Drew Mestemaker, Caleb Hawkins Make ESPN’s Top 100 Players Entering 2026 Season

There are roughly 14,500 players on FBS rosters entering 2026, and two of the Top 100 reside in Stillwater, America.

On Wednesday, ESPN released its annual Top 100 players going into the college football season, which included Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker at No. 32 and OSU running back Caleb Hawkins at No. 95. OSU joins Texas Tech as the only Big 12 teams with multiple players on this list, though Tech has six to OSU’s two.

Mestemaker climbed up from No. 67 on ESPN’s 2025 postseason list, while Hawkins fell back from No. 68.

Mestemaker ranked ninth among quarterbacks on the list, coming in as the best QB in the Big 12. He trailed Trinidad Chambliss (Ole Miss), CJ Carr (Notre Dame), Julian Sayin (Ohio State), Jayden Maiava (USC), Dante Moore (Oregon), Arch Manning (Texas), Darian Mensah (Miami) and Gunner Stockton (Georgia).

ESPN considers Hawkins the 13th-best running back in the country, which put him third among Big 12 backs behind BYU’s LJ Martin (No. 58) and West Virginia’s Cam Cook (No. 84).

Another thing that stands out is that both are only sophomores, with Mestemaker being a redshirt sophomore and Hawkins entering only his second year of college football. There were only 11 underclassmen to make the list, with Mestemaker ranking fifth among those and Hawkins coming in 11th.

ESPN reporter Eli Lederman also made the case for Wyatt Young to make the Top 100 in the “Which unranked player should’ve made the list?” portion.

“Who finished last season with more receiving yards than Jeremiah Smith (1,264), more yards per catch than Biletnikoff Award winner Makai Lemon (18.1) and as many receiving touchdowns as Malachi Toney (10)? Oklahoma State transfer Wyatt Young. The third-year pass catcher accounted for 21.5% of the 325 completions in the nation’s No. 2 passing offense at North Texas a year ago before following Morris and Mestemaker to the Cowboys. Operating in the same system and catching passes from the same quarterback in 2026, Young belongs in the top-100 conversation.” — Lederman

Here’s a look at OSU’s schedule broken down by players on ESPN’s Top 100:

Oregon (8) — No. 11 Dante Moore (QB), No. 16 A’Marui Washington (DL), No. 24 Brandon Finney Jr. (DB), No. 48 Iapani Laloulu (OL), No. 71 Jamari Johnson (TE), No. 76 Teitum Tuioti (LB), No. 78 Koi Perich (DB), No. 82 Dakorien Moore (WR)

West Virginia (1) — No. 84 Cam Cook (RB)

Houston (1) — No. 69 Shadre Hurst (OL)

Texas Tech (6) — No. 25 A.J. Holmes Jr. (DL), No. 27 Brice Pollock (CB), No. 66 Terrance Carter Jr. (TE), No. 83 Trey White (OLB/Edge), No. 94 Ben Roberts (LB), No. 98 Adam Trick (OLB/Edge).