Column: Finally, Let's Talk About Oklahoma QB John Mateer and the Heisman

If John Mateer is ever going to take his place alongside the bronze icons of Oklahoma’s Heisman Park, then Saturday’s victory over Auburn is exactly what he needed to get there.

Not just the go-ahead touchdown run in the final minutes.

Not just the passing perfection on the game-winning drive.

Not just a nearly mistake-free second half to tilt a tense SEC opener in OU’s direction.

Those were all classic “Heisman moments” — those often unforeseen, unexpected but unmistakable plays that end up replayed endlessly during a successful Heisman campaign, and then continue down through history.

Heisman voters love “Heisman moments,” and Mateer already has two games from which they can pick a few of his best highlights.

Oklahoma Sooners John Mateer — Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer | BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

And with Oklahoma’s schedule, there will be many more opportunities for Mateer to make a lasting impression on the 928 Heisman voters. (The Sooners will need to win most of those, of course. Heisman voters don’t love quarterbacks on average teams.) This week, OU enjoys an open date. Next week, they'll throttle Kent State. Then comes Texas, followed by six more SEC opponents currently ranked in the AP Top 25.

OU goes into that stretch ranked No. 7 with a 4-0 record, and any discerning eyes of Heisman voters turned toward Mateer.

Fighting Through His Own Adversity

To measure the full weight of Mateer’s impact on Saturday’s outcome, we must examine his full body of work Saturday against the Tigers.

That includes his shaky first half.

Really, any Heisman gravitas Mateer can draw from beating Auburn is actually strengthened by his first-half struggles.

Mateer completed just 4-of-9 passes in the second quarter. At halftime, he had connected on 8-of-16 throws for just 104 yards. At one point in the third quarter, after four straight incompletions (six of his last seven passes had hit the grass), he was 8-of-19 through the air.

The Sooners' dynamic dual-threat QB, who actually rushed for 1,000 yards on the ground last year before sacks and lost yardage were subtracted and had 19 bruising carries in the win over Michigan, also had run the football eight times for just 16 yards going into the fourth quarter, and had inexplicably dropped a fumble.

Those are not Heisman numbers.

But, pedestrian as those stats may be, they also underscore Mateer’s greatness with the game hanging in the balance.

At His Best When it Counted Most

Oklahoma never trailed in beating Illinois State, Michigan and Temple. But, as night began to fall in Norman on Saturday, midway through the the fourth quarter at Memorial Stadium, it was Auburn who held a 17-16 lead.

By then, Mateer — who had finally found his rhythm in that third quarter — was in the zone.

Our team is behind for the first time all season? The game, and maybe even the season, is on the line? We need a touchdown to win? Hey, I got this.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Mateer said. “We had to go score.”

Read More Oklahoma vs. Auburn

Mateer completed 16 of his last 17 passes, a streak that began with a 16-yard hookup with Jaren Kanak on third-and-11.

He completed each of his last 11 throws for 129 yards. That included the decisive, 31-yard, signature throw down the right sideline to Isaiah Sategna that was first called incomplete before a review determined Sategna caught it.

Now those are Heisman numbers.

“It’s crazy to see some of the throws he makes,” Sategna said. “I really have to go look at it a second time and be like, wow, he really made that? He’s a dog.”

“Yeah, man,” said wideout Deion Burks. “He's just, he got that ‘Him’ mentality. He’s got that ’It’ factor. No matter what mistakes he makes, he’s next-play mentality.”

That Mateer overcame his own self-made adversity and finished so decisively and won the game with a 9-yard touchdown run shouldn’t be undervalued, offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said.

“It’s huge,” Arbuckle said, “because winning football games is not easy, and being in those tough moments in crunch time, whenever you have to do it and you rally together as teammates and you execute the plan out there, I think it just builds a lot of growth, a lot of — the word is probably validation in themselves that ‘We can go out here and do this.’ ”

Mateer finished 24-of-36 through the air, with 271 yards and a touchdown pass to go with his game-winning TD run.

Again, Heisman numbers — and a couple of Heisman moments — in a big win.

"That's What You Dream About"

“I have all the trust in the world in John Mateer,” Arbuckle said. “There's a few things in the first half he wishes he could have back. But it was just a good, subtle reminder at halftime to relax. Everything we want is there, just relax, deliver the ball like you have all week in practice. And that's what he did. He was great there in the second half for us.”

“As a quarterback,” Mateer said, “to be able to do that drill, that two-minute drill or game-winning drive, that’s what you dream about,” Mateer said, “and doing it in your first SEC game is pretty cool.”

Mateer said previously he absolutely looks over at OU’s stunning statuary when he parks his vehicle and walks across Jenkins Avenue into the Switzer Center. Heisman Park has snared the daydreams of many Sooner quarterbacks over the past 15 years.

But, just three games into the season, after OU beat Michigan, Mateer was placed front-and-center of the 2025 Heisman race by the college football literati and most professional oddsmakers. On every network, on every channel, on every show, Mateer was proclaimed the Heisman “leader” or “frontrunner” even though official ballots won’t be distributed until almost December.

There's a long, long way to go.

To his credit, Mateer says he hasn’t been drawn into the early hype.

“I really don’t look at it a whole lot,” he said. “But when I’m in the training room or something and it’s on the TV, you can’t really avoid it. But it’s cool, it’s an honor.

“It’s game four, so … I still got work to do. But that’s not the main goal. Winning is the main goal.”