Eric Morris didn’t need long to explain why NFL eyes keep drifting toward his quarterbacks. A Baltimore Ravens scout recently stopped by Stillwater to check out Drew Mestemaker, and Morris came away with a compliment that was equal parts flattery and proof of concept.
“He said, ‘Yeah, you should get out of coaching and start selling some kind of recruiting service for quarterback play at some point.’ … It’s all a process that we’ve come up with over the course of the years,” Morris said on Thursday. “And I think the biggest thing is how we prepare these quarterbacks, and actually what we do in the meeting room is what I think sets us apart.”
For Morris, the edge starts long before kickoff. He pointed to the way his staff teaches quarterbacks and the “extremely different” film-cutup process as a big reason his players have thrived.
Dave Hunziker didn’t exactly let the conversation stay modest, either. On the radio show, he brought up Morris’ track record with Cam Ward, Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes - a group that turns any quarterback conversation into a heavyweight one.
Morris said the real key is getting out of the way and building around the player.
“I think it’s just putting our ego as coaches aside,” Morris said in response to those name drops. “And you really have to dig in, and you got to study and find what their skill set is, and what they do well, and then build your plan around that.
And so, they’re the guys that touch the ball every single play, right? And so, I think it’s just interesting, even the things that you don’t see, but just minimizing their mistakes out there are something that’s huge.”
The scout wasn’t in Stillwater for Morris, though. He was there for Mestemaker, and the Cowboys’ QB1 is already drawing the kind of attention that puts him in the 2027 First Round conversation.
Morris said Thursday that Mestemaker will get every chance to show what he can do in front of NFL evaluators. The coach also stressed how much control his quarterbacks are given inside the system.
“We give the quarterbacks a ton of freedom,” Morris said. “You know, you’ll see Drew throwing hand signals during the course of this year, and that’s him actually changing the whole entire play over there.
So he has full ability at any point. And I think just avoiding negative plays is something that’s huge.
And we got a quarterback that can process information fast and can get us into the right plays and out of the bad ones that we ultimately call. I think it’s going to set us up for success.”
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Indiana Looked Like A Top 10 Team From The Start
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Indianas own 52-16 win over North Texas fit right into that early-season top-tier conversation, with Josh Hoover throwing multiple touchdown passes in his debut and the Hoosiers looking far sharper than a team still finding its footing. For Oregon State, which fell 33-20 to Houston, those results only add another layer to a weekend that already showed how quickly some programs are pushing toward the national spotlight. [Read more 🡒]