Cowboys Insider: Oklahoma State’s ‘Big Three’ Step into Spotlight in Morgantown

The Dallas Cowboys had their Triplets. So, what are we calling these three Oklahoma State Cowboys?

One Cowboys beat writer up in Morgantown called them “The Big Three.” Oklahoma State’s social media department called them the “Three-Headed Monster.”

Oklahoma State head coach Eric Morris is just grateful they followed him, in part because he knows the journeys of quarterback Drew Mestemaker, running back Caleb Hawkins and wide receiver Wyatt Young so well he couldn’t help but beam after what the three of them did in the Cowboys’ 41-24 win over West Virginia on Saturday.

“They’re extremely tough football players,” Morris said to reporters, including the Tulsa World’s Eric Bailey, after the game. “They are gritty. They came from nothing. They only had one offer out of high school and earned everything they’ve gotten.”

The Cowboys Lean Into Their Mean Green Roots

Just absolutely slingin' it rn

📺: FS1 pic.twitter.com/ak2i7HBLLH
— OSU Cowboy Football (@CowboyFB) September 27, 2026

Mestemaker, Hawkins and Young have already had big games this season. But what they did as a trio at North Texas last season was incredible. The Mean Green had 7,174 total yards last season. Mestemaker (4,379 yards passing) and Hawkins (1,434 yards rushing) accounted for 5,813 yards, or 81% of the output. Obviously, we must put Young’s output into the passing yards category. But he led the team with 1,264 yards.

Week after week last season these guys went off. They put up huge numbers. They helped North Texas to a 12-2 record, a berth in the American Conference title game and a bowl game win. Once Morris left for OSU and once the trio decided to into the transfer portal, they were fair game. They could have gone anywhere. Morris managed to land all three.

Games like Saturday’s are why Morris told Mestemaker during one of his recruiting visits not to “break his heart” as he was making his decision. Mestemaker chose the Cowboys.

He had zero offers from colleges because he didn’t play a snap of varsity football at quarterback. It took his personal quarterbacks coach reaching out to Morris and his staff just to get Mestemaker a tryout. He walked on at North Texas, became the starter last year and on Saturday he threw for 389 yards on 20-of-27 passing with three touchdowns and one interception in his second game against a power conference opponent.

He and Young connected all night. Young ended with eight catches, 192 yards and a touchdown. Oklahoma State had 10 big plays in the pass game for 334 yards. Young caught five of them, including the last four big plays of the game — catches of 40, 48, 48 and 28 yards. When the Cowboys decided to torch WVU’s secondary, they used the receiver Mestemaker had the most experience — and success — with historically.

Young was the player with the most offers coming out of high school at Tompkins in Katy, Texas. Arizona, Memphis, Rice, Army West Point, Air Force, Western Kentucky and Tulsa were all on him.

Caleb Hawkins went OFF last night vs. West Virginia
🔥31 carries
🔥180 rushing yards
🔥1 rushing TD@CowboyFB pic.twitter.com/kFk1I8TnZS
— Big 12 Studios (@big12studios) September 27, 2026

As for Hawkins, he rushed for 180 yards on 31 carries with a touchdown. The Cowboys exploited the WVU defense on the left side for most of the first half and Hawkins ran off chunk after chuck of yardage. Then they started going inside and the Mountaineers had few answers for that. It was his biggest game as a Cowboy and he showed why Morris believes in the run game so much, even though he runs the Air Raid offense.

Morris and his staff stumbled onto the Shawnee, Okla., product, who stormed the field at Boone Pickens Stadium when OSU beat Oklahoma in 2023. Hawkins went to a UNT camp, in part because running backs coach Patrick Cobbs — a UNT legend — was from Shawnee. As Morris tells it, Cobbs came running into the Mean Green’s indoor facility, ran up to Morris and said, “You have to come see this guy.”

The guy was Hawkins. No one else was on him. The Mean Green snapped him up all he did last year was set a new FBS record for most touchdowns scored by a freshman.

They aren’t the only stars on this team, of course. Justin Bowick has emerged as a high productive wide receiver. Chris Barnes, Terrence Lewis and Miles Coleman fill key roles. The offensive line has gelled and will get Braydon Nelson back in two weeks. The defense isn’t filled with stars, but it gets the job done. Yes, it gave up 466 yards on Saturday. But when the Cowboys needed big plays, the defense made them.

With the Cowboys now ranked in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2024 the program is back on the national radar. They’ll stay there for a couple of weeks thanks to the bye week. But the future — say contending for a Big 12 title in Morris’ first season — will be largely driven by the guys that no one really wanted.

They’re the “Triplets,” or “The Big Three” or the “Three-Headed Monster.”

The bye week is a good time to figure that out. There’s NIL money to be made — and an eight-game stretch filled with massive opportunity for a program that has had precious little of it the past few seasons.

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