When the Oklahoma Sooners landed former Washington State quarterback John Mateer in the transfer portal last December, it was a massive win for head coach Brent Venables. After a 6-7 season in 2024, OU knew they needed an upgrade under center, and they got one with the portal’s top overall player.
On3 Sports college football analyst J.D. PicKell, who has been very complimentary of the Sooners this offseason, was at it again this week. He appeared on “The Paul Finebaum Show” where the host, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum, asked him about Mateer’s impact in Norman in 2025. PicKell likened OU’s new starting QB to the No. 1 overall pick in last week’s 2025 NFL Draft, Cam Ward.
“Oklahoma, to me, I think will make the most impressive leap from what they were last year to this year,” PicKell said. “This time last year Paul, if you talk to people close to Miami, they were beating their chest telling you, ‘Hey Cam Ward is a dude. Cam Ward is gonna be a dawg this year.’ They weren’t tippy-toeing around it, they weren’t saying maybe he’ll be good. They’re saying the same kind of thing right now around John Mateer in Norman, Oklahoma. So I’m not saying he’s gonna win the Heisman Trophy, I’m not saying he’s gonna be the number one overall pick, but the way they speak about John Mateer, the confidence they speak about John Mateer with, I’m very, very excited to watch him continue what he did in Pullman, Washington with Ben Arbuckle running the show in Norman.”
Of course, there’s precedent for what Sooner Nation hopes Mateer can do this year. After all, Ward played in Arbuckle’s system for one year at Washington State in 2023 before transferring to Miami for the 2024 season. Even with the step up in competition, Ward shined with the Hurricanes. He became a Heisman Trophy finalist and was selected with the top overall choice by the Tennessee Titans last week.
Now, Sooner fans hope that Mateer can replicate that formula. He’ll have the benefit of having Arbuckle in his ear again after a breakout 2024 season with the Cougars. Oklahoma brought in both Arbuckle and Mateer to try and fix a broken offense.
PicKell also told Finebaum that in looking at Oklahoma’s schedule, he believes that the Sooners could have the best quarterback in the stadium in up to 10 of the 12 games. Only South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier were players that PicKell believed could definitely beat Mateer in an all-out QB duel. That included him taking Mateer over Texas’ Arch Manning, Auburn’s Jackson Arnold and Ole Miss’ Austin Simmons.
But PicKell wasn’t done complimenting Mateer this week. On his own show, “The Hard Count with J.D. PicKell“, he outlined that he believes Oklahoma fans are back to having a QB at the controls that they can trust.
“This with John Mateer is not that with (former OU starting QB) Jackson Arnold … I think that John Mateer and what he is going into this upcoming season is a vastly different story,” PicKell said.
PicKell went on to explain that Mateer is a much more proven commodity heading into his first season as the starter in Norman than Arnold was a year ago at this time, and that too much may have been expected of Arnold without enough help around him in 2024 under OC Seth Littrell.
“Last year Jackson Arnold was working with an offensive coordinator he had never worked with before … also the offensive coordinator he worked with hadn’t called plays since 2015,” PicKell said. “That’s very different than working with a coordinator that you had success with a year ago, had a top-15 offense at Washington State. Ben Arbuckle, John Mateer, handshake emoji, we’re not picking up at the same spot. There’s very different jumping-off points there.”
PicKell also noted OU’s 13 percent sack rate a season ago was a huge hindrance to offensive execution. He theorized that Mateer’s dual-threat ability would have fared better than Arnold’s did in those spots. He also made the case that Oklahoma’s better situation offensively contributes to Mateer being a massive upgrade.
“We’ll see how this whole thing shakes out with, what’s the offensive line looking like, and how do the weapons translate and stay healthy, all that is true,” PicKell said. “But at a jumping-off point in May, there’s a lot more to be confident in, there’s a lot more to be secure about than what you had last year with Jackson Arnold .. John Mateer, it’s just a very, very different beast.”
Mateer’s arrival in Norman has already been met with plenty of fanfare, and he hasn’t even played a game yet for the Sooners. After the way the quarterback position looked last year, OU fans are hoping they can trust again at the most important position on the field.
Perhaps if Oklahoma has a really impressive leap from 2024 to 2025, it’ll be because Mateer ended up following in Ward’s footsteps and turned into one of the best players in all of college football.
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