DENTON, Texas (AP) — Redshirt freshman quarterback Drew Mestemaker is the Bowl Subdivision passing leader after never starting a varsity game in high school, and No. 21 North Texas now has the opportunity to clinch the school's first 11-win season, a spot in its conference championship game and then maybe even the 12-team College Football Playoff.
With Mestemaker and soon-departing coach Eric Morris, the Mean Green (10-1, 6-1 American) go into their regular-season finale at home Friday with the nation’s top offense (503 total yards and 46.3 points per game). They have six 50-point games, including four of five since their only loss.
Morris will leave after UNT's last game, whenever that is, to become Oklahoma State's coach. It is easy to wonder if Mestemaker will follow him to the Big 12 or play elsewhere next year.
Even before Morris' move Wednesday on a coaching carousel that is picking up speed, there were always going to be Power Four teams coveting the 6-foot-4 Mestemaker. They didn't get to see him play QB in high school — because he didn't — but will now recruit him with lucrative deals far exceeding anything available from a Group of Five school.
“The portal is kind of, just kind of a sensitive topic for a lot of reasons,” Mestemaker said before the news of Morris' impending departure. “But I don’t think in a season you should be thinking about what I’m going to do after this or things like that. I think if you’re not totally bought in on the season, then you’re just like missing out. I have an agent. And I told him, ‘Don’t tell me anything, I don’t want to hear it.’ I just want to play.”
A win over Temple (5-6, 3-4) on Friday gets the Mean Green into the American Conference championship game that they could host next week.
Mestemaker is 251-of-358 passing (70.1%) for 3,469 yards (315.4 per game) with 26 touchdowns and four interceptions. Three of the picks came in the loss to then-No. 24 South Florida. He set conference and school records with 609 yards passing at Charlotte, and had 469 in a 56-24 win at Rice last week.
“He's got a great, great deal of confidence right now,” Morris said. “I’ve seen the growth of a guy coming in as a fifth-string walk-on just hoping for an opportunity to keep throwing the ball and stay on the team, to two short years later, you’re watching him on SportsCenter. And to watch him handle that, stay the same guy, not have an ego, be great with his teammates, has been fun to watch.”
Morris has been around some pretty good quarterbacks.
The former Texas Tech receiver was offensive coordinator for the Red Raiders when three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes was their quarterback a decade ago. Morris went to Incarnate Word for his first head coaching job and had Cam Ward, who then went to Washington State and Miami before being this year's No. 1 overall NFL draft pick. John Mateer, now Oklahoma's starter, was a freshman at Washington State when Morris was OC/QBs coach there in 2022.
Before North Texas, Mestemaker's last QB start was in 2020 as a freshman on the B team at Vandegrift High School in Austin, Texas. He later punted and played safety on the varsity, and the starting quarterback his senior season was Deuce Adams, who last Saturday made his first start for Louisville.
Mestemaker's starting debut for UNT was in the First Responders Bowl last January after Chandler Morris transferred to Virginia. Mestemaker threw for 393 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for 55 yards with another score.
“I always knew I could go out and perform, and it was awesome to get that opportunity and kind of show myself that I could," he said.
Because of that chance given to him by Morris, the quarterback said he will always be grateful to North Texas no matter what happens next.
Morris said before accepting the Oklahoma State job that there have been some small conversations with Mestemaker about the future. The two had agreed to sit down after the season to discuss what is best for the quarterback, and that likely will still be the case.
“We’ve built this great relationship,” Morris said. “This is something that’s inevitable ... you hear all these stories now on social media of quarterbacks that are already in P4 and shopping around. So that part of it is what it is. We’re going to continue to keep him in the moment, stay in the moment, continue to perform at a high level on Saturdays for this team."
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