Oklahoma State’s first six games have changed the mood in Stillwater fast.
What looked like a season built on hope is starting to look like one with real substance. The Cowboys are 4-2 overall and 2-1 in Big 12 play, a record that has erased several losing streaks and put them in the mix for a Big 12 championship game berth in December. There’s still plenty left to sort out, and they’ll need some help as the race shakes out, but being in the conversation in mid-October during Eric Morris’ first season is reason enough for optimism.
Saturday’s meeting with Colorado opens the back half of the schedule, and it arrives with Oklahoma State carrying momentum that would have been hard to imagine after the way the season started.
The biggest reason the Cowboys have turned this into a legitimate story is Drew Mestemaker. What was once a question about whether he could play his way into the NFL has started to feel a lot more real.
Mestemaker has now posted five straight 300-yard passing games, and through six contests he has thrown for 1,940 yards with 16 touchdowns and six interceptions. The turnovers are the one obvious concern, but the arm talent is there, and NFL evaluators are going to keep paying attention after throws like the across-the-body dart he uncorked on the run against Houston.
That matters because the quarterback landscape around him has shifted, too. Oregon’s Dante Moore lost to Mestemaker and OSU outright and is now dealing with a serious concussion.
Texas star Arch Manning has had his own issues. Notre Dame’s CJ Carr, meanwhile, is not drawing the same kind of certainty he did before the season, when some mock drafts had him in the late first round.
Now some have him at No. 2 overall.
Morris’ connection with Mestemaker could still matter when the season ends. Morris is the coach who gave him his shot, and that relationship could keep him in Stillwater another year. But if Mestemaker keeps looking like a legitimate high first-round pick, Morris may be searching for a new quarterback through the transfer portal.
Another player who has changed the shape of the offense is Bowick. He came into the year with the profile of a red-zone jump-ball target, especially based on what he showed at Illinois.
That version of him hasn’t been the full story at all. In six games, Bowick has 29 catches for 469 yards and six touchdowns, all career highs.
He has become a deep threat, a chain-mover and a receiver who can finish in wild fashion, including with one-handed catches. Oklahoma State simply doesn’t have another wideout built like him, and it’s no stretch to say he has altered this offense right alongside Mestemaker.
For Bowick, this being his final college season only adds to the stakes. If he keeps producing at this pace, he has put himself into the NFL Draft conversation.
The other big shift has come on defense, where Oklahoma State has climbed out of the basement it occupied a year ago. Last season’s unit was near the bottom of the country in just about every important category.
Now, after six games, Skyler Cassidy has a group that sits 70th nationally in scoring defense and 73rd in total defense. That’s not elite, but it’s a meaningful step forward for a roster made up of solid players more than star names.
Ethan Wesloski has become a name to watch in that group and could finish the season with all-Big 12 recognition. The defense has done a decent job against the run and has had its moments rushing the passer. The secondary, though, remains the area where problems show up most clearly, and the season-ending injury to Mose Phillips III makes that even tougher to manage.
There’s also a very specific defensive issue Oklahoma State will have to solve as the schedule moves along: handling true dual-threat quarterbacks. Against a player like Houston’s Conner Weigman, the Cowboys have to do a better job getting off the field on third down.
That may end up deciding a lot of games down the stretch. Creating more turnovers would help, but that has also been an issue.
Still, the broader picture is better than most would have predicted. The defense is giving Morris and Cassidy something tangible to sell, both in recruiting and in the transfer portal. That matters now, and it matters even more when looking ahead to 2027, because targets needed to see proof that this could be a better situation.
Morris has also won over the fan base in ways that go beyond the record. Whether it’s dealing with armadillos tearing up his yard or just leaning into life in Stillwater, he has fit in quickly.
Winning always helps, but it’s the style of winning that has people energized. The Air Raid gives the Cowboys a different feel than what they had under Mike Gundy, and with Mestemaker running it, game days have a different kind of spark.
Morris understood this was going to take time, but the goal in Year 1 was simple: get Oklahoma State back to winning and make the fan base believe again. Through six games, he has done that, and maybe a little more.
The stretch before he arrived was brutal. Gundy’s last two seasons in Stillwater ended badly, and his firing after the Tulsa loss in Week 3 brought the era to a close before the campaign could fully unravel.
But the damage had already been done. Oklahoma State had gone 1-11, was 4-20 over the previous two seasons and entered this year on an 18-game Big 12 losing streak.
The opening loss to Tulsa only made the hole deeper.
Since then, though, the Cowboys have won four of their last five, and that has started to show up everywhere. Recruiting has picked up.
Oklahoma State is in position to potentially flip commits from other schools. It already has two four-star recruits committed, which is something Morris did not manage in his abbreviated first cycle.
That on-field success should also make the transfer portal easier to work. After two ugly seasons, it was hard to expect players to rush toward Stillwater. Teams have to earn belief, and Morris has begun to do that.
The work is far from finished, but the foundation is there now. Oklahoma State has a quarterback drawing NFL attention, a receiver who has become a difference-maker, a defense that is no longer a punching bag and a head coach who has the fan base leaning in.
After six games, the Cowboys are no longer just hoping for a turnaround. They’re living one.
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Spencer Mestemakers first season at Oklahoma State has been defined less by production than by the recurring issue that can tilt a game in an instant: turnovers. Through six games, the Cowboys quarterback has been asked to clean up his ball security, a point coach Mike Gundy has emphasized repeatedly, and the problem has only grown more noticeable as the season has gone on.
Mestemakers interception total has climbed from what he managed at North Texas, and Oklahoma State is feeling the ripple effects of every risky throw. For a team trying to find stability on offense, the quarterbacks ability to cut down mistakes is not just a detail, it is central to whether the Cowboys can get where they want to go. [Read more 🡒]
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The Buffaloes have stayed with Kaidon Salter at quarterback despite the recent rough stretch, a sign that the staff is trying to ride through the turbulence rather than reset it. But with Oklahoma State first on the schedule and tougher tests still ahead against Houston and Cincinnati, every week now feels tied to the larger question of whether Colorado can start turning close attention into actual results. [Read more 🡒]