All Sooners

Oklahoma Offers Western Carolina Quarterback from Transfer Portal

With Michael Hawkins starting the Armed Forces Bowl and John Mateer in the fold for 2025, new OC Ben Arbuckle is seeking more depth and competition.

John E. Hoover

Western Carolina quarterback Cole Gonzales
Western Carolina quarterback Cole Gonzales / Western Carolina Athletics
In this story:

New Oklahoma offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle has his eye on adding another quarterback.

With just two scholarship quarterbacks on the current roster and only three scheduled to be in the fold in 2025, Arbuckle has begun making offers to quarterbacks in the NCAA Transfer Portal.

OU’s latest offer went out Friday afternoon to former Western Carolina quarterback Cole Gonzales, who is a two-time finalist for the Walter Payton Award as the top overall player in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision.

Gonzales is an experienced signal caller for the Catamounts, a two-year starter who has three years of college football experience at the FCS school.

According to Pro Football Focus, the 6-foot, 195-pound Gonzales has played nearly 1,500 snaps in 27 total games over the last three seasons. In his two seasons as the starter under head coach Kerwin Bell, the Catamounts are 14-9 and reached a spot in the FCS poll for the first time in program history.

Gonzales, who played high school football at Trinity Catholic in Ocala, FL, entered the transfer portal on Dec. 11. Since entering the portal, he has received offers from Charlotte, UTEP, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma.

He played eight games this year before a season-ending injury. Gonzales — the son of University of Florida assistant coach Billy Gonzales — completed 62 percent of his passes (205-of-332) for 2,543 yards with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions. As a sophomore in 2023, Gonzales completed 66 percent of his passes (204-of-310) for 2,803 yards and led the nation during the regular season with a school record 28 touchdowns and just eight interceptions. During his freshman season in 2022, he got four starts and hit 63 percent (102-of-161) for 1,336 yards with 11 TDs and seven INTs. Gonzales also has compiled 562 yards rushing and three TDs on the ground.

This season, Western Carolina led all of FCS in passing offense at 335.8 yards per game, ranks No. 4 nationally in total offense at 471.2 yards per game, and ranks No. 1 in total first downs with 305.

Gonzales is a two-time first-team All-Southern Conference performer and has thrown five touchdown passes in a game three times.

As a recruit, Gonzales wasn’t rated by Rivals, 247 Sports or On3, and he chose Western Carolina over offers from Samford and Tennessee-Martin. 

One of Gonzales’ former WCU teammates is new Oklahoma offensive line transfer Derek Simmons, who was a two-year starter for the Catamounts at tackle.

Arbuckle is coaching quarterbacks for the Sooners' upcoming Armed Forces Bowl showdown with Navy on Dec. 27 in Fort Worth, meaning he's getting to know true freshman Michael Hawkins and seventh-year senior Casey Thompson, as well as redshirt freshman walk-on Steele Wasel.

Arbuckle has already landed two quarterbacks since he was hired on Dec. 2: incoming 2025 freshman Jett Niu, who he recruited while at Washington State, and former Cougars starter and national touchdowns leader John Mateer.

Mateer and Hawkins are expected to compete for the Sooners' starting job when spring practice begins in March.

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.

Home/Football