Friday night was one for the history books for North Texas quarterback Drew Mestemaker.
The redshirt freshman already enjoyed a stellar beginning to his first season as a collegiate starter. But Friday night’s 54-20 win over Charlotte rewrote records. Mestemaker fired for a school-record 608 yards and four touchdowns in the dominant road victory, connecting on 37-of-49 passes, good for 75.5%.
Mestemaker’s 608 yards set a new American Conference record, sliding past former UCF quarterback Dillon Gabriel
who tallied 601 in a 2020 game against Memphis. Mestemaker became the third quarterback to total 600 yards in the 2020s decade along with Mississippi State quarterback K.J. Costello (623 yards) and Gabriel, achieving the second-highest output in the timeframe.
Mestemaker set the school record by seven yards, besting Daniel Meager’s 601-yard outburst vs. SMU in 2007. The North Texas redshirt freshman became the first quarterback to reach 600 yards on a 75 percent completion rate since West Virginia’s Geno Smith in 2012. In the prolific outing, Mestemaker achieved the 17th-highest single-game passing total in FBS history and the third-highest in the last 10 years.
He produced 329 passing yards in the first half, while Charlotte quarterback Grayson Loftis added 213 — making the combined 529 yards the most attained in a single half in 2025. Mestemaker finished with four touchdowns and one interception in Charlotte, first hitting Cameron Dorner on a 41-yard deep ball to the end zone less than three minutes after kickoff. He then tied the game at 17 apiece right before halftime on a shovel to true freshman tailback Caleb Hawkins. Early in the fourth quarter, a 7-yard screen to Hawkins extended North Texas’ lead to 34-20. Then Mestemaker delivered his final score of the night, hitting Wyatt Young on a tunnel screen for a 70-yard touchdown with 9:03 remaining.
As of the start of Saturday, Oct. 25, Mestemaker now wields an FBS-high 2,468 passing yards, featuring a stellar touchdown to interception ratio of 21-to-4 — all on a 66.7 percent completion rate. His 21 touchdowns also tie for the FBS lead at the start of Oct. 25. He leads the nation’s No. 1 scoring offense which averages 46.1 points per game. With the quarterback’s success playing a crucial role, North Texas is 7-1 and likely sealed its first winning season since 2018 Friday night in Charlotte.
Prior to this season, Mestemaker had one career collegiate start — earning the nod for the 2024 First Responder Bowl due to his protégé Chandler Morris (Virginia’s current starting quarterback) entering the transfer portal. The First Responder Bowl marked Mestemaker’s first start at quarterback since ninth grade, and he’s thrived in the role ever since.
After his historic ninth-collegiate start, Mestemaker wrote the three digits on a piece of paper and held it up Wilt Chamberlain-style to commemorate one of the all-time great passing performances:
