NORMAN - John Mateer is heading into the Red River Rivalry with a memory he’d probably rather erase, but Oklahoma’s quarterback is trying to turn last year’s pain into fuel.
A year ago, the Sooners were unbeaten and rolling after wins over then-ranked Michigan and Auburn. Mateer was being talked about like a Heisman front-runner, even as surgery on his throwing hand raised questions about whether he’d be ready for the Cotton Bowl showdown with Texas.
He came back. It just didn’t go the way Oklahoma wanted.
Texas, a team that was struggling at the time, beat the Sooners, and Mateer turned in what Pro Football Focus graded as his worst game as an OU quarterback to that point - a 29.5 overall grade. Now, with another shot at Dallas, he’s leaning on that setback rather than running from it.
“I've learned a lot from that game,” Mateer said on Monday. “I think more than I learned in any game in my life.
So I appreciate that it happened. As much as I hate the outcome, the man I am today is better because that happened.”
For Oklahoma fans, that might be a rough thing to hear before a rivalry game. But Mateer said the lesson he carries most is simple: remember how it felt, then come back sharper.
“I think you just remember the taste of it,” he said. “I remember that a lot.
We all know it, and we just come out ready to practice. You can always go a little harder, pay more attention to the details.
Not that we haven't been doing, I think we've been doing a good job, especially in practice.”
That mindset matters for a Sooners team that could need Mateer to keep pace if the defense gives the offense chances to respond. The idea is not that he has to be perfect. He may just need to play loose.
Ben Arbuckle sees a quarterback who has absorbed criticism and kept moving.
“As tough as they come both physically and mentally,” Arbuckle said on Tuesday. “It's a position that is held in a high regard, is held to a high standard. And, if anything, from last year and this year has shown me, he doesn't run from that at all.”
Arbuckle doubled down on that point, making clear that Mateer’s makeup hasn’t changed.
“He's tough as they come. He wears it all, as I believe a good quarterback should,” Arbuckle said. “Nothing has changed in that facet.”
Maybe that’s the strange edge in all of this: Oklahoma’s quarterback is walking back toward the scene of his worst day, hoping the memory keeps him from repeating it.
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