John Mateer putting in the work to take next step leading the Oklahoma Sooners back to the College Football Playoff
John Mateer isn’t shying away from trying to rebound from tough first season with the Sooners. Will it be enough?
In his first season as quarterback of the Oklahoma Sooners, it’s safe to sum up John Mateer’s performance as inconsistent at best. After a solid start to the season, Mateer suffered a thumb injury in Oklahoma’s Week 4 win over Auburn that affected him all year long.
It didn’t explain his mental struggles, but in Brent Venables’ own words, Mateer couldn’t grip a football without pain until just before their College Football Playoff rematch against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Now heading into Year 2 as signal caller of the Sooners, Mateer is pulling out all the stops to improve his game and lead Oklahoma further into the College Football Playoff picture.
Mateer aiming to improve consistency, with Venables’ help
One of Mateer’s biggest issues last season under center was decision-making. His infamous Texas performance was the reason they lost Red River, and it was largely suspect for the remainder of the season, resulting in some fairly close calls on their playoff run.
However, Brent Venables has taken Mateer under his wing to improve here, and has been constantly grilling the signal-caller on various defensive calls in an order to turn this from a weakness to a strength of Mateer’s game.
“I’ll meet with him … try to give him a defensive lens on plays that we’ve made, some different cut‑ups for him. I think the more you know about the other side of the ball, like intimately, deeply, like you know it maybe better than your side of the ball, I think you can just elevate your game to another level. As you know, the best quarterbacks play with a level of anticipation. And he’s been good, and we’ve got to try to be great in that space. That’s his focus: taking the good parts of his game and taking himself to a great place.”
Mateer has all the tools and traits to be a successful quarterback, and I do think it’s worth noting that his best outing of the season was their second game against Alabama after he had time to get back to the fundamentals and heal up. We’ve seen quarterbacks take huge steps in their third years as starters before, and 2026 will be Mateer’s third year.
If he can improve his decision-making and processing with the help of Venables and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, his play should be the catalyst Oklahoma needs to get back to the College Football Playoff. They have all the talent in the world for another run. How far they’ll go depends entirely on the arm, and head, of Mateer.
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