OSU QB Drew Mestemaker faces expectations for first time, but pressure is nothing new: 'This is sprinkles on top'

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Memories of the past dozen years flooded Dakota Prukop’s mind as he stared at a TV screen showing him what he’d wished for for so long.

On that night, Jan. 3, 2025, a true freshman Drew Mestemaker trotted onto the field at the First Responder’s Bowl to start at quarterback for North Texas against Texas State – the first quarterback start of his varsity football career.

Prukop, one of Mestemaker’s biggest mentors since kindergarten, couldn’t contain his emotions as Mestemaker’s long-awaited opportunity arrived. The world was finally about to learn what he had already known for years.

“The most joy I’ve ever felt in football, ever, throughout my whole career, the most joy I ever felt was watching his bowl game at North Texas against Texas State,” said Prukop, who played QB seven years in the Canadian Football League after playing college ball at Montana State and Oregon. “I’ve never got too emotional or anything during a game, you know, quarterbacks are pretty even keel. But watching him have that success after everything he went through, that alone right there (made me emotional).”

Mestemaker went on to throw for 393 yards and two touchdowns that night, and a star was born. The world didn’t know Mestemaker’s story then, but it does now. A guy who never started a game at quarterback in high school and was constantly told no. A guy who wasn’t recruited, earned a last-minute walk-on spot and in his first season as a starter became college football's leading passer.

No one had expectations for Mestemaker for years, except for himself. Now, for the first time in his career, Mestemaker has those outside expectations, the lights pointed toward him and the pressure of leading a stagnant Oklahoma State program back to prominence, beginning at 2:45 p.m. Saturday at Tulsa.

But Prukop knows this is nothing new for Mestemaker. His career was forged in pressure situations.

“I think for him it’s maybe newfound pressure, but at the end of the day, pressure is pressure – and he’s dealt with a pressure that a lot of people would have quit or run away from,” Prukop said. “This is sprinkles on top.”

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Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker never had outside expectations until a breakout 2025 season put him on the map. He's dealing with new pressures this season, that's nothing new for him. "He’s dealt with a pressure that a lot of people would have quit or run away from. This is sprinkles on top.”

In the furnace of football

Vandegrift High School in Austin, Texas, fielded its first football team in 2010, and Prukop was the quarterback for the Vipers’ first two seasons. Although the team was newly formed, Prukop and the team already had a homegrown No. 1 fan in kindergarten.

“I just kept hearing about this kid that was this huge Vipers fan,” Prukop said. “So, I just remember I went down one day and did some deal at the elementary school, and after I did the speaking event, a couple teachers were like, ‘Hey, you have to meet this one kid.’ That was the first time I met Drew.”

What immediately stuck out to Prukop about Mestemaker was his unmatched passion for football and eagerness to absorb information, especially at his age. From that time on, Mestemaker learned under his wing.

“He's always been in my corner and kind of talking me up and keeping my confidence up,” Mestemaker said. “Just kind of always been in my corner telling me I could do it.”

Prukop went on to play four years at Montana State, then the 2016 season at Oregon, and he traveled around the country training with top QB coaches. Then, he’d come home and teach Mestemaker everything he’d learned.

During summers and breaks in college, then later offseasons in the CFL, Prukop would bring his college and pro receivers back to Austin to train with at his parents’ training facility. All throughout middle school and high school, Mestemaker basically lived at that facility, throwing and working with pro players.

By the time Mestemaker was a sophomore at Vandegrift, he reminded Prukop of a young Justin Herbert, who Prukop lost his starting job to at Oregon. Long, lanky, with a beautiful throwing motion.

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Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker throws during fall practice. Mestemaker said this summer that having pressure to succeed this year is a "privilege" and what he's dreamed of.

Prukop was the first on the Mestemaker bandwagon, but everyone hadn’t caught up yet. Mestemaker was determined to play quarterback in high school, then college and the NFL, though determination didn’t equate to varsity snaps his first three years at Vandegrift with only 13 pass attempts as a backup.

His dream continued to be delayed and pushed to the brink.

“He’s a guy that he was in the furnace for so long in football, and he is so incredibly talented,” Prukop said. “I remember coming back as a professional, and there was a point when he was in high school where I was like, ‘First off, this dude throws way better than I did in high school, he throws way better than I did in college, and he’s in high school and he’s never played a snap.’

“But he was such a process-oriented kid to where it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, things aren’t working out, so I’m going to work less hard.’ It was just he had his regimen, and he always stuck to it, and he worked, and he worked and he worked.”

Mestemaker didn’t waver, and his focus shifted on winning the starting spot his senior year. Just when a window seemed to open, Louisville commit Deuce Adams transferred in and won the job. Another setback, and one that eliminated his chance to finally start and get recruited.

Rather than transferring, Mestemaker stayed and played safety and cornerback.

“Imagine this: being a senior, training your whole life for your senior year of football to be a starting quarterback, you think you’re gonna be the starter, but all of a sudden you kinda get blindsided and you’re not the starter. And in today’s age, you know how kids handle that,” Prukop said. “But the way he handled it, which is one in a million, is he went into the head coach’s office and said, ‘What can I do for the team?’”

In the meantime, the pressure for Mestemaker to keep his QB dream alive was at an all-time high. Prukop again became someone Mestemaker leaned on, and he gave him the only advice he could – “Drew, I don’t know how it’s going to work out for you. But it will. If there’s anything I know, it’s that it will work out for you. You’re too talented.”

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Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker claps toward the crowd after an on-field interview during the spring game at Boone Pickens Stadium on April 18.

Prukop called every coach he knew, sending them practice tape of Mestemaker and trying to convince them that, as crazy as it sounded, there was a kid in Austin who had never started in high school but deserved a shot.

Mestemaker reached out to coaches at all levels, too, looking for a chance. He wasn’t giving up.

“I think I always had a belief in myself that someday it would work out. Some people probably called me crazy for thinking that, but I think that’s kind of the mentality you have to have,” Mestemaker said. “I remember having calls with D-III coaches that wanted me to come be an athlete and play both sides of the ball, and I remember telling them my goal is to play Power Four football. I want to be under the bright lights. I want to do that.

"They told me I was crazy and I didn’t have the film for it and everything, but I knew somehow an opportunity would come and work out.”

All he needed was one ‘yes.’

“And then, by the good grace of God, he has a guy in Eric Morris that can look beyond, or really take the chance to put himself out there,” Prukop said. “And the rest is history.”

A ‘sometimes’ moment

Mestemaker was ready to play QB anywhere that would give him the chance. After his frustrating high school career and lack of recruiting interest, his determination soared.

“I feel like every ‘no’ made me want to do it that much more. I honestly feel like the reason I kept going was because of how much work I kept putting in,” Mestemaker said at OSU’s media day. “I couldn’t put all the work in and then just over a few ‘nos’ throw it all away and just feel sorry for myself. It was definitely punch in the gut after punch in the gut, like, ‘Dang, am I ever going to get my opportunity?’ But I knew one day it would come around, and I knew I couldn’t let that opportunity slip.”

He considered all options and even visited Laney College, a junior college in California. Then, a coaching connection landed him a walk-on offer at Sam Houston before luck finally turned his way.

North Texas offensive coordinator Sean Brophy watched Mestemaker throw stationary passes at a workout in a Dallas-area gym during summer 2024. Brophy told Mestemaker in the parking lot that UNT didn’t have a spot but that he’d call back in a week. “Sure,” Mestemaker thought.

But then Brophy and head coach Eric Morris reached out with a walk-on offer.

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Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker scrambles out of the pocket during a March spring practice with offensive coordinator Sean Brophy, right, watching.

Mestemaker arrived not expecting much and said he was trying to make the travel roster and learn behind starting quarterback Chandler Morris.

Eric Morris hadn’t even seen Mestemaker throw yet, but right away he saw skill and potential others missed on.

“Just super polished as a passer. There was zero wasted movement in his throwing motion, which is something we look for,” Eric Morris said. “And there’s a couple little things, detail-wise, that we look for, mechanics. … Drew was as good as anybody I’d seen just as far as some of those mechanics.”

But Morris said his confidence wasn’t as developed yet.

“I think he had been told ‘no’ the last four or five years of his life, and he had been beaten out by people. So, I think there was more frustration,” Morris said. “But then, too, getting the opportunity at that level, he was just so happy to be in the conversation and be in the room and thankful at that point. I think he was a little gun-shy at that point.”

That quickly wore off. A month in, Mestemaker realized he belonged and could make some noise.

Morris saw him grow throughout camp and begin to show a unique football IQ and ability to retain and process information. As the Mean Green got into fall scrimmages, Mestemaker found his groove and battled for the No. 2 spot.

“That was probably the first time you’re like, ‘OK, this kid’s got some fight in him,’” Morris said.

Mestemaker redshirted that season, but when Chandler Morris transferred before the bowl game, the floor was finally his. All that work, rejection, years of frustration and not giving up on his career, it was now his time to shine.

Prukop beamed with pride as he watched him capitalize on his opportunity.

“Football’s not fair. Football is you get what you get, and sometimes – sometimes – you get what you deserve. And that was his sometimes moment,” Prukop said.

As Prukop watched Mestemaker break out, he decided he wanted to coach. A couple months later, he retired from the Edmonton Elks and became the QB coach for the Calgary Stampeders and now is a defensive analyst at USC, all because of that game.

“I was the most proud of anyone I’ve ever been. And that’s a true statement,” Prukop said. “I was more happy for him than I had ever really felt after a good football game for myself or anything. It was just a really unique moment, and honestly kind of a life-defining moment for myself, because after that I was like, ‘Man, I want to see that in a lot of kids. How can that happen again? There’s more kids that need help and motivation, and if I can be that for one more person.’ It truly was a life-changing moment to be able to witness that.”

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Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker smiles between drills during an April spring practice.

Keeping the chip on his shoulder

This offseason has been unlike any other for Mestemaker.

“The longest offseason I’ve ever been a part of,” he said Tuesday. “Just because of all the expectations coming here.”

Last year was a blur. In his first year as the starter at UNT, he threw for a nation-leading 4,379 yards and 34 touchdowns and led his team to a 12-win season. Within a span of four months, he became a household name and the face of OSU.

And he's only started 15 games in his life.

"It’s cool to see where he’s at now," Prukop said. "And I believe it’s just the beginning still, to be honest, built on the foundation of really what is the most beautiful story in all of college football right now.”

ESPN’s latest mock NFL Draft has Mestemaker as a projected first-round pick, and because of him, OSU is a trendy pick as a darkhorse Big 12 contender despite 18 consecutive conference losses.

“Seeing all this hype around my name, it is crazy, because I had none of that coming out of high school,” Mestemaker told a crowd surrounding him at Big 12 Media Days.

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Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker drops back to pass during the spring game at Boone Pickens Stadium. Mestemaker was 13 of 20 for 260 yards and three touchdowns.

At 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, he has the size, arm talent and attributes of a dominant quarterback. He has the vision and intelligence to go with it, and Morris has raved about his IQ all offseason.

“Drew, I think his superpower is anticipation and how fast he processes information on the field,” Morris said.

He’s even valuable for the defense, where he gives the unit a tougher test in practice than they'll face most game days.

“He sees tendencies, he sees tips, things like that. He does a really, really good job of that, and he knows where the ball is supposed to go really, really early on in the process,” said defensive coordinator Skyler Cassity. “So when we give tips away and things like that, he'll expose you in practice if it happens.”

Those are all big reasons why Mestemaker is a projected first-round pick making a reported $7 million-plus over the next two years, according to The Tulsa World. But there are lots of quarterbacks out there who can throw well and read a defense.

His resiliency in pressure and belief in himself when nobody else does is something not everyone has or can be taught. Prukop said after watching Mestemaker for years, that’s the separator.

Resiliency created the process-oriented approach he has to the game and the joy he plays with, because for years, he didn’t have any other “external positive influence.”

A chance to start at a Power Four program and bring excitement back to a fan base? It might sound like pressure to some, but that’s a sweet spot for Mestemaker.

“You look back and you think about all those times when I was emailing schools and they said they didn't have a quarterback spot for me, and now you have the privilege of having all that pressure on you,” Mestemaker said. “It's everything you could have dreamed of.”

He now has all of that recognition he never had. It’s a new feeling, but don’t expect him to change. The underdog, workman role is one thing he’s always had.

“It’s how I got to this point, so why change it?” Mestemaker said. “I feel like you kind of will always have that chip on your shoulder.”

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