North Texas Quarterback Joins Exclusive Club With 600-Yard Outing vs. Charlotte

Drew Mestemaker carved his name in college football history.
Drew Mestemaker lit up the scoreboard Friday as North Texas blew out Charlotte.
Drew Mestemaker lit up the scoreboard Friday as North Texas blew out Charlotte. / Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

There are good passing nights, and there are really good passing nights, and there is the night North Texas quarterback Drew Mestemaker had against Charlotte Friday in a 54–20 blowout win.

In helping the Mean Green run their record to 7-1, Mestemaker completed 37 of 49 passes for 608 yards through the air. He added four touchdowns against one interception in the victory.

Mestemaker hit two milestones Friday. First, his 608 yards set an American Conference record. Second, his total made him just the 22nd quarterback in FBS history to throw for 600 or more yards in a game.

He is only the third quarterback to do so in the 2020s, joining K.J. Costello of Mississippi State against LSU and Dillon Gabriel of UCF against Memphis—both in 2020.

The FBS record for passing yards in a game is 732, jointly set by Connor Halliday of Washington State against California in 2014 and Patrick Mahomes of Texas Tech against Oklahoma in 2016.

Mestemaker, a redshirt freshman, entered Friday having thrown 17 touchdowns against three interceptions this season. Thanks to his efforts, North Texas is (per College Football Reference's database) on pace for its highest winning percentage as a major school.


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Patrick Andres
PATRICK ANDRES

Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .