Texas lost directly to Oklahoma State. The Mean Green lost additional production through the portal (as anticipated with a coaching change), but here’s the portion of each statistic headed to Stillwater:
Passing yards: 4,379/4,452 (98.4%)
Passing touchdowns: 34/35 (97.1%)
Rushing yards: 1,561/2,722 (57.3%)
Rushing touchdowns: 32/49 (65.3%)
Receiving yards: 2,368/4,452 (53.2%)
Receiving touchdowns: 19/35 (54.3%)
Tackles: 301/1,008 (29.9%)
Tackles for loss: 31.5/74 (42.6%)
Sacks: 10/24 (41.7%)
Interceptions: 7/15 (46.7%)
Forced fumbles: 5/12 (41.7%)
Fumble recoveries: 4/13 (30.8%)
Defensive touchdowns: 1/1 (100.0%)
Games played: 207
Game started: 102
Final thoughts
As of Jan. 16, 2026 — the final day of the transfer portal — Oklahoma State currently boasts the 7th-best 2026 transfer class per 247Sports. Of the Cowboys’ 50 additions, 17 directly arrived from North Texas, and there are other players with Mean Green/Eric Morris ties (2023 1,000-yard rusher Ayo Adeyi, for instance) that played elsewhere in between.
In the pre-portal days, North Texas would have potentially started 2026 with a preseason ranking by returning the wealth of offensive talent including the nation’s leading passer Drew Mestemaker, the nation’s rushing touchdown leader in Caleb Hawkins, and wide receiver Wyatt Young whose 295 yards in a single-game ranked first among all FBS players in 2025, as well as several all-conference linemen. The Mean Green also lost a slew of important defensive contributors in a unit which tied for fifth in most takeaways this season.
Restocking all of that talent in one offseason is almost an impossible feat for Neal Brown and his staff, but this is nothing new for North Texas. One year ago, the Mean Green replaced their leading passer, leading rusher, and three leading receivers from an offense which ranked third in total yardage and fourth in passing — and things panned out quite exceptionally.
North Texas picked up 42 new transfer portal commits for 247Sports’ 72nd ranked class. Established starters joining Coach Brown and the Mean Green include UCF starting quarterback Tayven Jackson and West Virginia starting running back Jahiem White. Restocking through the portal is important, but North Texas must also thrive in a similar manner to how it did in 2025, and that’s identifying high school recruits and developing them into stars. Retention isn’t easy, especially in the midst of a coaching change, but North Texas is currently riding a wave of momentum with the fanbase after a record-setting 12-2 campaign — and this newly-established winning culture and increased support could go a long way in the future.
