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Oklahoma QB John Mateer Lands on Another Preseason Watch List

The Sooners' talented transfer quarterback was super productive at Washington State last year and now will try to elevate the OU offense.
John Hoover|
Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer
Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer | Ryan Chapman / Sooners on SI

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Oklahoma Sooners

John Mateer is soaking up the preseason accolades.

On Thursday, Mateer’s name was included with 35 others on the Davey O’Brien Award preseason watch list, which is awarded to college football’s best quarterback.

Mateer certainly seems to have the chops for that title.

After leading the nation last year with 44 touchdowns at Washington State, Mateer has taken his talents to Norman, where he and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle are the key figures in breathing new life into Oklahoma’s moribund 2024 offensive output.

Mateer ranked fifth nationally last season in total offense thanks to his prodigious running and pinpoint passing.

Mateer threw  for 3,139 yards and 29 touchdowns last season with just eight interceptions, completing 65 percent of his passes in his first season as the Cougars’ starting QB. He also rushed for 826 net yards (1,057 gained, 231 lost on sacks) and 15 touchdowns.

“We got the best quarterback in the nation,” said Arkansas transfer wide receiver Isaiah Sategna. 

Elevating the OU Offense

John Mateer, Oklahoma Sooners
John Mateer runs drills during football practice for the Oklahoma Sooners. | NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

OU needed Mateer (and Arbuckle, and a lot of other transfers) as the Sooners ranked 113th nationally in total offense, 114th in passing offense, 124th in yards per play and 132nd in yards per pass.

Mateer, who grew up across the Red River in north Texas and went to high school in the DFW suburb of Little Elm, has great  reverence for Oklahoma’s historic excellence — especially at the quarterback position.

Five Sooners have received the Davey O’Brien Award: Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Sam Bradford, Jason White and, before it was officially designated for quarterbacks, Billy Sims. White won it twice (2003 and 2004). 

He walks past OU’s Heisman Park every day when he parks his car and walks into the Barry Switzer Center to go to work, and he always casts a glance at the cast bronze — but he doesn’t obsess about joining them.

“I mean, that is the expectation,” Mateer said. “Like, I don’t sit there or wake up every morning and think, ‘Oh, I need this many touchdowns or this many yards.’ Winning games is the only goal. Winning games and doing it for the team; in turn, those things should happen. Because this offense should be pretty explosive.” 

An Offseason of Leading, Teaching

Oklahoma Sooners, Ben Arbuckle and John Mateer
Oklahoma offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle directs John Mateer through drills at the Crimson Combine. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Mateer sounds ready for the season to start — especially after spending most of the last seven months figuring out how to lead his team as a transfer, and how to teach his teammates the finer points of Arbuckle’s offense.

“A lot of install and a lot of walkthroughs in the summer, and even now, every other day guys are staying after with me and we’re walking through a lot of stuff,” Mateer said last week. “We’re in a really good spot, and I’m really pleased with how everybody’s doing. Everybody’s having a lot of fun.” 

“John is a great leader,” said transfer wideout Keontez Lewis. “He's a great mentor out there, so shoot, anything that he tells me to do from that standpoint, routes, whatever, we've been just locked in on that, for real.”

Another Day, Another Watch List

Oklahoma Sooners, John Mateer
John Mateer runs drills during fall camp. | NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In all, the Sooners now have eight players so far on 10 different preseason watch lists this season.

Running back Jaydn Ott was named to the Doak Walker Award watch list (top running back); quarterback John Mateer landed on the Walter Camp Award watch list (national player of the year); Mateer and Ott were also named to the Maxwell Award watch list (national player of the year); linebackers Kip Lewis and Sammy Omosigho were added to the Dick Butkus Award watch list (top linebacker), and Lewis was named to the Bronko Nagurski Award watch list (defensive player of the year); safety Robert Spears-Jennings made the Danny Wuerffel Award watch list (citizenship, community service), transfer kicker Tate Sandell, who was named to the Lou Groza Award watch list (top kicker), transfer punter Jacob Ulrich, was named to the Ray Guy Award watch list (top punter), and long snapper Ben Anderson was named to the Patrick Mannelly Award watch list.

The Big 12 Conference leads all leagues with eight quarterbacks honored. The Big 12 is followed closely by the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference, both with seven.

The official Davey O’Brien Midseason Watch List will be released on Tuesday, Oct. 21, and will contain active quarterbacks from the Preseason Watch List, players honored as weekly Great 8 recipients through the season’s first eight weeks and any additional quarterbacks approved by the selection subcommittee.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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