Danny Kanell has a new quarterback sitting atop his college football rankings, and the name at No. 1 is one of the season’s most unusual success stories.
The CBS Sports analyst put Oklahoma State’s Drew Mestemaker in the top spot in his latest list released Thursday, moving the Cowboys quarterback ahead of Miami’s Darian Mensah and SMU’s Kevin Jennings. Mestemaker had been third in Kanell’s previous rankings, but his performance in a 66-28 win over Kansas State was enough to vault him to the top.
After week 10 here are my Top QB’s of college football. #DK13 pic.twitter.com/JYeAAFe8tj
Mensah had owned the No. 1 spot since late October, but Miami’s 31-24 loss to Notre Dame changed the picture. Without top target Malachi Toney, Mensah still threw for 269 yards and three touchdowns, but Kanell slid him to No. 2.
Mestemaker made the case in a big way in Manhattan. He completed 22 of 28 passes for 313 yards and four touchdowns, added a rushing score and even caught a 5-yard touchdown pass on a trick play.
That made him the first Bowl Subdivision player with four touchdown passes, one rushing touchdown and one receiving touchdown since Virginia’s Brennan Armstrong did it against BYU in 2021. He also set a school record with consecutive 300-yard passing games.
Through nine games, Mestemaker has piled up 2,962 passing yards, 29 touchdowns and eight interceptions while completing 66.7 percent of his throws. The ranking shift came just days after Kanell also installed a new No. 1 team ahead of Tuesday’s College Football Playoff rankings.
What makes Mestemaker’s rise stand out is how far he had to climb to get here. He never started at quarterback at Vandegrift High School in Austin.
Instead, he was mostly the team’s punter and also played in the secondary as a senior. He walked on at North Texas, opened fall camp as the fifth-string quarterback, and by 2025 he was leading FBS with 4,379 passing yards.
Oklahoma State coach Eric Morris brought him with him when he took over a program that went 1-11 last season. The Cowboys dropped their opener to Tulsa, then stunned No.
6 Oregon the following week. Morris said Mestemaker was “off the charts” in the program’s cognitive testing and recall evaluations.
Now Oklahoma State is bowl eligible at 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the Big 12 after the win at Kansas State, and Mestemaker said the lopsided result came at the right time.
“Playing a game like that gets everyone back on track,” Mestemaker said. “I felt like we had a really great game plan going into it.”
The next challenge is a big one. Texas Tech quarterback Will Hammond leads the toughest opponent left on Oklahoma State’s schedule, and the Red Raiders already beat the Cowboys 42-0 in Lubbock last year.
Oklahoma State will host No. 10 Texas Tech (8-1) at Boone Pickens Stadium at 9:30 p.m.
ET on Saturday.
In Other News...
Oklahoma State Avoids The Travel Chaos Disrupting Saturdays Schedule
A nationwide ground stop on flights has thrown Saturdays college football schedule into uncertainty, with several teams dealing with travel headaches before kickoff. Among the programs caught in the mess were Ole Miss, Florida Atlantic and Texas Tech, as the disruption left some unable to depart and others scrambling to adjust their plans.
For Oklahoma State, the good news is that one of the weekends visiting teams got to Stillwater before the travel shutdown hit, keeping that game on track for now. Around the sport, though, the picture is still fluid, and the larger concern is how many matchups could be forced to wait out the fallout from a problem that has nothing to do with football once the teams are actually on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma State Heads Into Texas Tech With Another Defensive Concern
Oklahoma State heads to Texas Tech carrying another defensive question, and it starts with the same absence that lingered through last weeks preparation. Linebacker Tate Romney will miss a second straight game because of injury, leaving the Cowboys to adjust again at a spot that already had to be shuffled after the setback against Iowa State two weeks ago.
Five Oklahoma State players are listed out for the matchup, while Texas Tech has three players tagged probable as the teams wait through a week with a little extra uncertainty. The Big 12 is also keeping an eye on possible schedule changes because of a Federal Aviation Administration ground stop that could affect travel, adding another layer to a road trip already complicated by the injury report. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma State Wrestling Faces An Early Test That Could Mean Plenty
Oklahoma State gets an early measuring stick Friday night when Nebraska comes to Gallagher-Iba Arena for a college wrestling dual that should tell a lot about where both programs stand this season. The Cowboys opened by blanking Drexel, while Nebraska handled Wyoming in its first outing, and now the tone shifts from getting loose to finding out how much separation there really is between two teams with bigger goals in mind.
The setting should add to it, with a Friday night crowd in Stillwater and a national audience watching on ESPNU, plus streaming options on the ESPN app and Fubo. For Oklahoma State, this is the kind of November dual that can sharpen the edges quickly, even if the bigger picture still stretches far beyond one night. [Read more 🡒]