Much of the offseason chatter around Oklahoma State has centered on the wave of transfers that washed into Stillwater - nearly 90 of them, in fact. But no newcomer has generated more buzz than quarterback Drew Mestemaker.
That kind of attention makes sense. The redshirt sophomore is being talked about as the kind of player who can alter the direction of a program that has won four games in two seasons and went 1-11 last year.
And if Mestemaker delivers the kind of season people are projecting, the impact won’t stop at 2025. It could shape what Oklahoma State looks like after he’s gone, which could be as early as next spring if he decides to head to the NFL.
The latest sign of how high his stock has climbed came from The Athletic, which ranked every projected FBS starting quarterback and sorted them into seven tiers. Mestemaker landed in Tier 1, a group the site described this way:
“The best of the best. They have a strong combination of proven production and elite traits and are among the Heisman Trophy frontrunners. Coaches want to build their teams around them.”
That’s rare air, and Mestemaker checked in at No. 6 in a tier that included only eight quarterbacks. Ahead of him were No.
1 Trinidad Chambliss of Ole Miss, No. 2 Dante Moore of Oregon, No.
3 CJ Carr of Notre Dame, No. 4 Darian Mensah of Miami and No.
5 Julian Sayin of Ohio State. Behind him came No.
7 Arch Manning of Texas and No. 8 Sam Leavitt of LSU.
For Cowboys fans, that’s the kind of list that fuels the hype fast.
The same ranking would have looked very different a year ago. If The Athletic had done it last season, Mestemaker likely would have been slotted into Tier 7 as one of the site’s “unproven FBS quarterbacks,” which was his status at North Texas.
The Athletic also gathered opinions from Big 12 personnel people, assistant coaches and scouts, and the feedback was loud. One personnel person called Mestemaker “the best in the league.” An assistant coach went even further, saying he’s “probably the face of the league.”
That praise lands in the middle of commissioner Brett Yormark’s recent description of the Big 12 as the “conference of quarterbacks.” Right now, some around the league believe the newcomer in Stillwater might be the best of the bunch, even before he’s taken a snap for Oklahoma State.
It’s a reflection of what he did at North Texas and how much faith people are putting in him after following Eric Morris to Stillwater. Now the challenge is obvious: if Mestemaker is as good as the ranking suggests, Oklahoma State has a real shot to win more games than it has across the last two seasons combined - and then some.
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