Mestemaker threw for 317 yards and totaled three touchdowns against Oregon, continuing an improbable rise from high school punter to Oklahoma State starting quarterback.
Page S2From§Eachthe late evening edition — 12 September 2026
Model picked Oklahoma State to lose by 22.5 after predicting a punter-QB flop; they beat No. 6 Oregon.
Hot Mic Moment
This reporter would like it noted, mic allegedly off, that the operation grading these teams for entertainment is the same SportsLine model CBS Sports runs and publishes as content — a model that forecast an Oklahoma State loss on September 8th, forecast it again on September 10th, and never once printed its own record from the week before. Somebody put this reporter on the political desk, there is a real story about who audits the auditors and nobody at this network wants it.
Gushis side
This reporter has covered college football since the wishbone offense was cutting edge, and what Oklahoma State did to the top-ranked Oregon Ducks on Saturday is the finest upset this reporter has witnessed in the modern era — a program ending, by this reporter's count, the longest losing streak in the history of the sport.
The oddsmakers, this reporter is reliably informed, had Oklahoma State as 32-and-a-half-point underdogs, the kind of number normally reserved for a junior varsity squad taking on the varsity, and one has to wonder how a computer model gets something that catastrophically wrong.
Credit belongs to young Drew Mestemaker, a boy who this reporter understands was punting footballs to a handful of cheerleaders on Friday nights not so long ago, and who repaid Oklahoma State's faith with a workmanlike 217 yards through the air on Saturday.
This reporter recalls it was sometime in October when the very same computer brains first turned on Mestemaker's new-look offense, calling it dead on arrival before the season even had a pulse.
Trudyher side
Oregon was ranked No. 6, not No. 1 — CBS Sports has that plain as day. And "longest in the history of the sport" is yours, sugar, not theirs. The streak was 21 games against FBS competition, dating back to 2024.
The number was 22.5. SportsLine's model published it through CBS Sports on September 10th, and again two days earlier on September 8th. Wrong is wrong — you don't need to pad it by ten points.
Mestemaker went from his high school's B-team to starting quarterback at Oklahoma State — not punter to cheerleading detail. And he threw for 317 yards, ran for 109 more, and had a hand in three touchdowns. Sit down a minute, Gus.
That was September 6th, CBS Sports' Week 1 wrap, one week before the same model missed Oregon by 22.5 points. Two calls, two misses, and it wasn't October. Take the nap, Gus.
Gus, that's a manifesto, not copy, and nobody following the Cowboys needs your media-oversight theory before kickoff — but he's not wrong that CBS Sports' own SportsLine model published the same losing forecast twice, September 8th and September 10th, without ever disclosing the miss from the week before. Have the mushrooms for the memory ready. We're doing this again next week.
“They build a computer that's wrong two weeks running and call it "analytics," then keep taking fifty bucks off you every time you bet the number it spits out. Oklahoma State's punter-turned-quarterback just embarrassed a betting model owned by the same network broadcasting the game, and nobody's mailing a refund to the guy who took Oregon minus 22.5.”
“Look, no predictive model bats a thousand, that's why they call it upset season — the aggregate hit rate across thousands of games is still strong, we just don't publicize the weekly misses because, well, that's not really a talking point I should be saying out loud. Did I say "don't publicize"? That doesn't sound like me.”
The receipts
Dan Lanning and the Ducks must fix major coordinator growing pains and Dante Moore's offense after Oklahoma State snapped a 21-game FBS losing streak in a stunning upset
SportsLine's model has revealed its 2026 Week 2 college football score predictions for Oklahoma vs. Michigan, Texas vs. Ohio State and more
Drew Mestemaker threw for 317 yards and rushed for 109 as Oklahoma State ended a 21-game FBS losing skid with a massive college football upset.
SportsLine's model has revealed its 2026 Week 2 college football picks for Ohio State vs. Texas, Michigan vs. Oklahoma and every other game
Oklahoma State pulled off a stunning upset over Oregon to snap a 21-game FBS skid, while Oklahoma and Dan Lanning's Ducks face sudden questions after brutal Week 2 performances
The Cowboys snapped a 12-game losing streak and 21-game skid against FBS opponents that dated back to 2024
T.
· College football winners, losers in Week 1: Is this the year of the WR? New-look Oklahoma State falls flat from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026
· College football score predictions for Week 2, 2026: Model backs Oklahoma State (+22.5) against Oregon from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026
· College football odds, picks, predictions for Week 2, 2026: Computer backing Kentucky, Iowa State from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.