Josh Pate isn't sleeping on Oklahoma's John Mateer
The Oklahoma Sooners made a major upgrade at starting quarterback this winter. With former starter Jackson Arnold off to play for the Auburn Tigers, OU had a hole to fill under center. Not only did they fill it, they did so with a player, John Mateer, who is better than any QB the Sooners had on the roster a year ago.
In fact, Mateer was the transfer portal's top overall player this year. Oklahoma beat out Miami and North Carolina to land the former Washington State star. After OU was atrocious offensively in 2024, Mateer's arrival gives the Sooners a chance to rebound back to their winning ways in 2025.
At least that's what Josh Pate, the host of "Josh Pate's College Football Show", thinks. Because of familiarity with his play-caller and the help of players from multiple top-ten recruiting classes over the past few years, he has Mateer right alongside the best quarterbacks in the entire SEC.
"I'm putting John Mateer in the top five," Pate said. "If I'm right, Oklahoma's gonna be a contender in the SEC. I believe in the OC-quarterback approach, bringing both of them in, not just one of them, especially when they're both qualified, and Ben Arbuckle and John Mateer are. I also think it greatly helps that John Mateer is not being brought into Norman, Oklahoma, and then being looked at by everyone down on their knees with their hands clasped praying, 'Please save us John, save us.' No, you don't need to save anyone. You need to go in there and play solid football and execute, make good decisions, because you know what you've got around you? You've got a top-ten roster around you. You've got a really good defense. You don't have to score 42 a game to win, and you've got guys calling plays for you that you're very familiar with. I think he's gonna be really good this year. That's why I've got Oklahoma top ten in the preseason."
Sooner Nation has long clamored for complementary football in Norman. For years, OU fans had to watch incredible offenses, led by Heisman Trophy-level quarterbacks, be ultimately let down by bad defenses. The trio of Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts combined for four College Football Playoff appearances in five seasons from 2015 to 2019, and it was the inability to get stops on defense that, for the most part, sunk those excellent Oklahoma teams in the semifinal round each time.
When Brent Venables took over for Lincoln Riley, the hope was that he could change that. In the years since, Venables has built up a defense that looks like it can compete in the SEC. But, just as the defense was getting really good in 2024, Oklahoma's offense fell off a cliff with Seth Littrell and Jackson Arnold at the helm. Complementary football eluded OU yet again.
With plenty of returning starters, the Oklahoma defense looks like it has the pieces to be good again. On the other side of the ball, the Arbuckle-Mateer combination hopes to finally bring high-level play on both offense and defense, at the same time, to Norman in 2025.
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @Aaron_Gelvin.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
College football viewer's guide: Everything you need to know for this season
The return of college football is almost here. Unlike last season, there's not much new with the College Football Playoff this year — and the format may not be changing again soon with conferences divided on the best long-term solution for the sport. So in the meantime, the 12-team playoff awaits again this season, with one change: The top four seeds will be the top four teams in the rankings no matter if they're conference champs or not. (Last year, the top four conference champions received the four first-round byes, resulting in Boise State and Arizona State getting byes despite being ranked No. 9 and No. 12, respectively.) With that little bit of housekeeping out of the way, here's everything you need to know ahead of an action-packed 2025 college football season. CFP future still up for grabs as Big Ten pushes auto-bid format The conferences are currently at an impasse as the Big Ten is adamant in its support for a playoff format that no one else likes. The conference is advocating for a 16-team playoff that guarantees four bids each to the Big Ten and SEC, while the ACC and Big 12 each get two bids. The remaining four spots would be reserved for the top Group of Five champion and three at-large teams. Read more on future playoff formats right here. Coaches under the most pressure this season The 2025 season could be a referendum on many coaches. As there wasn't much coaching turnover in the power conferences after the 2024 season, numerous coaches enter this season needing their teams to have strong performances. Not all of the coaches on the list are on the hot seat, per se — we have one first-year coach on it — but here are 10 coaches who could really use great seasons. Read more on coaches under pressure right here. Familiar faces, new places: QB transfer to know With millions in NIL money being thrown around, quarterbacks have jumped from team to team over the past several years. It can be a bit hard to keep track of all the movement, so here are 10 of the biggest quarterback moves over the offseason as teams like Miami, Louisville and Colorado looked to add veteran QBs to replace starters who bolted for the NFL. Read more on QB transfers to know right about the biggest QB competitions right here. Familiar faces, new places: Non-QB transfers to know A new QB can help a team turn a corner quick, but there are plenty of other key positions that can change a game in a heartbeat. From new Michigan running back Justice Haynes to LSU wide receiver Nic Anderson, there were plenty of gamebreakers on the move in between season. We run through the biggest transfers outside the QB position you need to know about. Read more on non-QB transfers right here. 10 college football teams poised to bounce back It's never been easier to rebuild quickly in college football thanks to the transfer portal. It's like the wild west with a free-for-all twice a year when programs try to grab the best players available to beef up their rosters and fill their biggest holes. Immediate turnarounds are possible, but so are sudden drop-offs. Results vary; change across the sport's landscape is guaranteed. With that said, here are the teams that appear primed for a level-up this season — whether going from an embarrassing season to more respectable, or a middling team that could punch its way into the playoff. Read more on teams poised to bounce back right here. 10 college football teams poised to disappoint Fans know there are varying levels of disappoint in college football. Teams that are used to making the College Football Playoff feel robbed when they don't. Other programs are content finishing .500 and making a bowl game. So which teams are set up for a down season in 2025? With player movement aplenty and expectations all over the place, these teams may not be happy with where they're at come December. Read more on teams poised to disappoint right here. Best non-conference games this season While some power conference teams are dodging marquee games outside of league play, others are embracing them. Nowhere is that more evident than in Week 1, which is full of can't-miss non-conference games. Texas-Ohio State, Florida State-Alabama, LSU-Clemson, Syracuse-Tennessee and Notre Dame-Miami all play on opening weekend in a loaded slate. And that doesn't even include Bill Belichick's college debut on Monday night, when UNC hosts TCU in Chapel Hill. Read more on the best non-con games right here. EA Sports 'College Football 26' predicts the 2025 season For the second year in a row, Yahoo Sports ran a simulated season in EA Sports' new college football video game. Were the results realistic? You be the judge. Read more on our college football video game simulation right here. College football betting One bet we like for (almost) every week this year Four games to bet right now Heisman Trophy: Lines for every listed player Value Heisman Trophy bets to make Biggest college football national title bets made Odds to win it all for every team Full list of season over/unders for every team
American Press
an hour ago
- American Press
Scooter Hobbs column: No easy pickings for SEC preseason poll
Before tossing this summer's SEC preseason football media poll into its rightful home — which would be next to some used coffee grinds at the bottom of a trash can — should we dare take one last glance at the latest? I suppose such foolishness would come under the heading of 'For entertainment purposes only.' After all, the poll, which is released as the grand finalé of SEC Media Days each year, is traditionally best known for being comically wrong far more than it ever stumbles onto anything right. Add to that the fact that every year there's one anonymous vote predicting Vanderbilt to win the whole shooting match and you can understand the fanfare it generates. Yes, there are people who actually get upset about the annual Unknown Lone Vandy Voter, as if wasting one (1) vote is making a mockery of such a solemn event as a worthless, useless poll that will be forgotten while experts are still over-dissecting it before opening weekend. Anyway, it's almost become a badge of honor among the conference leadership, the big-wigs who seem to relish its release each year, an event that comes with the delightful disclaimer about just how misguided the media hacks are historically prone to be. If you, or someone you know, has a prediction addiction, please keep them away from the SEC Media preseason poll and seek professional assistance and counseling. The SEC office does not endorse, nor can it be held responsible for, the results of this or any future predictions. Or something like that. It was just last year when the official release was quick to update and point out that only nine times in the previous 32 years had the bumbling, stumbling media correctly picked the eventual conference champion. Of course, this year the conference office wasn't quite so condescending. Don't be so quick to gloat. The media — drum roll, please — actually got it right last year in picking Georgia to win. So it's up to 10 out of 33 now and … who's laughing now? We're on a roll. And that was in the first year with two extra teams, 16 I guess it's up to now, with no divisions. It's harder to pick a conference champion when you can't even remember who's in the conference this week. But last year not only did your media whiz kids get Georgia right, the preseason poll also had newcomer Texas in the top two as the team Georgia did, in fact, beat for the title. Once again, you may have noticed, Vanderbilt did NOT win the conference, but the Commodores DID beat Alabama, which might have been just as much fun. Nobody saw it coming, that's for sure. So maybe the media is on to something. Vanderbilt, for instance, this year got two votes to win it all. The converts are pouring in. Maybe it's a trend, maybe not. But with new-found respect for the long-maligned media poll, maybe we can take a last, serious look at the latest offering from the June confab. (Insert weather-worn disclaimers here.) But, OK, Texas is predicted to win the SEC. Makes sense. Arch Manning is the Longhorns quarterback. Georgia is picked to finish second and would probably be picked first if not for the Burnt Arch factor. But Georgia is now what Alabama once was and the logical next choice. Alabama is picked third because it's Alabama and if the Tide finish worse than that, Nick Saban really might come back. Then it seems, the media took the easy way out, poking around to see which teams were set at quarterback. That may be why LSU is next at No. 4 with Garrett Nussmeier, the preseason second team all-conference quarterback. It's also logical that South Carolina, with first-team preseason All-SEC quarterback LaNorris Sellers, is No. 5 and Florida, with rising star DJ Lagway, is No. 6. No. 7 Ole Miss has concerns at the position, but the media assumption may be that head coach Lane Kiffin will always find a nuisance to play the position. Texas A&M found Marcel Reed against LSU last year and if he ever figures out how to throw, the No. 8 ranking may be too low. Maybe by now you're figuring out how tough this prediction business is in the current atmosphere. That's eight teams and we're only halfway through. If that holds — and it won't — it would delegate some pretty big brand names to the bottom half. Teams like Tennessee, Auburn, Oklahoma. You figure one of those three is going to jump up among the challengers. Don't forget Missouri, either. Those Tigers were in the jumbled six-way tie for fourth place last year. Then the bottom three look pretty well settled in down there — Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi State. But who knows about No. 12? Maybe the uplifting Vanderbilt resurgence continues under Diego Pavia who may not have the best arm, but surely has the best name among SEC quarterbacks. This seems like a Hallmark movie waiting to happen. If so, you read it here first. * Scooter Hobbs covers LSU for the American Press. You can contact him at
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Transfer special teamers named to preseason award watchlists
Texas special teams was a huge talking point during the latter parts of last season. The Longhorns special teams unit was the worst in the playoff field, according to ESPN's SP+. It showed up in huge moments, with multiple missed kicks against Georgia in the SEC title and against Arizona State in the Peach Bowl. Sarkisian and company made a concerted effort to fix that problem in the portal, adding one of the top punters and kickers in the portal. Jack Bouwmeester comes in from Utah to take over the punting duties and Mason Shipley arrives from Texas State as the expected starting kicker for the Horns. Bouwmeester was placed on the Ray Guy Award watchlist on Friday. The Ray Guy Award recognizes the best punter in the country every year, an award that Michael Dickson won for Texas in 2017. Bouwmeester is coming off a year where he averaged 44.7 yards/punt a year ago at Utah, which would improve Texas' mark from 2024 by 15 yards/punt. Bouwmeester also dropped 23 of 60 punts a year ago inside the 20-yard line, with only 4 touchbacks. As for the kicking side, Mason Shipley was placed on the Lou Groza Award watchlist. Shipley was a spring portal addition from Texas State and is set to compete with Will Stone for the kicking duties this year. Shipley went 15-19 on FGs a year ago, not missing from inside 30 yards and 60-yarder. That comes off a year where he didn't miss a kick, going a perfect 15-15 in 2023. A year ago, Texas kickers went 16-25(64%) on FGs, so the addition of Shipley should improve that drastically. Texas has had winners of both the Ray Guy and Lou Groza award winners, but during the 2024 run, there were a number of times where special teams let them down. Bringing in Jack Bouwmeester and Mason Shipley should give a boost to the Longhorns special teams unit. Special teams is often the decider in National Championship runs and Texas went out and got two guys that figure to be pieces in those major moments in 2025. This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Longhorns Special Teams Duo Earn Preseason Honor
