How Oklahoma QB John Mateer Overcame Three INTs to Lead His Team Past LSU

COLUMN

NORMAN — After Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer had thrown his third interception of the game against LSU, the boo birds came out and social media flared up.

The idiots declared that Mateer was washed, done for the night. He needed to be benched. Backup Michael Hawkins should replace him.

The Sooners were languishing on offense, Mateer was a liability and OU was squandering its only hope for a trip to the College Football Playoff.

The idiots out there — this writer chief among them — are almost never right about these things.

I'm gonna say it. That's gotta be it for Mateer. Unless Michael Hawkins' arm fell off in practice this week, he needs to finish this game. Mateer ain't got it.
— John E. Hoover 🌮 (@johnehoover) November 29, 2025

Mateer lifted himself off the canvas in the fourth quarter and willed himself and his teammates to a riveting 17-13 victory over LSU before a playoff-starved crowd Saturday night at Owen Field.

It was really something to watch.

Through three quarters, Mateer had completed just 19-of-32 passes for 226 yards — and that was after he’d begun to heat up.

In the third quarter alone, he was 5-of-10 through the air and was intercepted twice.

One of those five completions was a 1-yard hookup with Deion Burks, who made a couple cuts and sped untouched 45 yards for a touchdown with 1:47 to go in the third period.

Then late in the fourth, Mateer saw speedy Isaiah Sategna floating all alone behind a bust in the LSU secondary, and he put a perfect rainbow throw in Sategna’s hands for a 58-yard TD.

The first one tied it at 10-10. The second one gave the Sooners a 17-13 lead with 4:16 to play.

That’s all the Sooner defense needed as they limited the Tigers to their lowest yardage total (198) since 2018 and powered No. 8-ranked Oklahoma (10-2) into the playoffs — which will become official two Sundays down the road, after the conference championship games are played.

Mateer had a rough start. His second throw of the day was intercepted. He pitched another passing sin into triple coverage. His third one looked like a particularly backbreaking turnover because it happened at the LSU 5-yard line.

But Mateer showed all the idiots (like your crow-eating author) something special in the way he finished.

“Yeah, it obviously didn't go very well at first,” he said after the game, “and we knew what was on the line, and we had a lot of fight and believed that we could do it. So we came together when we needed it.”

Mateer relied on his faith, both before the final act began and after the final curtain fell.

“Yeah, I stayed on a knee and I just thanked God for the opportunity and the strength and the courage to get it done,” he said. “To be able to fight through all that, not do well, and have the Grace to still get it done is something I really appreciate. And the opportunity and these guys and how fun it is to win, even though I wasn't perfect.”

He revealed in a postgame interview on the field that, going into the fourth quarter, he knew he would either hate himself forever or become a man in the new few minutes.

Later, I asked him to expound on that thought.

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“Yeah, you know, it's a bad thing that my mood is affected by how football is played,” he admitted. “It's how I've always been. Football is everything I put my time into. And so I wouldn't hate myself. I'm rooted in God, which is good. But I think I showed a good deal of discipline and perseverance here, and I think I'm proud of myself for that. It's not easy to do. And I wouldn't have done it two years ago, three years ago, and we got it done today.

“It's not easy, and that's what I struggled with all my childhood. Like, you ask any of my little league coaches, if I do one bad thing, it's over. I'm just done. I mean, I'm obviously better now, but I'm not perfect, and I just know that this team moves how I move. So I gotta step up and make a play.”

Mateer also said he got a brief moment of inspiration from linebacker Kip Lewis before heading back out to start the final period.

“Kip called me out,” Mateer said. “Start of the fourth quarter, he called me out. I was like, 'Alright, I don't got a choice. I do it for all these guys,’ and I'm glad he did.”

I asked Mateer what Lewis said to him.

“He just said, 'You gotta will us to this victory.' He hit me in the chest a couple times,” Mateer said. “We were all right there about to listen to ‘Many Men” (the new fourth-quarter song) and he hit me in the chest, saying, 'You gotta do it.’ Thank you, Kip. When Kip says something, you listen to him.”

Neither head coach Brent Venables nor offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said they gave any consideration to benching Mateer and inserting Hawkins.

I know this because I asked them both.

“No,” Venables said. “Doesn't have anything to do with anybody else, but no. I believe in John and what he's got. Absolutely.”

Why not?

“I mean, it's just a culmination of everything that he has done in the year that he's been here,” Arbuckle said, “from the work that he's put in, the relationships that he's built, the consistency that he has built. I mean, you know, he's an unbelievable competitor, and you know, he wants to go win the ball game.

“And so I'm proud of John. I'm proud of how he shows up every day, and even whenever there's there's bad, he always finds a way to respond.”

Give Arbuckle credit. What looked obvious to us idiots was an ideal example of a smart coach hanging in there and believing in his guy.

“I wouldn't give me any credit on anything smart right there,” Arbuckle said. “I mean, patient, I guess, yeah. I mean, the kids played hard, and they executed and found a way to get the ball in the end zone.”

“Yeah, knowing they have my back is huge,” Mateer said. “Obviously, it was a tough time, tough couple series. But I knew we'd have a chance, and there'd be a moment to go win this game, and that happened.”

Mateer told me that, even after three picks, he never looks over his shoulder to see if Hawkins is warming up.

"I think if you get caught in that, it's only negative and I think you gotta have a little more mental strength not do it," he said. "If I got caught in that, if it's like, 'Oh, if I don't play well, then this is gonna happen.' It's just fear. You can't play with fear. So I knew if I had another opportunity, I would do my best to get it done."

It wasn’t just the coaches who had his back. His teammates did, too — especially the stonewall OU defense, which repelled one LSU possession after another.

“Hopefully this just reiterates to him that we have his back,” said linebacker Owen Heinecke. “He can go out there and make plays when he needs to make plays and take risks. We’re cool with him taking risks because they pan out a lot for us. So him just knowing have his back no matter what, and we’re gonna fight to the end to get them the ball back.

“It was great. Just timely plays. Complementary football. The defense held it down for the first three quarters and we gave up some leakage there in the second half, and John came out and made plays when he needed to.”

“It’s a team game,” Sategna said. “He bounced back whenever we needed him the most. He was there.

“John is our biggest leader on offense. Every single drive, doesn’t matter how the drive goes – he is encouraging us and has us in a good headspace.”

Another reality: Mateer made the tackle on each of his first two interceptions. The first one saved a touchdown, and Peyton Bowen picked off an LSU throw in the end zone on the next play. The second one also might have produced points if not for Mateer.

Mateer’s fourth quarter was excellent: 4-of-6 for 92 yards with one touchdown and zero interceptions. He was just happy he didn’t let his team down. And now they can anticipate a game — maybe even a home game — in the College Football Playoff.

His stat sheet read much like the roller coaster he rode all night: 23-of-38 for 318 yards, two TDs and two picks.

“I mean, as a quarterback, it's one of the hardest parts, like, it's not going well, and it's all on my shoulders, you know?” he said. “But in the end, I mean, it worked, obviously, and that's all anybody cares about.”

John Mateer made a believer out of a lot of people on Saturday night — maybe myself most of all.