Drew Mestemaker’s Heisman buzz has officially moved beyond the local level.
Oklahoma State has not produced a Heisman Trophy winner since Barry Sanders’ unforgettable 1988 season, and Sanders still stands alone in school history. That backdrop is part of what makes the conversation around Mestemaker so striking. Some national analysts are already viewing the Cowboys quarterback as a dark-horse candidate for the award after his massive 2025 season at North Texas, though whether that production carries over to Stillwater in 2026 is still the big question.
Earlier this week, The Athletic tried to sort through the Heisman field in a different way, running a fantasy-style draft with eight writers selecting four players apiece to build a pool of 32 candidates. Mestemaker came off the board at No. 12 overall, going with the fourth pick in the second round to Bruce Feldman.
That made him the first Big 12 player chosen, even though two former Big 12 quarterbacks were taken before him: LSU’s Sam Leavitt, who played at Arizona State, and Indiana’s Josh Hoover, who played at TCU.
“I could see new Cowboys coach Eric Morris lighting up the Big 12 just like he did in the American when he and Mestemaker were at North Texas,” Feldman wrote. He also said that another season like the one Mestemaker just posted could push him into the Top 10 of Heisman voting.
The numbers from 2025 explain the attention. Mestemaker led the FBS in passing yards with 4,379 and threw 34 touchdown passes while helping North Texas finish 12-2.
He did that with Morris as his head coach, and now Morris is in charge at Oklahoma State. A large chunk of that North Texas staff followed him to Stillwater, including quarterbacks coach Sean Brophy.
Mestemaker’s year brought plenty of hardware, too. He was named the American Conference offensive player of the year, earned first team All-American Conference honors, and was selected as an FWAA freshman All-American. He also won the Burlsworth Trophy, which goes to the nation’s best player who began his career as a walk-on.
If he puts together another season like that and Oklahoma State is in the mix for a Big 12 championship game spot, Mestemaker could be headed to New York City in mid-December.
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