In Case of Emergency, Here's Oklahoma's Plan to Find QB3

Best-case scenario, Jett Niu and Whitt Newbauer get into a couple of blowout wins, sling the football around Owen Field and put up some fun, garbage-time points this fall.

Worst-case scenario, Oklahoma’s offense gets in a pinch, has an unexpected quarterback emergency and needs to play one of their newcomers in a big moment.

It could happen. Both starter John Mateer and backup Michael Hawkins are dynamic, explosive, run-around QBs. And the offensive line — back intact this season — allowed a school-record 50 quarterback sacks in 2024.

It’s college football. Things happen.

So yeah, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Ben Arbuckle and assistant QB coach John Kuceyeski are doing everything they can in August to get Niu and Newbauer ready just in case they’re needed later on.

“With young guys, the biggest thing you can always do is, one, they have to be able to go out there and operate. So you’re constantly in the meeting room and the film room with them and holding them accountable whenever they make a mistake out there. Letting them know that ‘This can’t happen again.’ 

“But it’s ultimately getting them the reps to go out there and watch them operate and giving them the confidence to go out there and operate.” 

Niu is a true freshman from Lehi High School in Linden, UT, near Salt Lake City. He was committed to Oklahoma State last December when he decided instead to join Arbuckle (who had recruited him at Washington State) and flipped to OU after Arbuckle got the job in Norman. He enrolled last January and got invaluable snaps all spring as the Sooners’ No. 3 QB.

Sort of.

The problem there is that former Western Carolina transfer Cole Gonzales — a two-year starter for the Catamounts — split No. 3 reps with Niu all spring and then transferred and took all those practice reps to Pittsburgh.

That opened the door for Newbauer to transfer from Mercer to Oklahoma.

Newbauer hasn’t played as much as Gonzales did (451 snaps as a true freshman with the Bears last year, compared to 1,498 from Gonzales over the last three seasons) but he has played. That’s a good thing, even if it’s on the FCS level.

So if Mateer and Hawkins happen to go down for any reason, who gets the call first? The true freshman who’s been in Arbuckle’s system six months longer? Or the experienced sophomore who just joined the team?

With Mateer coming in to save the OU offense and Hawkins bringing his poise and big-play ability again as the Sooner backup, the Niu-Newbauer conundrum is strictly a “break glass in case of emergency” situation. 

But Sooner Nation can rest assured that Arbuckle knows where the fire extinguisher is located, knows how to use it, and he and the offensive staff are preparing a plan of action — just in case.

It started in spring practice as Niu brushed up on Arbuckle’s offense — he played a similar version of it in high school — and did what he could to adapt to life as a big-time college quarterback. Apparently, he left his coaches feeling impressed.

“He had a really nice spring as well, executing the offense,” Brent Venables said in April.

Niu was a consensus 3-star recruit, according to 247Sports and Rivals, No. 84 nationally among high school QBs, per 247Sports. 

The 6-foot-2, 198-pound Niu had 11 Division offers, including OSU, Arizona and Washington State.

As a junior in 2023, Liu completed 65.3 percent of his passes and threw for 2,812 yards and 31 touchdowns with 10 interceptions, then completed 57.2 percent of his throws for 2,857 yards and 29 TDs with 10 interceptions as a senior, per MaxPreps.

On National Signing Day last December, Venables called Niu “a really skilled, developed quarterback” with “mechanics and fundamentals (that) are exceptional, the way he climbs the pocket, his accuracy, his ability to push the ball down field, his instincts. Incredible quickness in his release and great communication, leadership qualities.”

The 6-6, 231-pound Newbauer’s only FBS offer coming out of high school was from Central Michigan. He was injured and played in just six games as a senior at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh, NC, completing 63 percent of his passes for 1,186 yards with nine touchdowns and three interceptions. As a junior, he hit 62 percent for 1,962 yards and 16 touchdowns.

As a freshman last year at Mercer, Newbauer played in nine games (seven starts) with a .564 completion percentage, 1,398 yards, 12 TDs and four INTs. That included a Pro Football Focus overall offensive grade of 80.2 in a 52-7 loss at Alabama, when he played 48 snaps and completed 15-of-22 passes for 124 yards with a touchdown and a pick. His other best games were Furman (18-of-28, 257 yards, three TDs, one INT) and VMI (15-of-30, 282 yards, three TDs). He also played in two FCS playoff games.

Those are the dossiers, anyway. Now, under the watchful eye of Arbuckle, each guy has a blank canvas, and the coaches are using the early days of training camp finding who’s more equipped to help the team in the future.

Arbuckle stressed that grading practice for young players isn’t just about identifying and learning from the bad. They can grow as well from doing something good.

“Once they do something good, it’s one of those deals where they like that feeling,” Arbuckle said. “So they’re like, ‘OK, what was my process to do that?’ And then they’ll just keep on repeating that, repeating that, repeating that. Ultimately, as a coach, you get to where, ‘I really trust this guy; he can go out there and get the job done and do what we need him to do.’ ”

For Arbuckle, this time is all about who learns the fastest, who picks things up and is able to incorporate them in live-practice situations.

“Absolutely,” Arbuckle said. “It’s all about teaching and just getting more and more experience as you can.”