Jason Witten and John Mateer turned a messy week into a clean answer for Oklahoma.
The Sooners were staring down a difficult stretch, trying to steady themselves after a season of falling short of expectations and heading into their first road trip to Gainesville as part of their new SEC life. Witten told his offense the week was not “ideal,” and he also admitted the coaches had done a poor job all season. Still, there was no room to dwell on it.
Instead, Witten and Mateer spent the limited time they had building the kind of rhythm that can change an offense fast.
“Everybody knows it’s super important, the offensive coordinator/quarterback relationship,” Mateer said after OU’s 23-7 victory over Florida.
That connection has long been a defining piece of Oklahoma football, with pairings like Kevin Wilson and Sam Bradford, and Lincoln Riley and Baker Mayfield. Witten and Mateer did not need to match those names to make the point. The work itself mattered, even if the week around it was anything but smooth.
Mateer said he and Witten had never really done that kind of work together before, but Thursday night became the key moment.
“We had never done it, obviously. Thursday night, it was important being around him, just talking the gameplan,” Mateer said.
The two got back to basics. Mateer said he valued Witten showing his work and laying out his thinking, including why certain risks made sense. That preparation showed up on Saturday in a balanced offensive performance that included a historic 20-play touchdown drive, with Mateer making plays both as a passer and a runner.
For one game, at least, the new partnership looked sharp.
“I thought he called a good game. We got the drives going, and I made some plays,” Mateer said.
“He’s good. He had a long week getting everything ready, but he did a great job with it.”
Witten said the week had been unusual, but the late-night sitdown on Thursday helped the two get on the same page.
“(Mateer’s) readiness, his maturity to embrace what’s happening here with the change,” Witten said after the game. “We sat in my office Thursday night, just kind of a wild week, and we were able to connect on Thursday night. Had a really long visit about the gameplan, how I kind of saw it going, and just making sure I was hearing him on what he was comfortable with.”
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Among the names tied to the opening are Mitch Dahlen at Oregon State, Kevin Decker at Memphis and Rob Ezell at Wake Forest, each with a quarterback connection and some level of offensive success attached to his background. For Oklahoma, the appeal is obvious: the next hire may need to bring more than a scheme, because the Sooners are looking for stability at the position that drives everything else, and the wrong pairing could leave them searching again before the plan ever has a chance to settle in. [Read more 🡒]