North Texas fans should be ecstatic about what the Mean Green have accomplished this year. They are 10-1 and have a chance at reaching the College Football Playoff.
But success at a Group of Five school usually means the head coach of that team is going to be connected to Power Four opportunities.
Eric Morris is reportedly on his way to Oklahoma State, which means there is another G5 coaching job open. Here are some names to watch for UNT’s coaching search:
Texas State Head Coach GJ Kinne
If Kinne was open to leaving a school that’s soon going to be in the Pac-12, he would make a ton of sense here.
This season didn’t go as hoped for the Bobcats, who had high preseason expectations but are 5-6 and need to win their last game of the regular season to earn bowl-eligibility. But his name has been floated around for some other openings, including Power Four jobs, so maybe this would be a next logical step for him.
And why not go for another former Incarnate Word head coach? He was the HC there for one season in 2022 before going to Texas State. The Cardinals won a Southland Conference Championship and reached the FCS semifinals as they ended the year 12-2 overall.
Before that, Kinne was a co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at UCF in 2021 and an OC and QBs coach at Hawaii in 2020. He briefly coached at the pro level as an offensive assistant for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2019.
Kinne started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at SMU in 2017. He then was an offensive analyst at Arkansas in 2018.
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SMU Offensive Coordinator Casey Woods
Woods reportedly became the primary target for UAB, but he has yet to officially sign a deal. He would be a good candidate for this job as he is a successful coordinator at a current Power Four school in Texas.
He was a tight ends coach, run game coordinator, and recruiting coordinator at UAB for three years after the football program came back in 2016. The Blazers set several school records and put together some highly-regarded recruiting classes during his time there.
As for his tenure at SMU, the Mustangs were eighth in the FBS in points per game (38.7) and 16th in yards per game (454.9) in 2023, their last year in the American. SMU, in its first year in the ACC, helped the Mustangs reach the College Football Playoff in 2024. The Mustangs are 8-3 overall this year.
Woods has also been a tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Missouri. He coached wide receivers and was a recruiting coordinator at Arkansas State in 2012 when the Red Wolves went 10-3 and earned a Sun Belt title.
Oregon Assistant Head Coach Ra’Shaad Samples
Samples, who’s from Dallas, has been coaching running backs at Oregon since 2024 but has a good amount of experience in Texas and has been an assistant head coach at three different FBS schools.
Samples is in his second season with the Ducks, and before this he was a wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator at Arizona State. Before that, he was the Los Angeles Rams’ running backs coach in 2022, which is when he was the youngest position coach in the NFL.
He was also an assistant head coach and running backs coach at TCU in 2021. He was an assistant at SMU for three years before that, first as an offensive assistant with an emphasis on recruiting before he was a running backs coach and recruiting coordinator and eventually an assistant head coach.
A former wide receiver at Oklahoma State and Houston, Samples began his coaching career as an assistant at Houston from 2016-17. He then was an offensive assistant and on-campus recruiting coordinator in 2018 at Texas.
Because of his experience in the state, he would make a ton of sense for North Texas.
Lamar Head Coach Pete Rossomando
If UNT were to look to the FCS ranks, similar to what the Mean Green did when they hired Morris, Rossomando’s name could come up. He hasn’t been at Lamar very long, but his tenure there has been impressive.
In 2023, his first season as head coach of the Cardinals, the team had won a single game the previous year and just five games in the three seasons prior. Under Rossomando’s leadership, Lamar put together the fourth-biggest single-season turnaround in the FCS by going 6-5 overall. Rossomando was an Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award finalist.
And now this season, Lamar earned a berth in the FCS playoffs.
Rossomando has also briefly been an FBS head coach. He was an interim head coach at Charlotte in 2022, and the 49ers went 2-2 during that time. He was also an offensive line coach there.
Before that, he was an O-line coach at Vanderbilt in 2020 and Rutgers in 2019. He was also a head coach at Central Connecticut State. He led that program to its first FCS playoffs appearance ever. He was also a head coach at the University of New Haven, which made the Division II playoffs twice during his tenure and was ranked as highly as No. 3 in the country.
Rossomando has the head coaching experience and FBS experience to be a candidate for any G5 program, including UNT.
