Texas
Meet the 24-year-old GM helping North Texas take aim at the College Football Playoff
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!”
Drew Mestemaker ranks third in the FBS with 2,702 passing yards. (Raymond Carlin III / Imagn Images)
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.
The GM Spotlight series is part of a partnership with T. Rowe Price. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
A bartender pours a drink at L’Oca d’Oro, an Italian restaurant in Austin, Texas, that offers a weekly promotion where guests can pay what they want.
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Zayed Al-Hamad’s party of four is ready to order. The table plans to share the rosemary sourdough focaccia, fresh mozzarella, polpette, rigatoni alla n’duja and smoked olive carbonara spaghetti.
The bill for all that food? It doesn’t really matter, because tonight restaurantgoers can pay whatever they want at L’Oca d’Oro in Austin, Texas.
“My family in general, we don’t always have the most money to spend. So we don’t always get to go to somewhere nice when they come over,” Al-Hamad said on a Tuesday evening in February. “But I figured this is an opportunity to actually experience something a little better without having to shell out $150 for the four of us.”
Armand Daniels and Robin Wiley heard about the pay-what-you-will promotion on Instagram.
Robin Wiley (left) and Armand Daniels heard about the pay-what-you-will promotion on social media.
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“We didn’t have a really great Valentine’s Day,” Daniels said. “It was OK, but nothing out of the ordinary, nothing spectacular, so this is our Valentine’s date.”
The couple ate a spinach salad with pickled pineapple oranges and candied almonds — “It was awesome,” Wiley said — and ordered more. Daniels said they would make a decision about what to pay when they saw the final bill, but were considering paying less than full price.
“Things are a little bit tight,” said Daniels, who works as an actor and brand ambassador. “Jobs are harder and harder to find.”
L’Oca d’Oro, an Italian restaurant and bar in Austin’s Mueller neighborhood, introduced the pay-what-you-will night in December. In the fall, co-owners Adam Orman and Fiore Tedesco III were grappling with the effects of disruptive tariffs, rising food costs and a labor shortage — as well as their own increasing menu prices.
Fiore Tedesco III (left) and Adam Orman are co-owners of L’Oca d’Oro.
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Orman said the partners wanted to find a way to respond to the dwindling number of people able to afford dining out at restaurants.
“Getting drive-thru is not going out. Sitting down, being treated with hospitality, being a guest is a thing that everybody should be experiencing regularly, because it feels good,” he said. “This is a way of making sure that that is accessible for everyone.”
Tuesday-night diners at L’Oca d’Oro still pay full price for drinks, but they can order whatever they like off the regular food menu and choose how much to pay for it. Patrons are assessed a 20% service charge on their chosen total. (The restaurant charges the 20% pre-tax fee to all patrons to help fund the living wages, benefits and paid time off of staff members, Orman said.)
The partners understand that offering their products and services for free may not seem like a savvy business strategy. But Tedesco, who attributed the restaurant’s drop in volume over the past two years to political and financial instability, said he prefers pushing back on that conventional wisdom.
“There’s a way in which it seems like we should raise prices right now because everything’s more expensive, [that] we should lean that way,” Tedesco said.
Tedesco chops rosemary in the kitchen. He hopes the pay-what-you-will promotion can be a way to meet the current affordability and social challenges facing Americans.
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“I feel really confident and I feel lighter and more loving and more full and more generous in practicing the spirit of leaning that other way,” he said, “of saying, no, the lesson here is this is for everybody. This really is a time to be less inhibited about going out.”
Restaurant food, hold the restaurant
Americans are increasingly passing up on dining out. A YouGov report from October found that 37% of U.S. diners said they were dining out less often than they had a year earlier, while only 8% said they were going out more.
Rising menu prices and a desire to save money were the top reasons why people were staying home, the research group reported.
When they do dine out, most customers are getting their food to-go. According to data released by the National Restaurant Association last year, nearly three out of every four meals served by U.S. restaurants were takeout orders.
Restaurants of course depend on customers for business, but diners also rely on restaurants for the social stimulation and respite from domestic life they provide, says Princeton University anthropology professor Hanna Garth, who has conducted research on food access in Los Angeles.
Two guests sit at a table at L’Oca d’Oro. More than a third of Americans are dining out less often than they did last year, according to report from YouGov.
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“For a lot of people, it’s just about breaking from the routine and the monotony of eating at home. For a lot of women, it’s about alleviating the burden of the work of cooking a meal and cleaning up after the meal,” she said of the L.A. residents she’s spoken to. “And I think for a lot of people it’s also a social activity.”
Restaurants are also what’s known as a “third space,” an area outside of our home or workplace where we interact with others. When restaurants become inaccessible, those incidental social exchanges they offer also disappear, Garth said. Think chatting with the hostess and wait staff, or asking the people at the next table how their food was.
“Those connections, even though they’re teeny-tiny connections that seem like they don’t matter that much, they’re a really really big deal for making us feel like we belong to a community and we’re connected with others around us,” Garth said.
Orman and Tedesco said they hope L’Oca d’Oro’s pay-what-you-will promotion — a concept that’s been around for a while in the food service world — can be used now to meet the current affordability and social challenges facing Americans.
‘It just doesn’t feel like it should be possible’
Erin Weber and Michelle Valencia were at L’Oca d’Oro for a “girls night,” Valencia said. She works for the city’s public health department, and Weber is an editor who also attends graduate school for clinical social work.
Michelle Valencia (left) and Erin Weber visited the restaurant for a “girls night.”
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They had been to the restaurant once before, Valencia said, “but when we saw this we were like, ‘oh that’s a really cool special.’”
Weber, a native Austinite who said she’s enjoyed watching the city’s food scene evolve, praised the restaurant’s pay-what-you-will experiment. “This is a really great way for people from … all walks of life to just be able to enjoy amazing food,” she said.
When their bill came around 8 p.m., Weber and Valencia decided to pay $100 on their $117 tab, splitting it down the middle. “I guess we’re seeing it as like our happy hour total,” Weber said, “you know, a little bit of a discount.”
That night, the restaurant made $70 less than what it would have had it charged full price for food, Orman said later. He estimates that most Tuesday diners typically pay about two-thirds of their actual food bill, while only a couple of customers pay far less and many people fork over around what they owe.
Chris Ortiz and Rickyann Ramos, who were celebrating two years of marriage, said they intended to cover their whole bill. “I think we would just fully take care of it from our end,” Ortiz said, “because we’re in a position to do so and hopefully that can help others out.”
According to Orman, the restaurant typically ends pay-what-you-will nights earning less than the full menu price of the food they served, but once they made $12 more. He said the partners are happy with the math, and the normally slower weekday is seeing an average increase in traffic and revenue since the promotion began. The restaurant is even considering expanding the pay-what-you-will concept over the summer as they introduce new menu items.
Since the pay-what-you-will promotion began, the normally slower weekday is seeing an average increase in traffic at the restaurant.
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As his table prepared to order, Zayed Al-Hamad marveled at the deal they were getting.
“I’ll be honest, there’s a level of guilt, you know? I go to order, and I have to fight through this feeling of, like, ‘am I allowed to do this?’” he said. “I’m not going to write $10 down, but man it just doesn’t feel like it should be possible.”
Al-Hamad, who works as a menu planner connecting businesses with caterers, said he uses rental assistance to afford his apartment in the building adjacent to the restaurant. Tonight at L’Oca d’Oro he’ll pay what he can, but as Al-Hamad gets on better financial footing in the future, he hopes to chip in even more at places like this.
“As I continue to get to live in this city, I hope I’m able to support these businesses more and more, and hopefully I can be part of the reason why they’re actually able to afford to do these things,” he said.
Zayed Al-Hamad was excited to have an affordable and nice restaurant to take his family out to dinner.
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Austin Metcalf, the Frisco teen fatally stabbed during a track meet at Kuykendall Stadium in April 2025, was honored posthumously at the Memorial High School graduation on May 21, 2026.
Austin Metcalf’s twin brother, Hunter, accepted the diploma on behalf of his brother shortly after accepting his own, followed by a standing ovation.
The trial for Karmelo Anthony, the teen accused of fatally stabbing fellow student Austin Metcalf during a Frisco ISD track meet, is scheduled to begin Monday, June 1, according to Collin County court records.
Witnesses told police the two 17-year-olds had argued during the meet, that Austin Metcalf pushed Anthony, and that Anthony then stabbed him once in the chest. Anthony immediately complied with the officers, and while being detained, reportedly acknowledged what happened and asked whether Austin Metcalf would survive and whether the incident might be considered self‑defense.
Anthony, who is facing a first-degree murder charge, has been on house arrest since being released on a reduced bond on April 14. If convicted, Anthony could face a possible sentence of 5-99 years or life in prison. In the Texas criminal justice system, 17-year-olds are considered adults. Anthony, a student at Frisco Centennial High School, was not allowed to participate in senior graduation activities; however, Next Generation Action Network said an agreement was reached with the district for him to receive his high school diploma.
The case has drawn widespread public attention, generating intense community reaction, extensive online discussion, and sustained media coverage – factors that led the court to issue a gag order last year and a Collin County judge in April to impose strict rules on media access, security, and courtroom conduct in advance of the trial.
Texas
Paxton supporters look beyond his troubles, want a fighter in Texas Senate seat in Republican battle against Cornyn
On the campaign trail in North Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton vowed that he would continue to fight for his supporters in Washington, if they elect him to the U.S. Senate. At a recent stop in Little Elm before the conservative group Restore The Republic, Paxton pointed to his record of suing the Obama and Biden administrations — including on President Biden’s last day in office.
“That was the 107th lawsuit against Joe Biden in four years. For those of you who don’t know math, that’s a lot of lawsuits and we won 80% of these,” he said.
Vickie Costa, a Paxton supporter, praised his record.
“I totally believe in him. He’s a good man. He’s done so many good things. On the other hand, I feel John Cornyn has been there a long time and done absolutely nothing for the state of Texas,” she said.
When asked what Paxton has done that resonates with her, Costa said, “I think of a lot of different things, when he sued Biden, also the suits he’s done against Obama.”
Paxton has declined all requests by CBS News Texas for a one-on-one interview. During his three campaign stops in North Texas in the past ten days, Paxton would not answer local reporters’ questions. Paxton regularly grants interviews to conservative media.
Cornyn has sharply criticized Paxton for his ethical and marital problems. While Paxton was acquitted in the 2023 impeachment trial in the Texas Senate, the Attorney General’s office will have to pay at least $6.7 million to Paxton’s four former top hand-picked officials in his office who became whistleblowers. Paxton fired them after they went to the FBI to report alleged wrongdoing, something he denied. Federal authorities investigated Paxton during the Biden administration, but he was not charged.
The Attorney General’s wife, State Senator Angela Paxton (R-McKinney) filed for divorce last year, citing “biblical grounds” in a post on X.
Paxton’s supporters like Steve Brown are sticking with him.
“If I was looking for [Paxton] to be my pastor, if I was looking for him to be my marriage counselor, if I was looking for him to do those jobs, yeah, sure, I’d be more concerned with what Cornyn is saying,” Brown said. “But the reality is, I’m not. I’m looking for somebody to be a bulldog who goes to Washington, D.C. that makes sure D.C. understands Texas will not be trampled. You will have to come and take it.”
When asked if Cornyn is a fighter, Brown said, “He hasn’t done that in 40 years, why would he start tomorrow?”
Brown said Paxton is a fighter.
“I know it. Look at his history,” Brown said.
At Paxton’s rally in Dallas on Monday, State Representative Katrina Pierson (R-Rockwall) said she is backing Paxton because he is a fighter, and she encouraged supporters to go to the polls.
“We have to get out and vote because if our people get out and vote, we will win,” she said.
Paxton criticized Cornyn’s record, saying he hasn’t accomplished anything in his long political career.
“If you just take any two weeks that I’ve been Attorney General, other than Christmas and Thanksgiving, I’ve accomplished more than any two-week period, John Cornyn can pick it, than he’s accomplished in 42 years,” Paxton said.
President Trump announced he was endorsing Paxton moments before the Attorney General appeared at a previously scheduled rally in Allen on Tuesday morning. State Representative Keresa Richardson (R-McKinney) repeated what Paxton’s supporters have said.
“Nobody, nobody has fought harder for Texas than Ken Paxton. I don’t care if it’s for parents’ rights, immigration, election integrity, you name it,” Richardson said.
Another Paxton supporter, Sandra Hammer, put it this way: “Ken Paxton, on any issue that he gets, is a dog with a bone.”
When asked why that was important to her, Hammer said, “I think people get up there and forget why we elected them. They need to get up there and represent us, and Ken Paxton, I know, will do that.”
Paxton has repeatedly questioned Cornyn’s support for President Trump, and said the Senator only changed his tune last year after he entered the race to challenge the incumbent.
“The fake John Cornyn is going away in about seven days,” Paxton said.
Regardless of who wins the runoff on Tuesday, one of these long-time Republican elected officials will leave office at the end of the year when their terms expire.
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