Oklahoma State's QB Drew Mestemaker on ESPN's College Football Live

STILLWATER – This time of year every network involved in college football is looking for ways to preview the upcoming season. We all know that ESPN caters to the SEC. That is their bread and butter. FOX Sports and CBS are now both tied to the Big Ten as their major carriers. The Big 12 is in a good place as they have ties to both ESPN and FOX Sports as their television partners. The tie to ESPN paid off on Wednesday (Aug. 19) as College Football Live cranked up again brought Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker into the living rooms, dens, and on all mobile devices connected to the ESPN app. 

The best part of it was ESPN didn’t subject Drew Mestemaker, who was appearing via fiberoptic transmission from the West End Zone, to being interviewed by some of the analysts that are on College Football Live. It was host Zubin Mehenti that did the entire segment.

I don’t think Oklahoma State fans learned anything new about their quarterback. Mehenti started with the fact we all know, but the nation doesn’t and that is Mestemaker is doing what he’s doing having never started in high school.

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Mestemaker at Vandegrift High School in Austin, Texas.

“Junior year the kid ahead of me was a returning district MVP, so I kind of new that I wasn’t going to start,” Mestemaker continued on his high school journey without starting at quarterback. “It was going to be his year. I just kept trying to get in as much as I could as the back-up quarterback to him. His name is Greg Buchanan and he is now playing baseball at Baylor, a pretty good athlete.

“Senior year I thought was going to be my year. and Deuce Adams moved in and he was like a three-star, four-star quarterback,” Mestemaker kept going. “They said there was going to be a quarterback competition and they ended up giving him the spot. I wasn’t going to transfer out because these were my boys, so I ended playing safety.”

Mehenti brought up his game last season vs. Charlotte where he was 37-of-49 for 608-yards and four touchdowns in that game. 

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Drew mestemaker’s big year at North Texas on an ESPN graphic.

“I want to say that I had no clue how many passing yards that I had,” Mestemaker said. “I was trying to do whatever I could do to get us the lead. We really played our best football but we turned the ball over in the red zone a few times. The pass game was just open all day. I was just doing my best to try to win the game all day.”

Again, nothing new for Oklahoma State fans, Mestemaker was aksed why he followed his coach Eric Morris to Oklahoma State when every school out there seemed to want him.

“I told Coach Morris that I was going to hear other people out because I had never really been recruited before (he walked on to North Texas). I felt like I deserved that,” Mestemaker explained. “At the end of the day I trusted Coach Morris and the relationship that we have. I felt stronger than any amount of money anyone could offer, any amount of value in the name anybody has that wasn’t as great as Coach Morris. I really believe in the way he calls plays and the way he teaches offense. I felt like we could turn this place around.”

It was a great positive exposure for Oklahoma State football and for Mestemaker, who as we featured in the notes story on Wednesday is on the watch list for everything from the Heisman to the Maxwell and to the Johnny Unitas awards.