Oklahoma Sooners quarterback John Mateer is showing he has a different side to him right now, and it’s only spring
The Oklahoma Sooners have so much faith in quarterback John Mateer that they expect him to take a huge step in 2026 compared to 2025.
The Oklahoma Sooners nearly lost a handful of games last season because of quarterback John Mateer. For example, their win against the LSU Tigers was one of the ugliest of the entire season.
However, they also won some games because of him, like their win over the Auburn Tigers. There were a lot of peaks, but for a 10-win team, there were far too many valleys. The Sooners are trying to lower that in 2026 and ultimately aspire to win a National Championship. As brutal as that sounds, they will need Mateer to be better. But he knows that.
“You go back and watch every game, it’s what the winter period is for, and before spring ball, you watch every game,” Mateer recently said. “Obviously, I’m not going to say what we’re doing differently, but a lot of self-scout.”
Oklahoma should have a better version of Mateer this season. He’s healthy from both the hand injury and whatever that odd leg injury was last season that was somewhat disclosed. And, he’s had another year to develop.
Sooners have a locked-in version of Mateer
It’s clear that Mateer has used the spring well. From everything we have seen and heard of him, this part of the offseason is going extremely well for him.
“It’s been a super productive spring ball for me and the whole offense and everybody involved,” Mateer said. “You go into spring ball and are super focused on details, technicality, and stuff, but at a certain point, you play football. You can’t go in there and be too critical, because you need to play ball.
“You still play with the instincts, and I don’t think I’ve lost that. I think I’m super hard on myself with the footwork and arm angle and stuff, and just being innovative in the way I throw.”
Mateer certainly has to improve on some of those instinct things, along with the footwork stuff. We saw way too many times last year that Mateer made a bad read, the wrong throw, or, for some reason, jumped for no reason. If the issues we saw last year are somewhat fixed, we could see an elite version of Mateer.
