Oklahoma Sooners QB John Mateer keeps it all the way real regarding OU’s CFP appearance last season
The Oklahoma Sooners made the College Football Playoff last season, and John Mateer played well against Alabama.
The Oklahoma Sooners made the College Football Playoff last season, but they’re looking for more than just an appearance in 2026. This time, they’re looking for a win in the postseason and possibly a National Championship appearance.
What happened last year doesn’t really matter anymore.
“It’s cute,” quarterback John Mateer told On3 when asked about the CFP banner hanging up in the facilities. “You know, it’s up there. But everybody’s like, ‘No, that’s not the goal.’ So, there are a couple of things like that, which from an outside piece, it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s great.
You made the playoffs.’ But it’s like, no, it’s not.
“It’s a very uncomfortable feeling; I think it’s the best way to put it,” Mateer said. “Super uncomfortable. But we’re ready to go.
We’ve been pushing it hard in the offseason, and if anybody’s feeling too good, it gets brought back up again, which is how it should be. You feel real pain in that, and I believe that.
You get to sulk in it, and you move on, but those emotions are still there.”
Sooners will need the best version of John Mateer if they want to go deeper in the Playoff
Mateer has struggled since joining the SEC. When at Washington State, he was one of the most electric players in college football. His first few games with OU were fine, but after the hand injury set in, he went downhill. But it wasn’t just the hand that made him struggle. Mateer also struggled mentally in the game, consistently making errors.
If the Sooners have a better version of Mateer, like the one we saw against the Alabama Crimson Tide, they are a team everyone will have to watch. In that game, he made throws we hadn’t seen him make since they played the Michigan Wolverines earlier in the year. If OU gets that version, this could be a CFP team that wins games in the postseason.