Oklahoma Sooners schedule provides small silver lining with unfortunate John Mateer injury
The Oklahoma Sooners caught a fortunate break John Mateer’s injury happened when it did
The Oklahoma Sooners were dealt a major blow on Tuesday, as it was announced that starting quarterback John Mateer will undergo surgery and will be out for the next few games. While an exact timeline is unknown right now, it’s estimated to be a fairly short-term injury for Mateer. Optimism increases as more information comes in, but as of now, there’s no official prognosis for the Heisman favorite.
With Mateer’s injury, backup quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. will step up into the limelight and lead the Sooners’ offense over their next couple of weeks. We’ve already seen Hawkins play last season, and he is eager to rebound from that and prove himself.
While there is never any “good” news to come from injuries, Mateer’s injury happening now is a fortunate break for the Sooners. At any point of the season besides this one and it could have proven to be a complete disaster for Oklahoma, thanks to their brutal schedule.
Oklahoma’s Current Schedule Brings Opening to Absorb Mateer’s Injury
The Sooners got lucky with Mateer’s injury timeline. If there was any point of the season where Oklahoma could absorb his potential absence, it’s their next month or so of games. Had this injury happened any earlier or any later than this week, this would have been a much, much different story.
Oklahoma has a bye week this week, providing a week of rest in Mateer’s timeline of 3-4 weeks. Then, the Sooners welcome Kent State at home in what should be a tune-up game. With or without Mateer, Oklahoma should quite easily take care of business in that game. Skipping forward a week, the Sooners wrap up this stretch of games with a road trip to South Carolina, a team that looks like they are completely floundering right now. Those are three weeks of rest for Mateer, and two games the Sooners should be able to win without him.
The unfortunate part of this stretch is that Mateer seems likely to miss the Sooners’ Red River Rivalry game against the Texas Longhorns. That game is smack in the middle of his recovery timeline. Mateer will push with everything he has to play in that game, but it’s a complete unknown if he even will be cleared to practice by that point. Fortunately, the Sooners’ defense is playing at an elite level and Texas quarterback Arch Manning is….not.
Had Mateer missed the opening stretch of the season when the Sooners played the Michigan Wolverines and Auburn Tigers, it’s very likely Oklahoma loses at least one or both of those games without his playmaking ability. If that had happened, Brent Venables is likely on his way out as head coach and Oklahoma has zero momentum on their side.
If this injury happened later in the year, the Sooners would have had their season completely dismantled. Oklahoma has to play Ole Miss, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, and LSU to close out the season. Mateer missing any or all of those games would have ended the Sooners’ season on the spot as they got ravaged by the SEC. Venables would also likely be on his way out then as well.
I have a feeling if the Sooners didn’t have an upcoming slate that looked like this, Mateer would not have elected to have surgery and would have fought to play through it like he did against Auburn. With their next month of games being the lightest part of the schedule, it’s fortunate timing for Mateer’s surgery. Hopefully, he can rest up and get ready to help Oklahoma push for a College Football Playoff bid when he returns.
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