One Play at West Virginia Highlighted Two of Drew Mestemaker’s Biggest Improvements This Season

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STILLWATER — A lot of the offseason talk surrounding Drew Mestemaker, and Oklahoma State overall, centered around the quarterback’s ability to handle the step up in competition.

Despite starting against Power Conference teams for the first time ever twice already, Mestemaker’s numbers look like he never left the American Conference.

He ranks third nationally in passing yards per game (318), seventh in touchdowns (seven), 28th in yards per attempt (9.01) and 47th in completion percentage (67%).

“I think I’ve been seeing the field a lot better this year than I did last year,” Mestemaker said Wednesday. “I think last year I was kind of just locked in on my receivers and like, progression-wise, I wasn’t really seeing the full picture.

“And I think I’ve been able to see the full picture of the defense and what the defense is trying to get to, and then also I feel like I’ve been more consistent down the field on my deeper passes this year, and I think you know just keeping that up throughout the season will be good.”

Currently, Mestemaker is on pace to finish 70 passing yards ahead of last season’s nation-leading number (assuming he plays 14 games once again, which requires some type of championship access).

His completion percentage has dipped only 1.5 points.

On Wednesday, Mestemaker referenced a 21-yard completion to receiver Wyatt Young on 3rd-and-9 in the second quarter against West Virginia as an example of how things have changed for him when it comes to seeing the entire field better this fall.

“They were trying to like mug the safety up on the left side, and then they dropped him all the way back to the deep middle and tried to bring two guys from the other side and like roll away from it,” Mestemaker said. “And so they were trying to like get me to see the safety off the left side and not see the blitz, and I felt the blitz and slid left and then hit Wyatt on a crosser, and I felt like, you know, that I felt I was really seeing the defense and safety rotation well last game.”

On that particular play, within one second (maybe less) of the snap, the WVU safety bails back just like Mestemaker describes. At the same time, two defenders on the opposite side begin coming up and do, in fact, blitz.

Plays like this gave Oklahoma State difficulty in the opener at Tulsa. In this instance, all the blitzers get picked up, including one of the latecomers by running back Caleb Hawkins.

Mestemaker’s “slide” to the left away from the defense is so slight you might miss it on rewatch. This too is another example of how he’s improved since last season.

“I think last year I was a little too quick to get out of the pocket sometimes,” Mestemaker said. “There’s a few times I was too quick getting through my reads and kind of skipped over something that could have been a big play, and so I think just really this offseason, I was doing everything I could to stay in there as long as I could and get through all my reads.”