Drew Mestemaker’s rise has been strange enough to feel fictional: a quarterback who once needed coaches to plead for a walk-on chance, now walking into Oklahoma State as one of the biggest transfer prizes in the country.
That’s the arc. The Austin native didn’t even start a high school game after Freshman B Team at Vandegrift High School, yet under Eric Morris at North Texas he turned into one of college football’s most startling success stories. As a redshirt freshman, Mestemaker led the nation in passing yards and helped the Mean Green to a school-record 11 wins.
When Morris left for Oklahoma State, the reunion became the obvious pull. Still, this wasn’t a simple homecoming. Once Mestemaker entered the portal, teams came hard with big-money pitches, and for the first time in his career he had real options.
“To be wanted is just human nature, right?” Morris told CBS Sports.
“After never being recruited, all of a sudden you have some of these blue blood programs calling you, talking dollar amounts and bringing you up on visits. That's appealing.”
One call from a major school had Mestemaker thinking. He phoned Morris while driving back to Austin, with Oklahoma State still sitting at the top of his list but other opportunities suddenly looking tempting.
“Don't get caught up in all the hype,” Morris said. “And don't break my heart.”
Then Morris hung up.
That was the moment Mestemaker says it clicked.
“I was like, what am I supposed to do now? Tell him I'm not going there?”
Mestemaker told CBS Sports with a laugh. “That was when I made my decision.
I can't leave them.”
He committed to Oklahoma State the next morning.
The numbers explain why the buzz followed him everywhere. Mestemaker first burst onto the scene by throwing for 393 yards in his first-ever start, a bowl-game loss to Texas State. Then came the breakout redshirt freshman season: 4,379 passing yards, 34 touchdowns, a 69% completion rate and 9.5 yards per attempt, the last figure also leading the nation.
Morris, who has built a reputation as one of college football’s best quarterback developers after working with Patrick Mahomes, Cam Ward, Chandler Morris and John Mateer, sees Mestemaker as another special case.
“I think all the great ones, they process information really fast,” Morris said. “I think that's a superpower of his. He's really great at anticipating throws, and I think he sees windows before they come open, and throws people into open windows.”
For Oklahoma State, landing him mattered on more than one level. Mestemaker was rated the No. 4 overall transfer in the nation and one of two five-star quarterbacks. Once he committed, North Texas’s offensive exodus followed, with 17 players transferring overall, including top-50 transfers RB Caleb Hawkins and WR Wyatt Young.
Now Morris is trying to steer a Power Four program for the first time, and the job is no small one. Oklahoma State went 1-11 last season and has dropped 18 straight Big 12 games since reaching the 2023 Big 12 Championship Game. The Cowboys’ win total is set at 5.5, but Morris has described the situation as a “hard reset,” and the talk inside the building sounds more ambitious than that record suggests.
“I feel like a lot of people think we're rebuilding,” Mestemaker said. “We're ready to win now, and the guys we've got on the team are ready to win.
The conference championship is what we all have our eyes set on. I don't think it's that crazy of a goal to set for our team.”
Mestemaker reportedly signed a two-year contract with Oklahoma State and could return for another season if he chooses. CBS Sports’ Ryan Wilson currently projects him as the No. 14 pick in his 2027 mock draft, pointing to his arm talent and pocket presence.
For Morris, though, the bigger point is still how much room Mestemaker has left to grow.
“Drew's just scratching the surface of how good he can be,” Morris said. “He hasn't played a ton of football, and so I think he'll really grow a ton in these next couple of years.”
In Other News...
Eric Morris Gets Emotional About The Mike Leach Influence Behind His Rise
At Big 12 Media Days, Eric Morris took a moment to talk about the coach who helped shape nearly every step of his football path. The Oklahoma State coach credited Mike Leach with giving him his only major scholarship and his first full-time coaching job, and said Leachs mentorship and drive left a lasting imprint on both his playing and coaching career.
Morris also described a personal Washington State memory that still stands out to him, one tied to the same place where he later learned of Leachs passing and his own hiring at North Texas. For Morris, it was a reminder that his rise has been built on opportunities Leach created, and on a relationship he clearly still carries with him. [Read more 🡒]