Here's Why Oklahoma OC Ben Arbuckle is Confident John Mateer Will Thrive on 'Mental Reset'

Oklahoma offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle sounds confident.

At his weekly press conference at the OU Stadium Club in Norman, Arbuckle sounded confident that the Sooners’ run game will get better, that the offense will improve overall, and that quarterback John Mateer will get things right after last weekend’s disaster in Dallas.

The Sooners lost 23-6 to the Longhorns, dropping the Red River Rivalry for the third time in Venables’ four seasons as the offense couldn’t consistently run the football and Mateer returned from three weeks off following a thumb injury.

In those three losses, Oklahoma has been outscored 106-9 — a 97-point differential that is the second-largest of any three wins in a four-game stretch in the long history of the series.

This is Arbuckle’s first season in Norman. But he’s the third different Brent Venables offensive coordinator who spent a sultry afternoon at the Cotton Bowl unable to reach the end zone.

Jeff Lebby and Seth Littrell are gone, so now it’s Arbuckle who seems to embrace the challenge of fixing the Oklahoma offense while facing one of college football’s most daunting schedules.

OU (5-1 overall, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) dropped to No. 14 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 and plays this week at South Carolina.

“That's one thing I love about this team is, these kids have each other's back,” Arbuckle said. “And there was zero flinch after that game from those kids, from John Mateer.”

Oklahoma Sooners, John Mateer — Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer threw three interceptions in Saturday's Red River Rivalry defeat. | SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Mateer threw three interceptions and could have thrown five or six as Texas defenders dropped a couple of passes. He completed 20-of-38 for 202 yards and posted the lowest passer efficiency rating of his college career so far.

But Arbuckle sounds confident that Mateer will continue to get better the further away from the thumb injury he gets.

“The first thing that you see with his mental build and his mental makeup, one, is that he's the ultimate competitor, and he is his harshest critic,” Arbuckle said. “And he knows that stuff that he did last Saturday — what winning requires, and so he does a really good job of resetting his mind, getting back to the basics, whether it's his footwork or his reads and really honing in on that and cleaning that up, and making sure he's very intentional with that in practice.”

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Arbuckle said Mateer needs to hit the reset button moving forward.

“I mean, it's a mental reset, you know,” Arbuckle said. “Do I trust John Mateer? Absolutely, I do. But I wouldn't be doing my job as a coach if I just sat back and said, ‘I’m going to just trust that he's going to get it right.’ And so it's a mental reset. It's back to the basics. It's, you know, whenever we're doing a walk-through, ‘Hey, be great with your feet right here. High detail in your feet. Where are my eyes supposed to be at?’ And then that translates over to practice reps, and that translates over to good on good reps and then translate over to game reps.”

Mateer hasn’t made any excuses for his performance. He didn’t blame the thumb, and he didn’t blame the rust. He has continued to lead his teammates by example, and that continues to impress Arbuckle and the rest of the OU coaching staff.

“He's a great leader,” Arbuckle said. “You know, he had great juice yesterday at practice, and he owns anything that might not go the offense’s way, whether that's his fault or not. And I think that's a really good characteristic in a young man and a leader.

“So his mental makeup is strong, and I'm excited to watch him attack this week of work.”