Miles Coleman still remembers the moment Drew Mestemaker called with the news.
For a while, the plan had seemed set. Coleman had already signed with North Texas, while Mestemaker was headed toward a walk-on opportunity at Sam Houston State. Then North Texas came in late with a walk-on offer of its own, and Coleman went to work trying to bring his best friend with him.
He texted. He called. He kept pushing.
About a week later, Mestemaker rang him back.
“I’m going to North Texas,” Mestemaker told him. “We’re gonna play together.”
Coleman said he was over the moon.
“I was screaming,” he said, with a laugh. “I was jumping around.”
That decision now feels like one of those small turns that ends up shaping everything. The two friends, who have known each other since they were 5 and have been teammates for more than a decade, are now together at Oklahoma State, where Coleman caught his first touchdown pass as a Cowboy last week against Murray State and Mestemaker is the quarterback.
As OSU gets ready for its Big 12 opener Saturday at West Virginia, Coleman can still see how close Mestemaker came to ending up somewhere else. For months after the 2023 season, Coleman and others believed Sam Houston was the likely landing spot. Mestemaker’s high school coaches at Vandegrift in Austin, Texas, had connections with Sam Houston assistants, and even though Mestemaker hadn’t started a varsity game at quarterback there, they vouched for him and helped him get a walk-on chance.
At the time, that made sense. K.C.
Keeler was the head coach at Sam Houston, and his background included finding quarterbacks who were overlooked and getting them to produce. He was at Delaware in 2005 when Joe Flacco transferred there after falling down the depth chart at Pitt, and three years later Flacco became a first-round NFL Draft pick.
Flacco just needed a chance.
Maybe Mestemaker did, too.
But while Mestemaker was training in the Metroplex after his senior season, North Texas took a look. Quarterbacks coach Sean Brophy liked what he saw, and soon he and head coach Eric Morris reached out to Coleman to get a better sense of who Mestemaker was.
“Just get some background and what type of human being more so than playing football and what kind of kid he was, what kind of person he was,” Morris said.
Coleman’s answer was simple.
“This is a guy you want on the team,” Coleman remembers telling them. “He’s a special player.
He’s a team player. He’ll do anything you want for the team to win, and he’s a talented quarterback.”
Coleman said he never doubted the ability was there, even if the tape was limited.
“I knew he had the talent from the get-go,” he said.
North Texas eventually offered Mestemaker a walk-on spot, and Coleman went right back to selling the idea. He wanted his friend there badly.
“I wanted to get him there so bad,” Coleman said.
“We were texting back and forth that whole week Coach Brophy and him were talking. I was always texting him. He was texting me updates and everything.”
The choice came down to two similar options: Sam Houston or North Texas, both mid-major programs and both roughly the same distance from home. In the end, Mestemaker picked North Texas.
For Coleman, the appeal was obvious.
“Just to be able to play with your best friend at the next level is a dream,” Coleman said.
He meant it both ways, too.
“Just having him as my quarterback, too,” Coleman said, “it’s really a dream come true.”
Now the two are living that out at Oklahoma State, where Coleman is one of four receivers with double-digit catches and more than 100 receiving yards this season, and one of Mestemaker’s favorite targets.
That part, at least, doesn’t surprise either of them. They’ve been doing this together since they were 5.
The setting is bigger now, and the stage is certainly brighter, but the bond looks the same. Coleman and Mestemaker are also roommates, and they keep finding themselves back in the same place, just at a higher level.
“It’s crazy to think about,” Coleman said. “But I think it’s just a blessing and just the opportunity to play with Drew and just see his success has been amazing.”
Mestemaker put it this way: “It was awesome to continue our journey together.”
Neither of them knew that journey would eventually reach Stillwater. Neither could have known it would involve Power Four football, or Oklahoma State, or a chance to help lift a rebuilding program.
“I’m just blessed to be in that situation,” Coleman said.
What started as one friend trying to convince another to join him at North Texas has turned into something much bigger. Coleman just wanted to keep playing ball with Mestemaker. Mestemaker wanted the same.
Now they’re doing that - and more.
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