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 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, but 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.
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