Oklahoma Sooners HC Brent Venables had a painful admission about John Mateer during halftime vs. Georgia
The Oklahoma Sooners almost decided to play someone else instead of Mateer at halftime, down 28-0.
The Oklahoma Sooners did more than struggle on Saturday against the Georgia Bulldogs. In fact, they almost benched quarterback John Mateer at the half. That would happen if you went into the half down 28-0.
George Stoia of Soonerscoop.com reported that Venables, during his postgame press conference, said they discussed possibly benching Mateer. Of course, they ultimately decided to stick with him, for whatever reason. Maybe that was to build the kid’s confidence?
Brent Venables thinks John Mateer’s confidence is down
“It’s certainly not sky high,” Venables said regarding the confidence Mateer has in himself right now.
Remember when Mateer had three straight possessions that ended in turnovers? There was the red zone fumble that was scooped for a touchdown the other way. Mateer actually pump-faked the ball when his tight end was wide open in the end zone.
The pump caused him to lose the ball. Then there was the red zone interception that was underthrown when the receiver was open. After that, Mateer scrambled, and when he should have thrown the ball away to avoid a sack or even losing yards, he held onto it, and Georgia punched it out. So, this wasn’t one of those cases where the receivers weren’t getting open—they were.
“I thought they moved the ball; I didn’t like *fumbling* the ball. But I thought we had a good plan. We got guys open,” Venables told reporters.
The two drives that resulted in red zone turnovers were actually some of the best drives of the season on offense so far. They moved the ball well. OU got the ball to their two best playmakers, Isaiah Sategna and Rocky Beers. And guess what—it worked. It was when Mateer tried to do more than he should have, and the game slipped away on those drives.
Still, OU lost big to Georgia, 41-13. Even if they weren’t going to put another QB in at the half, they should have done it late in the game to try something else for future reference. You can’t tell me Whit Newbauer wouldn’t have at least done the same things Mateer was doing.
