Oklahoma State pins its revival hopes on Drew Mestemaker after his unlikely QB rise

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — After years of being told no, Drew Mestemaker made the most of his only opportunity to prove he could play quarterback in college.

Oklahoma State’s new signal caller didn’t take a varsity snap in high school and was overlooked at quarterback camps, but walked on at North Texas and threw 34 touchdown passes as a redshirt freshman for coach Eric Morris last season.

“I feel like every ‘no’ kind of like made me want to do it that much more,” Mestemaker said. “I honestly feel like the reason I kept going was because of how much work I was putting in. I knew i couldn’t put all that work in and then just because of a few no’s throw it all away and just feel sorry for myself.”

Mestemaker, a backup at Vandergrift High School in Austin, Texas, eventually caught the eye of Morris, an elite evaluator of quarterback talent who gave him a workout in the summer of 2024.

“Yeah, just super polished as a passer,” Morris recalled. “There was zero wasted movement in his throwing motion, which is something we look for. Drew was as good as anybody I’d seen, as far as some of those mechanics. We didn’t know how smart he was, how well he retained information, how well he processed when the bullets were flying, when things were moving in front of him.”

Mestemaker passed for an FBS-best 4,379 yards last season and is among 22 transfers who played for Morris at North Texas and followed him to Stillwater for a much-anticipated debut season at a program eager for some good news. The Mean Green led the nation in total offense with average of 512.4 yards per game and scoring (42.6 points) and won 11 games before Morris was hired to replace Mike Gundy, the longtime Cowboys coach who was fired last September.

Oklahoma State has four wins in two seasons and hasn’t beaten a Big 12 Conference opponent since December 2023. The Cowboys will be counting heavily on Mestemaker and Morris to return the program to prominence.

The 6-foot-3, 217-pound Mestemaker has plenty of weapons to work with.

North Texas transfer Caleb Hawkins led the FBS with 1,434 yards and 25 touchdowns rushing last year, and set an FBS record for most total TDs by a freshman (29). Wide receiver Wyatt Young, Mestemaker’s favorite target at North Texas, had 70 receptions for 1,264 yards and 10 touchdowns.

The Cowboys could be in line for a bowl game if 88 newcomers can come together and Mestemaker can prove last season’s success story was no fluke against Power Four competition. A home game against No. 2 Oregon arrives in the season’s second week after the Sept. 5 opener at Tulsa.

If anyone’s up for the challenge, it’s Mestemaker.

“I always had the belief in myself that once I got the opportunity I could make the most of it,” he said. “Whenever I showed up at North Texas I was just trying to make the travel roster. I just wanted to see what college football’s all about. Seeing all this hype around my name it is crazy because I had none of that coming out of high school. I feel like you’ve just to keep the main thing the main thing. It’s cool to see all that but it’s also like we’ve still got to go out and perform this year and win games.”

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