Oklahoma QB John Mateer Lands on Another Preseason Watch List

OU needed Mateer (and Arbuckle, and a lot of other transfers) as the Sooners ranked 113th nationally in total offense, 114th in passing offense, 124th in yards per play and 132nd in yards per pass.

Mateer, who grew up across the Red River in north Texas and went to high school in the DFW suburb of Little Elm, has great  reverence for Oklahoma’s historic excellence — especially at the quarterback position.

Five Sooners have received the Davey O’Brien Award: Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Sam Bradford, Jason White and, before it was officially designated for quarterbacks, Billy Sims. White won it twice (2003 and 2004). 

He walks past OU’s Heisman Park every day when he parks his car and walks into the Barry Switzer Center to go to work, and he always casts a glance at the cast bronze — but he doesn’t obsess about joining them.

“I mean, that is the expectation,” Mateer said. “Like, I don’t sit there or wake up every morning and think, ‘Oh, I need this many touchdowns or this many yards.’ Winning games is the only goal. Winning games and doing it for the team; in turn, those things should happen. Because this offense should be pretty explosive.” 

An Offseason of Leading, Teaching

Mateer sounds ready for the season to start — especially after spending most of the last seven months figuring out how to lead his team as a transfer, and how to teach his teammates the finer points of Arbuckle’s offense.

“A lot of install and a lot of walkthroughs in the summer, and even now, every other day guys are staying after with me and we’re walking through a lot of stuff,” Mateer said last week. “We’re in a really good spot, and I’m really pleased with how everybody’s doing. Everybody’s having a lot of fun.” 

“John is a great leader,” said transfer wideout Keontez Lewis. “He's a great mentor out there, so shoot, anything that he tells me to do from that standpoint, routes, whatever, we've been just locked in on that, for real.”

Another Day, Another Watch List

In all, the Sooners now have eight players so far on 10 different preseason watch lists this season.

Running back Jaydn Ott was named to the Doak Walker Award watch list (top running back); quarterback John Mateer landed on the Walter Camp Award watch list (national player of the year); Mateer and Ott were also named to the Maxwell Award watch list (national player of the year); linebackers  Kip Lewis  and Sammy Omosigho were added to the Dick Butkus Award watch list (top linebacker), and Lewis was named to the Bronko Nagurski Award watch list (defensive player of the year); safety Robert Spears-Jennings made the Danny Wuerffel Award watch list (citizenship, community service), transfer kicker Tate Sandell, who was named to the Lou Groza Award watch list (top kicker), transfer punter Jacob Ulrich, was named to the Ray Guy Award watch list (top punter), and long snapper Ben Anderson was named to the Patrick Mannelly Award watch list.