OU Depth Chart: Despite Sky-High Potential, Oklahoma Still Faces Depth Concerns

Well, how about just a little bit more depth?

College football is hard on quarterbacks. Southeastern Conference defenses are even harder. Bad things happen to good people. An ounce of preparedness, and all.

In a worst-case scenario for Mateer and Hawkins, Arbuckle and assistant QB coach John Kuceyeski will try to have a couple of raw newcomers ready — just in case.

Jett Niu is a true freshman from Utah, a former Oklahoma State commit who had a strong spring as a backup to Mateer and Hawkins. But during spring practice, Niu was competing with Western Carolina transfer Cole Gonzales. Now, Gonzales is already gone, a departure through the transfer portal.

But Niu’s new competition for the No. 3 spot now comes from another FCS transfer, Whitt Newbauer, who portaled in over the summer from Mercer.

While Gonzales was the son of a college football coach with two years of FCS experience and was a two-time finalist for the Walter Payton Award as FCS Player of the Year, Newbauer played in nine games last season, completing 56.4 percent of his passes for 1,398 yards with 12 touchdowns and four interceptions. He also rushed for two scores.

Newbauer, from Raleigh, NC, is 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds and played in two FCS playoff games last season. He also tossed a touchdown pass and an interception in a loss at Alabama, completing 15-of-22 passes for 140 yards.

Newbauer was recognized as a Southern Conference All-Freshman talent by the league.

Newbauer was unranked by recruiting media coming out of Cardinal Gibbons High School, with his only FBS offer coming from Central Michigan.

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

All things being equal, Arbuckle shouldn’t have any stress about having to get Niu or Newbauer ready to play in the Cotton Bowl or some SEC snake pit.

If all goes according to plan, Mateer will produce All-SEC numbers and revitalize the Oklahoma offense, which ranked among the worst in the nation last season in scoring, passing, yards per play and total offense.

Mateer passed for 3,139 yards and 29 touchdowns last season with just eight interceptions, completing 65 percent of his passes in his first season as the Cougars’ starting QB.

He also rushed for 826 net yards (1,057 gained, 231 lost on sacks) and 15 touchdowns, and his 44 total TDs led all of major college football.

Mateer has also emerged as a team leader during his short time in Norman.

That’s a quality that Hawkins also showed at an early age, winning the backup job behind Jackson Arnold as an early enrollee last spring stepping in last fall when things got tough for Arnold.

Hawkins played in seven games as a true freshman last year, with four starts — including a 27-21 win at Auburn, in which he ran for a 40-yard touchdown in the first quarter and completed a 60-yard pass to set up a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

The Sooners were blown out in Hawkins’ next two starts against Texas and South Carolina, and he was relegated to Arnold’s backup again until Arnold transferred (to Auburn) and Hawkins nearly rallied the Sooners against Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl (a 21-20 loss in which Hawkins was sacked on the game-winning 2-point conversion attempt).

If everyone stays healthy in 2025, Arbuckle’s QB room should be just fine. But if another demanding SEC schedule — loaded with fearsome defenses — is too much for Mateer and Hawkins to bear behind a rebuilding offensive line and a green wide receiver corps, Arbuckle will have to identify the next generation far sooner than he had hoped.