North Texas 2025 Season Rewatch: Mestemaker, North Texas Defense Clobber Lamar

I’ve decided I can’t wait any longer for football.

Oklahoma State’s season is just over a month away, but in the leadup to watching this new-look Cowboy squad, I’ve decided to go back and watch all of North Texas’ games from last season and provide some takeaways.

We’ll start with the Mean Green’s season opener from last season — a 51-0 beat down against Lamar.

Mestemaker Has Zip

Remember when just about any time a TV broadcast would mention Lindy Waters, that broadcast would also note how he was high school teammates with Trae Young?

Well, I have a feeling we’ll be hearing the story about how Drew Mestemaker didn’t play high school quarterback quite a bit this year. It’s an incredible story, so I get it. But just be prepared to hear that a lot this year. The first of such instances in this game came with about eight minutes left in the first quarter, and it wasn’t the only time it was mentioned.

Mestemaker was fantastic in his first regular season start, completing 75% of his 32 attempts for 329 yards, three touchdowns and no picks.

The first throw of his season was plenty impressive, as Mestemaker fit the ball into a tight window to Miles Coleman (also now at OSU). He started throwing the pass when Coleman was behind a defender and had another trailing him, but the ball had so much zip that the Lamar defenders didn’t have a chance.

He was making those types of throws all game, whether it be fitting a ball between the linebacker and secondary for Wyatt Young to score off in the second half or one of about five quick fades that he’d drop right in a bucket. PFF credited Mestemaker with five “Big Time Throws,” the most he’d make in a game this season.

His release is so quick that once he sees a guy breaking open, it’s only a matter of seconds before that ball is right on the receiver.

What OSU fans probably don’t want to see this year is Mestemaker trying to flick the truck stick on two defenders at once like he did on his first scramble of the season.

Hawkins’ Humble Beginnings

When people all across the country discuss OSU football players this year, the second name off their tongue is almost always Caleb Hawkins (behind Mestemaker). That wasn’t the case when discussing UNT players entering last season.

The soon-to-be national leader in touchdowns scored was the fourth running back off the bench in this season opener against Lamar. The broadcast’s pregame spent time discussing Makenzie McGill, who ends up finishing second on the team in rushing yards, some 1,045 yards behind Hawkins.

The North Rock Creek alum finally entered with less than four minutes left in the first half. Given hindsight, I almost expected a sitcom-esque live studio audience to let out a cheer as he entered frame.

This wasn’t a taste of what was to come but rather Hawkins’ humble beginnings. He finished having carried five times for 18 yards while also catching a screen pass and turning it into nine yards.

Wyatt Young Is a Madman

New OSU receiver Wyatt Young had just four catches in this season opener and still had 97 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

One place I didn’t expect to see Young was blocking a punt, but he managed that, too, getting his fingertips to one in the first half. What other All-American receiver did that last season?

His first TD came on a 5-yard pass from Mestemaker, who ripped that ball into a tight window in the back of the end zone.

Young’s second TD was remarkable, as he managed to make three guys miss en route to a 32-yard score. He scored on this play:

Young was seemingly always open and was just as deadly with the ball in his hands as he was running routes.

Other Notes

• Young and Mestemaker nearly connected on big touchdown on the first drive when Mestemaker hit Young on a corner route for a 46-yard gain down inside the 5-yard line. Mestemaker would pull a zone read and score a few plays later.

• After the first touchdown, the Mean Green attempted a swinging gate point after attempt. It didn’t work, but I love the aggressiveness no matter the competition.

• Ethan Wesloski probably deserved his own little section because he, too, was everywhere, finishing with seven tackles, two tackles for loss, 0.5 sacks and a strip-and-score in the end zone.

There was one point early where Lamar tried for some trickeration with a wide receiver pass, but Wesloski didn’t fall for it, guiding the receiver out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage.

• Wesloski’s touchdown came in another moment of aggression from Morris and Co.

Already up 30-0, Morris called a timeout when Lamar had a 2nd-and-20 from their 12-yard line with 40 seconds to play. Most might’ve just let the clock run out, but Morris took a timeout. Two plays later, Wesloski was in the backfield, striping the quarterback and then falling on the ball in the end zone to make it 37-0 going into the half.

• Let’s stick with that halftime score. Did you know OSU never reached 30 points in a game all season? UNT had 37 in their first half of the season.

• More Morris aggression: he isn’t afraid to go for it on fourth down.

UNT was 1-for-2 on fourth downs in this one, which led me to look at where they were in the stat on the year. North Texas went for it on fourth down 36 times last season, which ranked sixth nationally. On top of that, UNT converted 72.2% of those attempts, which was good for seventh nationally.

• Mile Coleman is fearless and a lot of fun. He had five catches for 52 yards in this one and was not afraid to stick his nose in there to field a punt.

• It was 51-0 with 8:41 to play in the third quarter. This thing could’ve been a lot worse.

• Skyler Cassity’s defense finished having given up just 119 yards of total offense on 54 plays.

• It’s also important to note that while Lamar is an FCS team, it wasn’t a terrible one. Lamar finished the 2025 season at 8-5 and made the playoffs.