North Texas quarterback Drew Mestemaker set a school and an American Conference record by throwing for 608 passing yards in the Mean Green’s 54-20 win over Charlotte on Friday night.
Mestemaker’s passing yardage total is the 10th-highest single-game total by an FBS quarterback since 1995, according to Stathead. He is now one of only 15 FBS quarterbacks to throw for at least 600 yards in a game in the last 30 years. It is also the highest single-game passing yardage total of the 2025 season, according to TruMedia, passing the previous high of 457 yards set by Hawaii’s Micah Alejado on Sept. 27 against Air Force.
Mestemaker’s performance marked the first 600-yard passing performance by an FBS quarterback since Oct. 17, 2020, when UCF quarterback Dillon Gabriel threw for 601 yards against Memphis.
It also marked the continuation of an unlikely rise for Mestemaker, a redshirt freshman who wasn’t the full-time starting quarterback at his high school and had his last full-time starting quarterback job as a high school freshman.
#GMG🦅 pic.twitter.com/vrDWFuDpQa
— UNT Football (@MeanGreenFB) October 25, 2025
The former walk-on made his first career start for North Texas in December, throwing for 393 yards in a loss to Texas State in the First Responder Bowl. This offseason, Mestemaker beat out Miami transfer Reese Poffenbarger for the starting job going into 2025 and threw 11 touchdown passes and no interceptions in his first five starts.
Mestemaker threw four touchdown passes on Friday against the 49ers and is now up to 2,468 passing yards and 21 touchdown passes with four interceptions this season. Entering Friday’s games, only seven FBS quarterbacks had thrown for 2,000-plus yards this season.
Mestemaker is the latest of a long line of talented quarterbacks recruited and/or developed by North Texas head coach Eric Morris. While head coach at Incarnate Word, Morris recruited and signed Cam Ward, who won the Jerry Rice Award, which goes to the top freshman in the FCS. Ward later transferred to Washington State, where Morris became offensive coordinator, and Miami, where Ward was a Heisman Trophy finalist and eventual No. 1 draft pick.
Morris also recruited John Mateer to Washington State and helped Chandler Morris lead the American in passing yards and touchdowns last season. Mateer and Chandler Morris are both quarterbacking top-25 teams at Oklahoma and Virginia, respectively.
Friday’s win improved the Mean Green to 7-1 overall and kept them in contention for a berth in the American Conference title game. Three teams (Navy, USF, Tulane) are unbeaten in conference play and North Texas is tied with Memphis and East Carolina with one conference loss.
Mestemaker’s performance will continue to raise his profile among interested Power 4 conference programs that might target him in the transfer portal in January should he decide to enter. After his first three starts, at least one SEC team had Mestemaker atop its list of potential portal targets, according to an agent briefed on that team’s strategy.
North Texas general managers Raj Murti and Steve Keasler told The Athletic recently that their goal is to raise enough money to make a seven-figure offer to Mestemaker after the season to try to retain him. A typical Power 4 starting quarterback in 2025 makes around $1 million.