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Column: Why John Mateer's Arrival in Norman Evokes Memories of Baker Mayfield

Their ties to Washington State and Mike Leach, their unheralded recruiting paths, and of course their similar bravado on the field are all worthy of comparison.

John E. Hoover

John Mateer and Baker Mayfield
John Mateer and Baker Mayfield / James Snook-Imagn Images | Mark D. Smith-Imagn Images
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It needs to be said: there’s a little Baker Mayfield in John Mateer.

There are stark differences, of course. Mayfield was a walk-on at Texas Tech and Oklahoma who played intramural softball at OU before introducing himself to Bob Stoops and sitting out a year. Mateer reportedly commands a seven-figure NIL package and was the No. 1-ranked prospect in the NCAA Transfer Portal when he committed to play for the Sooners on Wednesday.

Mayfield never had NIL, and he never had the portal. In fact, the Big 12 Conference had to create the “Baker Mayfield Rule” to allow him an additional year of eligibility when he transferred from Tech to OU — as a walk-on, paying his own way.

But Mayfield and Mateer, both undervalued Texas prospects, bet on themselves when they chose to transfer to Oklahoma.

College football has changed drastically in the nearly 12 years since Mayfield went from spunky but scrawny QB at Lake Travis High School to walk-on nobody in Lubbock, an afterthought in the 2013 recruiting class.

And this generation of players, led by guys like Mateer, is the beneficiary of those changes.

As a prospect at Little Elm High School — deep in the heart of the urban sprawl north of Dallas — Mateer wasn’t coveted as a prospect. He had offers from Incarnate Word, Houston Christian, Columbia and Central Arkansas, then finally landed the big one — Washington State.

When he was an unheralded prospect at Lake Travis in Austin, Mayfield had offers from Florida Atlantic, New Mexico and Rice before finally landing the big one — Washington State.

That’s right. Just like Mateer, Mayfield was wandering in the recruiting wilderness before Washington State called. 

Washington State Cougars John Mateer Oklahoma Sooners
Washington State quarterback John Mateer / James Snook-Imagn Images

Back then, it was Mike Leach. Leach’s offer to Mayfield drew the interest of one of his former pupils, Kliff Kingsbury, who quickly gave Mayfield an offer to walk on at Tech. Lubbock was a lot closer to home than Pullman, so he took it.

Mateer took the opposite path: Washington State and the Pac-12 (and the Pac-2 and the Mountain West and whoever else the Cougars could play this season) were his proving ground, and now he’s coming to Oklahoma to send his career into the stratosphere. 

At OU, Mayfield was tutored by Stoops’ West Texas wunderkind, 31-year-old Lincoln Riley. Mateer will continue to be tutored by Brent Venables’ Texas Panhandle prodigy, 29-year-old Ben Arbuckle. Their Lone Star outposts — Canadian for Arbuckle, Muleshoe for Riley — are just 200 flat, dusty miles apart on U.S. 60. 

Riley was a Leach QB disciple, backing up Kingsbury for one year at Texas Tech before going into coaching under Leach. Arbuckle played for two years at West Texas A&M under Zach Kittley, who began his coaching career at Texas Tech under Kingsbury in 2013 — yep, the same year Mayfield earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Year as a Red Raider quarterback.

Five seasons later, Mayfield stood on the big stage in New York City, accepting his Heisman Trophy on behalf of the Sooners.

“You welcomed a chubby, unathletic kid into the program with open arms,” Mayfield told Stoops minutes after the announcement. “I wouldn’t say that many would do that, but thank you. But the thing I’m most thankful for is hiring Coach Riley. The day you did that changed my life.”

Oklahoma Sooners Baker Mayfield
Former Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield in 2017 / Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

The threads of Leach’s coaching influence are boundless, but even though neither played for him, a decade apart, both Mayfield and Mateer can trace their collegiate roots to the pirate. (Speaking of pirates, who’s surprised that Mayfield now plays for the Buccaneers?)

Want another historical tie? Mateer and Mayfield both navigated their way to Norman not long after OU stomped Alabama as double-digit underdogs.

Beyond which coaching trees they sprouted from, it’s obvious that Mayfield and Mateer have similar playing styles.

Watch Mateer highlights and you’ll see the same swashbuckling approach that took Mayfield to three straight Big 12 titles, two College Football Playoffs and the 2017 Heisman Trophy.

At 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds, Mayfield became the first quarterback in FBS history — and remained the only one until 2023 — to throw for 14,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in his career. Those numbers speak to passing excellence, of course, but also to Mayfield’s underrated athletic ability. But more than that, they speak to his willingness — and occasional desperation — to make something positive happen whenever a play breaks down. Mayfield was fearless as a runner in college, and anyone who saw him carry the football last Sunday in a win over the Chargers knows he remains exactly that, even in his eighth NFL season.

At 6-foot-1 and 219 pounds, Mateer is very much from the same cloth, an athletic playmaker who can throw the football with precision and bravado but also has built his brand as a gutsy runner. Mateer exceeded 1,000 rushing yards as a quarterback this season, although sacks took his net total to 826 yards. But with 15 rushing TDs and 29 passing TDs, no player produced more touchdowns in 2024 than Mateer.

What’s maybe most impressive is the improvisation both players display.

Mayfield is a master of the ad-lib. A receiver doesn’t get open on time? A blocker doesn’t hold the edge? No problem. Mayfield will tuck the football, spin out of trouble, break a tackle and buy time. Ask the 49ers’ Nick Bosa about how frustrating that can be for a defense. 

"He's got a knack to find space or feel space and to get out of things and make something happen when there's not much there," Stoops told SI after Mayfield was named the starter in 2015.

Mayfield was never the runner that Mateer is. Mateer is explosive, elusive and runs with both power and speed. Mayfield succeeded with instinct and guile.

But their football intuition — their ability to make jaw-dropping plays when there’s only chaos around them — stands out. 

There’s a highlight of Mateer against San Jose State where Mateer sprints out looking to hit the edge on a short touchdown run but instead gets to the sideline and flips an option-style pitch to a receiver in the end zone at the last possible second. It’s exactly the kind of intuitive, winning play that Mayfield has made a career of.

While Mayfield left Tech because Kingsbury refused to give him a scholarship, Mateer had a different experience, discussing his decision with family over the weekend, telling his coach and teammates on Sunday night, entering the portal on Monday, traveling to Norman on Tuesday and by Wednesday he was a Sooner.

The decision was deeply personal for Mateer, and leaving Pullman wore on him emotionally. Head coach Jake Dickert explained that “an army of Cougs” combined their efforts to support their quarterback with a seven-figure NIL package.

“At the end of the day, he wanted to play on a bigger stage, and I think that was the cause of most of this,” Dickert told media in Pullman.

Ultimately, Mateer at Oklahoma gets a more lucrative financial arrangement, gets to be closer to home, gets to keep learning from Arbuckle and now gets to compete in the Southeastern Conference.

It’s the perfect storm for Mateer. Who wouldn’t want all of that? 

Of course, there’s the little matter of Michael Hawkins.

Hawkins, yet another product of the DFW football factory, was Jackson Arnold’s backup as a true freshman — good enough to take over that role last spring, and good enough to step into the starting role when Arnold faltered in Week 4. Hawkins lost the job to Arnold three weeks later, but he should be even better next year, and he’s certainly not afraid of competition.

“I love it. I love competition,” Hawkins said last week. “I feel like that's how it should be. I don't think that it should be no other way. So, I'm all about competition. I think we need another guy here. I'm ready.”

There’s yet another reason to revisit 2014-15: Hawkins’ words sound a lot like Trevor Knight’s from back in the day.

“I think it just, if anything, puts a little chip on your shoulder,” Knight said during the summer of 2015, before Mayfield took Knight’s job despite that surreal performance against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. “We’ve got a room full of competitors on our team, which I think is awesome.” 

That attitude will make Hawkins better, of course, but it will also make Mateer better — which ultimately makes the team better.

Whether Hawkins can beat out Mateer remains unknown. In this day and age of the transfer portal always lurking, Arbuckle would be wise to keep the competition open as long as possible.

Mateer’s skills are certainly formidable.

In addition to leading the nation with 268 total points accounted for and 44 total touchdowns (rushing and passing), he also ranks 18th nationally in passing yards (261.9 per game), 72nd in rushing yards (68.8 per game) and fifth in total offense (330.4 yards per game).

A third-year sophomore with two years of eligibility remaining, Mateer completed 64.6 percent of his passes for 3,139 yards with 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions this season. He also netted 826 yards rushing and 15 touchdowns this year. His 2024 rushing total ranked sixth in the nation among quarterbacks (his touchdowns ranked fifth) and is 62nd nationally overall.

Can Mateer replicate that success at Oklahoma? Maybe. Dickert boldly predicted he’ll be the best player in America next fall. With another year of practice and another year learning Arbuckle’s offense and another offseason in the weight room, he should be a better quarterback in 2025. But to project Mateer’s 2024 statistical accomplishments onto OU’s 2025 schedule seems fanciful.

Six of Washington State’s 11 FBS opponents this season ranked 97th or worse in the NCAA’s total defense metric. Those include Texas Tech (123rd), Utah State (129th) and New Mexico (130th). The Cougars also played Portland State, whose defense ranked 123rd — in the FCS.

WSU scored 191 points in those four games.

The Oklahoma schedule next season includes games against defensive citadels like Michigan and Texas and South Carolina and Ole Miss and Tennessee and Alabama and LSU.

For Mateer, that might feel like a different world.

Then again, that opens the door for one more Mayfield comparison.

When Mayfield won the Heisman in 2017, he faced defenses that ranked 107th, 98th, 111th, 90th, 104th, 117th and 106th in the nation.

And the two elite defenses Mayfield faced that season — No. 9 Ohio State and No. 2 Georgia — he completely roasted, one on the road and one in the playoff. The Sooners beat the Buckeyes in Columbus and probably should have beaten the Bulldogs in the semifinal in Pasadena.

Just food for thought.

Like it has been for the last two weeks since Arbuckle’s hire, the ball is now in Mateer’s court.

Whether he runs it or throws it, he’ll be the one who decides where his career goes from here. 

Published
John E. Hoover
JOHN E. 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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