Editor’s note: This article is part of our GM Spotlight series, introducing readers to general managers who occupy a relatively new and increasingly important job for college football teams.

When North Texas hired Raj Murti in April at 23, he became one of the youngest general managers in college football.

Murti’s rise through the industry has happened quickly. He knew early in his high school career at Martin High in Arlington, Texas, that a future playing football was a long shot. So he became a student assistant under Bob Wager, a highly successful Texas high school football coach. Murti ran the film crew, helped with equipment, played scout team quarterback and assisted with recruiting contacts when college coaches visited Martin. When he graduated, Wager connected him with Ryan Dorchester, who was then the GM at Houston under Dana Holgorsen.

“(Wager) told Dor, ‘I’ve got a guy for you. I don’t know what you need, but make him do something and he’ll make a role for himself,’” Murti said.

Murti, now 24, took that opportunity and ran with it, spending five years on the recruiting and personnel staff at Houston (including two as an undergraduate student). From there, Murti spent a year at TCU as a recruiting coordinator and assistant player personnel director on Sonny Dykes’ staff before landing at North Texas, where the Mean Green are 8-1 and have the best chance to earn the Group of 5’s College Football Playoff berth, according to The Athletic’s projections.

Under coach Eric Morris, North Texas has been one of the surprise stories of the season, with a former walk-on quarterback, Drew Mestemaker, becoming a star (including a 608-yard game). The Mean Green have won despite having a roster budget near the bottom of the American Conference.

The Athletic recently spoke with Murti about his journey through college football personnel, the challenges of winning at a low-budget G5 program in the era of name, image and likeness and revenue sharing, and how to plan for the transfer portal.

So how did the North Texas GM opportunity arise? 

It’s funny, I asked coach Morris the same question, like “Why am I here?” (laughs). When I was a program assistant at Houston, part of the job was driving Dana (Holgorsen). In 2023, the THSCA (Texas High School Coaches Association) convention was in Houston. Dana took me to lunch with him, and coach Morris comes in and sits down. They’re hugging and catching up, they obviously go all the way back to their Texas Tech days. About five, six minutes into the conversation, coach Morris looks at Dana and points at me and says, “Uh, who’s the kid?” And Dana tells him about me. Then coach Morris looks at me and says, “You must be pretty f—ing good if you’re sitting here with him right now.”

I saw (Morris) again the next year when I was at TCU and we hosted a big mega (recruiting) camp. We caught up and ate lunch together for two days at the camp. I never had his phone number or anything like that. We’d see each other sparingly. But he said when this job came open and he was going to make it a GM role, he called Dana and Sonny (Dykes). He asked them, “Is Raj ready for this?” And Dana was like “F— yeah.” And Sonny said: “No-brainer.”

He called me and we talked about philosophies, what I do, what’s my thought process. We were on the phone for about an hour and a half. A few days later, I go interview for 5 1/2 hours, (meet with the staff), talked about everything. … They called me the following Monday, which felt like an eternity … and offered me the job.

You’ve worked in personnel departments, but this is your first time running one. What’s that learning curve been like?

It’s been a whirlwind. I got here on April 1, the portal opened on April 15. I had to put together a revenue-sharing plan and evaluate a whole roster in two weeks. It’s everything from deciding who we need to move on from, what positions we need, and then the portal opens and it’s evaluation. I had to tie dollar amounts to the players, which is something I had never done before.

We didn’t finish all of our portal commitments until the end of May, then it’s (recruiting) camp season. Then I had to hire a director of player personnel. There was no chance for self-reflection or how can I get better at this or that, because it’s like, you better figure this s— out because it’s happening and the train is right around the corner, so buckle up.

How long did it take to evaluate the roster before the portal opened and finish putting together the 2025 roster?

Luckily, they were still in spring practice, so I got to do some of it live. I watched the whole roster (on tape) within three days. I didn’t sleep much. And I met with each coach on our coaching staff, individually, about their whole room and every single player in it. I listened to them on everything from what their players do outside of football and who he is to “Hey, he’s a really good inside zone blocker.” So I relied on a lot of their feedback. And I think anyone who doesn’t rely on position coaches’ feedback when building a roster is crazy, because they’re the ones who have to coach them.

We didn’t finish the roster until the end of May. We had to do a lot of portal work. … We were getting in bidding wars and (other) schools were overpaying for kids that I didn’t really value that highly. We bring a kid on a trip, and the day after, we’re about to send him his scholarship paperwork, and he’s like, “Hey, School X down the road said they’re going to offer us $50,000 more.” And I’m like, “Jesus, they don’t even have that much money!”

Your quarterback, Drew Mestemaker, has been one of the revelations of this season. When did you know he was legit?

By the end of spring ball. He was pretty freaky. When I got there, coach Morris told me, “We’ve got two guys (Mestemaker and former Miami and Albany transfer Reese Poffenbarger). I want you to watch for a little while and tell me which one you like.”

I was like, “Coach, I don’t know if it’s because this kid has been in the system for a year, but (Mestemaker) is really f—ing good.” And Drew was continuously getting better.

Your roster budget is less than $2 million, which is near the bottom of the conference, yet you’re 8-1. How do you build a winning roster on a small budget?

You don’t overpay. You keep your priorities and your values. … You don’t get big-eyed in the heat of the moment, keep your composure and understand that this is part of it. If another school wants to overspend for somebody, you’ve got to have a number that you’re like, “I’m not going higher than this.” As long as you have some kind of thought process and your thought process aligns with your evaluation process, which then aligns with your valuation process and how much to pay them.

I’m going to sit down and watch the tape. Our DPP and assistant DPP are going to watch the tape. The coaches are going to watch the tape. And once we all see it the same way, we look at our roster and say, “OK, where does this kid fit?” And it’s such a hard thing to project, because you’re trying to project where a high school kid or a junior college (prospect) or a transfer fits before you can even negotiate what next year’s contracts are with your current team. … So you have to be aligned in the staff from the personnel department to the position coach to the coordinator to the head coach, so we know where a kid fits and there’s a dollar range for that spot on the roster and we’re all on the same page and we’re not gonna overpay to try to get him.

So when do you start making offers to your current roster for next year’s team?

Probably December, before the portal opens. I want these kids to have all the information before the portal opens. “Hey, here’s where we’ve got you at (compensation-wise). If somebody’s going to pay you more money, I get it. But this is what we can do.”

For players like Mestemaker or (freshman running back) Caleb Hawkins, who will likely be attractive portal targets for Power 4 programs, do you have to speed up that process because there may be other teams sniffing around?

No, I don’t think so, because those programs are going to be in a different tax bracket. So either they’re going to stay here for the best offer we can give them and want to be here or not. I hope they stay, but I’m not going to be in a situation where another program is going to dictate what we do.

The early signing period for high school recruits is about a month away (Dec. 3-5), and the transfer portal opens in two months (Jan. 2-16). What’s your planning process for all of that?

We’re a big (high school) senior evaluation team, so we’ll have a lot of official visits for high school and junior college kids, because we’re still trying to finish up our 2026 class. We wait until all the P4s get their commits in the summer, and we know what our pool is after that, then we go swimming. After our bye week (this week), we’ll go into pre-portal evaluations.

What are the biggest priorities and challenges that you face as you approach that time?

Trying to figure out what it takes to retain your team. Because there’s a point where it’s just like, OK, we can spend this to retain him, but is he even worth this, or for this money, can we go get someone else? Or could we get two good players for that money?

It’s important not to be unrealistic. I know what a $16 million roster looks like (at the Power 4 level) and how those rosters are broken down. If a P4 school comes in and tells a player, “Hey, we’re going to give you $250,000,” and if the best we can do is $75,000, is that what it’s going to take for him to stay here? Or are we better off saying, “I need a yes or no now, because if not, we can go get two good players with this.” You gotta be realistic about where you’re at and what you’re capable of. And if you’re not capable of it, don’t overspend and put yourself in a hole because this is still football.

If you put all your money and eggs into one basket and a kid goes down in fall camp or spring ball or second play of the game in Week 1, f—, I’d rather have a deep room than a top-heavy room.

What do you think of having one portal window in the winter rather than having two, including the spring window?

Love it. I think they made it go too long. I thought Jan. 2-11 was perfect. Now that it’s extended to Jan. 16, you’re going to have so many enrollment issues. … How do you get them into school in time? I think you’re going to have so many players that don’t go anywhere in the spring and sit out. They’re just going to be floating around in the portal until someone comes and picks them up.

But I like knowing that whenever February comes around, we’re gonna have our team and that’s our team for the season. I don’t have to worry about the fact that I signed a kid to a contract, but in May I’m going to have to (increase it) because (a Power 4 team) loses somebody they’re gonna come try to poach our guys.

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