Drew Mestemaker’s Oklahoma State debut didn’t go the way anyone wanted, but the timing of Week 2 gives him a chance to change the conversation fast. Standing across from Oregon’s Dante Moore is about as big a reset button as you can ask for.
The contrast between the two quarterbacks is sharp after one week. Mestemaker finished with 49 attempts, 29 completions, a 59.2% completion rate, 241 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, a 99.07 rating and a 70.3 QBR, good for 72nd.
Moore, meanwhile, opened with 37 attempts, 28 completions, a 75.7% completion rate, 378 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, a 188.25 rating and a 91.1 QBR, which ranked 23rd. Neither quarterback ran for a score.
That makes Mestemaker’s trip to Tulsa feel like a missed opportunity in more ways than one. A clean performance and a win would have turned this into a real showcase for NFL Draft followers. Instead, the debut fell short, and now he gets a chance to answer against a quarterback who already looks like he belongs in the top tier.
Moore is in that group of passers who should hear his name early on draft night. Mestemaker entered the season in the next tier, with some outlets even projecting him as a Day 1 pick. One rough outing does not erase what Mestemaker and Morris did last season, though, and if you still believe in the underdog angle, this is exactly the kind of spot that begs for a bounce-back.
Moore’s first game with Oregon wasn’t a straight-line cruise, either. The Ducks opened slowly by their standards, went scoreless in the first quarter and trailed Boise State for most of the first half.
Moore settled in after that. He did not throw back-to-back incompletions even once, and he guided Oregon through four straight scoring drives in the second half of a 34-27 win.
Oklahoma State fans already know what Moore can do. Last year against the Cowboys, he threw three touchdowns in a little more than two quarters during Oregon’s 69-3 rout. Because of the blowout, most of the OSU roster from that game was gone before they could really see the full picture, but the traits are hard to miss.
Moore has the size, arm strength and deep-ball ability that keep him in first-round conversations. Even more than that, it’s the little things that have NFL decision-makers hooked.
He gets stronger as games wear on, and mistakes don’t seem to linger with him. He looks like one of the most polished quarterback prospects in college football this season, even if that was not obvious when he first arrived.
That slow build matters. As Mike Gundy has said in the past, a quarterback is not really fully formed until he has about 15 games under his belt.
Moore’s early career fits that idea. At UCLA, as a freshman, he completed barely half his passes and nearly matched his nine interceptions with 11 touchdowns.
Before his breakout season last year, he had played only 14 games at two schools. Then everything clicked, he took off, and now he’s a Heisman favorite.
Mestemaker’s path has been different, but there is a parallel. He broke out last season with only five games on his résumé, which means he was already ahead of the curve.
On Saturday, he played below his level while dealing with constant pressure. That does not make him the same quarterback as Moore, and it does not mean he will beat Oregon.
It just means one bad start should not be the final word on where he belongs.
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JaMarcus Shephard Signals What Oregon State Must Fix Before Texas Tech
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For Oregon State, the challenge goes beyond simply matching up at the line of scrimmage. The Beavers will need to navigate a game in which Texas Tech arrives with the look of a team built to stay in the conference race all fall, and that level of experience usually shows up quickly once the ball is kicked off. Even with Reser Stadium providing a home-field edge, this is the sort of game that can expose what still needs work while also showing whether the Beavers are ready for the kind of test that defines a September schedule. [Read more 🡒]