Quarterback Dominoes Start Tumbling in Transfer Portal

If Vegas did odds on who is most likely to start at quarterback for the Cowboys during the 2026 season, Drew Mestemaker would probably be the frontrunner. But Monday showed that it could be a hectic portal window for the quarterback position.

Just as the coaching carousel dominoes started tumbling when Lane Kiffin chose LSU, a string of quarterback dominoes fell to start off the week. Florida’s DJ Lagway, Cincinnati’s Brendan Sorsby and Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola all made their portal intentions known Monday. As did Zane Flores in Stillwater.

Still very much the quarterback of the North Texas Mean Green, Mestemaker hasn’t publicly showed his hand on what his next move is to this point.

“I haven’t really thought about that much, honestly,” Mestemaker said after UNT’s regular season finale. “I’ve heard things from the outside, and there’s a lot of rumors going on, but I haven’t even given that a thought. …

“I love Coach Morris and everything he’s done for us, and me specifically, but it’s something that I honestly haven’t even thought about. I think if you’re in the season thinking about what you’re gonna do after the season, you’re just missing out on what we play the game for, honestly.”

Anything is possible, but it would seem unlikely that Mestemaker plays at North Texas past the Mean Green’s Dec. 27 New Mexico Bowl against San Diego State. That absolutely stinks for UNT and its fanbase, but it becomes a matter of dollars and cents in the modern landscape of college football.

Should he hit the portal, OSU would almost certainly be involved and probably the favorite given the Morris connection. But the quarterback market is always active and looks to be about as active as the coaching market this year.

If Mestemaker does go portaling, he’d be one of the premier names in the market given he’s only a redshirt freshman and the nation’s leader in passing. How he’d stack up in the pecking order compared to guys with Power Conference experience like Lagway and Raiola remains to be seen and probably depends on which coach you’re asking.

Maybe there’s a world where this active market helps an OSU-Mestemaker partnership, as perhaps some of the programs in need of a quarterback will start their searches elsewhere, whereas you get the feel that with Morris in tow, OSU’s would start with Mestemaker. Or perhaps, it goes the other way and a school puts together a big package for a QB that goes somewhere else before trying to get North Texas’ QB with that same deal.

One thing is for certain: college football is a mess. OSU navigated the mess of a coaching carousel as good as anyone could’ve asked. If they can do the same in the quarterback market, perhaps this rebuild can happen fairly quickly.