Georgia Football's Kirby Smart Sounds Off: Will Dawgs Slow Oklahoma Sooner QB John Mateer and His Feet?

Kirby Smart had a lot to say about John Mateer's running ability this week during his Monday press conference.

Kirby Smart | Dawg Post

ATHENS - This Saturday Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs will host the Oklahoma Sooners inside Sanford Stadium for the very first time in program history.

As historic as it is, the reality is that this isn't your grandfather's Oklahoma team. The Sooners' glory days have been gone for a while now. They did make the college football playoffs last season, but blew a 17-point lead to Alabama in the first round. The Sooners are excellent defensively but will bring one of the league's worst offenses with them to Athens. Head coach Brent Venables has built extremely strong defense in Norman, but the offense behind quarterback John Mateer has been disgusting this season.

In Oklahoma's loss to Michigan, Mateer was 17/33 for 189 yards and one touchdown with one INT. They had less than 300 total yards of offense and were just 3/13 on 3rd down. He was slightly better against New Mexico, but that isn't saying much. During their 14-6 win Mateer was 19/25 for 238 yards and two touchdowns and two INTs. The Sooners won, but it wasn't pretty.

Oklahoma QB John Mateer caries the ball against New Mexico. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Now Mateer will face his toughest challenge so far this season against a Bulldog defense playing at an elite level. While the Sooner's passing game hasn't impressed, Smart told reporters this week that Mateer is still a major weapon due to his ability to make plays with his feet.

"His athleticism pops out at you," Smart told reporters on Monday. "He's hard to tackle. He breaks a lot of tackles and he's tough. You talk about the run game, he runs inside, he runs outside, he runs the pass."

"He scrambles to throw," Smart added. "He's made explosives with his legs. I think back to last year - his growth, because we didn't play him, but you saw his highlights and you saw the things he’s done. He's become even more that way this year in terms of understanding our conference, when to run, when not to, and he's done a good job of it."

So far this season, Mateer has rushed for 69 yards on 26 carries. He was sacked four times against Michigan and once last week against the Lobos. So far, Mateer has been unable to make a consistent, game-changing impact as a runner. Through the air Mateer has also been inconsistent, going 47/75 (62.7%) for 652 yards and six touchdowns with three INTs.

Mateer's athleticism allows him to improvise and make plays outside of the pocket, but if the Bulldog defense can contain him and not let him escape, Mateer will be forced to play the position at an extremely high level inside the pocket. That's something we haven't seen from him this year, and it's tough to see it happening against this current group of Bulldog defenders this weekend.