NORMAN \u2014 There were a lot of hard lessons for John Mateer last season.<\/p>\n
Nobody understands that better than OU quarterbacks coach John Kuceyeski.<\/p>\n
Kuceyeski has played a pivotal role in Mateer\u2019s development since 2023, when the pair connected while at Washington State. Last year marked the first season in Norman for both Mateer and Kuceyeski. <\/p>\n
After an up-and-down season for Mateer, Kuceyeski is now tasked with helping his quarterback take significant steps forward in 2026. Over the last couple of months, Kuceyeski made video clips that included some of Mateer\u2019s mistakes from a season ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s really hard for anybody to learn from,\u201d Kuceyeski said Saturday. \u201cThen we kind of made our big rocks of, \u2018Hey, where can we get progress in the spring first?\u2019 Spring, then summer, then fall. The biggest thing is his foundation, his platform \u2014 throwing from a great platform, having consistency in his drops and his pocket movements. He dedicated himself to that and got a lot better with that. Now we start to move, as we go against another defense, with some of the eye discipline, some of the coverage reads pre- and post-snap process and elevating that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t all bad for Mateer last season. He was an early Heisman candidate as he led the Sooners to wins over Auburn and Michigan. He flashed his talent as a runner and his ability to make things happen outside the pocket.<\/p>\n
But everything changed after his thumb surgery in late September. He finished the year with just 14 passing touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Kuceyeski points a lot of Mateer\u2019s struggles to that thumb injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had to get creative a little bit because of the grip,\u201d Kuceyeski said. \u201cHe\u2019ll never make an excuse, and we won\u2019t make an excuse for him. Just some of the feelings of that and the way he could grip the ball \u2014he lost a little bit of that strength with his thumb \u2014 so, yeah, he had to because naturally when you go with that angle and with that thumb, that ball\u2019s going to go, and it\u2019s going to go in bad places if you\u2019re not really possessing that ball. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s definitely feeling a lot better. He made a throw in the last practice on a movement throw that I haven\u2019t seen him make in a long time, and you could just see the confidence in his eyes. Obviously, he\u2019s continuing to feel through some of the scar tissue and stuff. He\u2019ll never tell me it hurts, never tell me it\u2019s bothering him \u2014 and I don\u2019t know if it is or not, because he\u2019s a tough kid, but I think it\u2019s definitely getting back to what I\u2019m used to saying, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
There has been a clear focus from Mateer and Kuceyeski on fixing his throwing mechanics. But that\u2019s not a simple process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the easiest, and everybody wants you to go from here (45 degrees) to here (over the top), and it\u2019s not going to happen, right?\u201d Kuceyeski said. \u201cEverything is gradual, so if we can just start to get the arm angle to here (over the top) more consistently, that\u2019s going to be great. But it\u2019s not going to be something where you\u2019re just going to change it overnight. It\u2019s been drilled for him for 21 years of his life, and so it\u2019s just changing that and having awareness to that. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, there\u2019s going to be times where it\u2019s going to demand a sidearm throw based on some movement and RPO throws; that\u2019s not going to vanish, and he\u2019s going to default to that at times when things speed up.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are obviously areas where Mateer has to be better from last season. Healing from the thumb injury and making adjustments to his mechanics will go a long way. But Kuceyeski has more confidence than anyone in Mateer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have high expectations in the quarterback room,\u201d Kuceyeski said. \u201cHigher than any of y\u2019all or Twitter-verse can have and we\u2019re good with that. I think he\u2019s a very tough and humble human and he\u2019s always going to point the thumb and he\u2019s always going to think he can do more, and I love him for that. It\u2019s going to be tough at times and we really don\u2019t care about what everyone else thinks as long as he\u2019s doing things the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kuceyeski has seen Mateer in a lot of situations over his career. Last season was a brand new situation for both of them that came with heightened expectations and lots of criticism.<\/p>\n
Kuceyeski is confident Mateer will take a step forward in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s been the greatest thing with him is he just continues to get better at the things we ask him to get better at,\u201d Kuceyeski said. \u201cReally excited to see him in his fourth year. His first year was way different. Way more basic, like reading base things and now he\u2019s in level four of this offense and really taken ownership in the scheme and everything. That\u2019s what I love the most about him, man, is just from start to finish, he\u2019s grown up a lot and he\u2019s grown up a lot, obviously, as a human, as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s very process-driven and that\u2019s always going to be a process and that\u2019s what\u2019s going to give him success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORMAN \u2014 There were a lot of hard lessons for John Mateer last season. Nobody understands that better…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":689252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-689251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116310198530355220","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}