Column: Why Oklahoma QB Michael Hawkins is Much More Equipped to Handle Texas This Year

The news out of Norman was disastrous on Tuesday: quarterback John Mateer will have surgery Wednesday for a broken bone in his right hand.

And two weeks from Saturday, No. 7-ranked Oklahoma will line up in the Cotton Bowl against the Texas Longhorns.

Michael Hawkins, of course, has been here before. And that went very, very poorly for the Sooners, a 34-3 loss in last year’s game.

Oklahoma Sooners, Michael Hawkins Jr — Oklahoma quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. started in last year's loss to Texas. | BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Guided by offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, Mateer came out nowhere last December — or out of Pullman, WA — like an apparition, magically showing up in Norman to right OU’s ship after Hawkins and Jackson Arnold struggled so badly all year.

Mateer emerged as the savior that fans hoped he could be, ranking seventh in the nation this week in passing yards and 20th in total touchdowns.

But the injury — which he suffered on a first quarter pass play — means he will turn things over to Hawkins for the immediate future.

With OU on an open date this week, does that mean just next week’s glorified scrimmage against Kent State? Or does it also mean the Texas game? Or could it linger deep into Southeastern Conference play?

None of that is known. OU’s press release today stamped his absence as definitively indefinite.

This, you’ll remember, was about the same time last year that Arnold’s mounting turnovers made the OU coaching staff decide to turn the offense over to Hawkins.

Hawkins was amazing in his first career start at Auburn, hitting the home team with a 40-yard touchdown run early and a 60-yard pass late that helped OU win the game.

But Hawkins’ star crashed, and hard, with a poor outing against the Longhorns and an even worse outing against South Carolina.

But any OU fans who are ready to throw in the towel on 2025, or are already out on Hawkins, or are thinking of sacrificing small animals (or large ones) to football gods, need to hear this.

Hawkins isn’t the same player he was in 2024.

First off, he’s a year older, a year wiser, a year better.

Second — and maybe this should have been first — Hawkins actually has a quarterback coach this year.

And third, Hawkins has a healthy contingent of wide receivers and tight ends to whom he can throw the ball.

Last year, Hawkins was coached by Seth Littrell, son of a Sooner, himself a beloved former Sooner fullback, a Bob Stoops captain, a national champion. Anyone who has ever come across Littrell likes being around the man, and his resume says he’s a tremendous football mind.

But quarterback coach? Big-time offensive coordinator? No.

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Hawkins collapsed with three first-quarter turnovers against the Gamecocks on Oct. 19. Head coach Brent Venables fired Littrell on Oct. 20, later admitting, “I hired the wrong guy” for the job.

A day later, Venables promoted Kevin Johns from offensive analyst to quarterbacks coach, and the Sooner QBs showed real improvement over the second half of the season.

Now, with Johns off to Oklahoma State, Hawkins has had almost a whole year to learn from Arbuckle, to study not only the offense, but how defenses will try to attack it, where the weak spots are, and what to do if he can’t find any.

Venables said a couple of weeks ago the Sooners’ plan was to redshirt Hawkins, but that’s out the door now, of course.

“We’re preparing him every single week,” Venables said. “Look, he’s not going to go in and take 70 or 80 snaps until our hand is forced.”

That hand — Mateer’s broken right hand — has been forced.

Mateer leads the team in passing and scoring, and is just five yards off the pace for rushing. He's ben among the national leaders in multiple categories, and that production, along with OU's 4-0 start and climb up the polls, had placed him as the odds-on-favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.

Sources: John Mateer’s injury is a broken bone in his right (throwing) hand that he suffered in the first quarter against Auburn on Saturday night. The estimated timeline after surgery is expected to be about a month, as the surgery is considered straight-forward. pic.twitter.com/cB9dmYNXmV
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) September 23, 2025

Let's be honest: this is exactly why Hawkins never wavered in his commitment to or his love for Oklahoma once the keys to Arbuckle's offense were handed to Mateer. The son of a former OU defensive back who grew up in Dallas hearing all about OU football wasn't going to transfer. He knew he would be second team. He also knew that a QB who ran for 1,000 yards last season might need to be replaced at some point.

Now, with what ESPN's Pete Thamel estimates as "about a month" that Mateer will be out, Mateer's load will fall to Hawkins — and a redoubled effort to get the ground game going. The OU offensive line needs to come together quickly and find a way to push the opponents off the line of scrimmage. It hasn’t happened consistently in four games yet, and against Texas’ fearsome defense (No. 20 overall, No. 7 against the run), it has to be the top priority.

Hawkins isn’t the player Mateer is. That’s why Mateer was anointed the starter when he arrived last winter, and why he's been so good.

But Hawkins also isn’t the player he was last year, when he became OU’s first true freshman to start at quarterback against Texas.

In his one appearance so far this year — the blowout at Temple — Arbuckle and Venables presciently got Hawkins some late-game action. Hawkins, who took 208 offensive snaps last year, got 19 against the Owls, according to Pro Football Focus.

After not playing against Illinois State or Michigan, Hawkins did what he could with the limited action in Philly, completing 1-of-3 passes for just 5 yards and running the football six times for 25 yards. He didn’t play in last week’s win over Auburn, either.

As a rookie last year, Hawkins played in seven games, completed 63.3 percent of his passes for 783 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions and also rushed for 204 yards and a touchdown (3.0 yards per carry) with three fumbles (two lost).

It's pretty imperative that Hawkins stays healthy and has a good game next week and the week after. Behind him are FCS transfer Whitt Newbauer and true freshman Jett Niu. The Sooners don't want another Davis Beville experience in Dallas.

So what is Hawkins focused on as he comes off the bench into the starter’s role?

“Just being consistent,” he said. “Focused on the little details that we need to get better at and myself, I need to get better at going into this Texas game.”

Hawkins said those words in 2024. But even with a new QB coach and offensive coordinator in 2025, he’s probably saying something very similar this week.

Will he be up to the task?

Depends.

Will he have a full complement of wide receivers and tight ends — something he never had last year? Will he have an offensive line capable of moving the line of scrimmage — something that was missing in both 2024 and so far hasn’t shown up in 2025? Will he have a QB coach and OC who’s invested in teaching the finer points of playing the position?

All signs point to yes.