SOONER WIRE - New Oklahoma Sooners starting quarterback John Mateer followed new OU offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Ben Arbuckle from Washington State to Norman this winter. In doing so, he became one of the key figures in the 2025 season for the Sooners. Additionally, he became a big part of helping his teammates learn Arbuckle’s new offensive system ahead of the action this fall.

Mateer was at the Manning Passing Academy this week as a camp counselor, something many of the best college football quarterbacks do during the summer. While there, he was asked by “Locked On SEC” host Chris Gordy about his role in installing the new scheme and his relationship with Arbuckle.

“Yeah, I mean the duo, or trio if you add Coach Kuz (assistant QBs coach John Kuceyeski) in there, it’s huge,” Mateer said. “We understand each other, and I know what play he’s going to call next, and he knows what I like, and we talked through a lot of stuff this offseason. It’s just taking the next step, and it’s awesome, and then we got some good players here that can do a lot of different things. It’s going to be pretty fun. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Mateer continued to emphasize the number of playmakers that the Sooners have this year on offense before being asked about how he’ll adapt to playing in college football’s hardest conference, the SEC.

“I mean I think the discipline that we have and the adaptability that we have to be able to learn, and you know, it’ll be a learning curve, it will,” Mateer said. “I’ll embrace that and it’s going to be fun and a challenge and that’s what football is supposed to be, a challenge. There will be learning curves, but for all of us, there’s a lot of people with a lot of experience in the building, so we can avoid the really hard learning curves, and we’ll get it in quick. As long as I’m disciplined to my reads and to the play call and to watching film, I’ll be good.”

One thing that may have actually hurt the Sooners when breaking in a new starting quarterback this time last year was the high level of defense that the offense was practicing against in camp each day. Instead of building confidence, OU’s offense was routinely outplayed by the defense in fall camp. That showed when the schedule began, and Oklahoma had one side of the ball that was way better than the other.

But Mateer believes practicing against another excellent OU defense won’t shake him and going against the veteran unit will actually make him better. Gordy asked him about Brent Venables’ defense and what he’s seen so far.

“I’ve seen a lot, you know I’m obviously not going to say what I’ve seen,” Mateer said. “But I think I’ve seen probably a hundred different coverages in a hundred different snaps. It’s hard, you know, it’s a lot of fun. But there’s good players and good scheme, you know, so it’s making me better.”

As the Sooners continue to try to reverse the painful offensive memories of 2024, it’ll be Mateer’s relationship with Arbuckle, his discipline in the system, and his readiness to attack challenges that give Oklahoma a chance to be much improved when they have the ball this season.

But the expectations for John Mateer in his first season at Oklahoma are plenty high. Given his numbers last year at Washington State, they should be.

Mateer was ranked as the fifth-best quarterback in the Southeastern Conference by USA TODAY Sports’ Blake Toppmeyer in his offseason SEC quarterback power rankings. Mateer threw for 29 touchdowns and ran for 15 more last year for the Cougars, ranking tops in FBS in total touchdowns.

Toppmeyer knows the numbers. He’s waiting to see if Mateer can put them up against better competition than what Washington State faced as a de facto independent (technically, one of two teams in the Pac-12) last year.

“Why not rank him higher? He’s unproven against SEC competition,” Toppmeyer wrote. “Two of his worst passing performances last year came in his two games against Power Four competition.”

Texas’s Arch Manning was ranked No. 1, followed by LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers, and Florida’s DJ Lagway. All four quarterbacks played for their respective current teams last season. Manning served as back-up to Quinn Ewers, who now plays in the NFL for the Miami Dolphins.

Mateer was tabbed earlier in the week to score more touchdowns this season with the Sooners than Manning will at Texas by SEC analyst Michael Bratton. Manning has the job to himself in Austin, as Mateer does in Norman.

Oklahoma and Texas will meet in the annual Red River Rivalry game on October 11 in Dallas.

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