Greg McElroy defends where he ranked John Mateer on Top-10 college football quarterback list

Much of the excitement around Oklahoma going into next fall is because of the addition of QB John Mateer from the portal. Greg McElroy is all in on it too with what he thinks he could end up being this season for OU.

McElroy rated Mateer as his second-best quarterback in the country in his top-ten, behind only Clemson’s Cade Klubnik, during a recent episode of ‘Always College Football’. He gets that some people will think that’s high but he thinks it’s more than justified to have him there.

“This is pretty high for most people when evaluating the quarterback spot,” said McElroy. “But, went for over 3,100 yards last year, 29 touchdowns, seven interceptions. Added 826 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns.”

McElroy admitted this had less to do with Mateer’s new program than it did with his old one with Washington State. He saw what one portal quarterback went on to do last season after transferring to a new school. He’s then just as impressed, if not more so, with what Mateer did while at Wazzu considering the program dealt with a lot in falling from the Pac-12.

“Now, part of my evaluation here was how Cam Ward did at Miami. I will admit. That helps. That does help in the evaluation because we saw Cam Ward as a starting quarterback at Washington State two years ago. We saw it and we saw how he performed, the numbers he put up, how he made plays. Then we watched John Mateer step in and replace Cam Ward last year and, a lot of those same plays that Cam Ward made, John Mateer was now making,” said McElroy. “You thought, well maybe it’s the system? Or maybe these are just two really dang good players? Well, Cam Ward goes to Miami, lights the world on fire, now has become the first overall pick in the NFL Draft.”

“If you look at how he helped Washington State in what was kind of a tumultuous couple years for Washington State? It’s been a little bit challenging with the exodus of players and moving from the P5 to the G5. It’s just been challenging, to say the least. Well he, at one point, had Washington State at 8-1 last year,” McElroy noted. “He beat Texas Tech, he beat Washington. He had a rushing touchdown in all but one game and had nearly 70% completion in seven of his twelve games. He led the FBS in touchdowns last year with 44 and was the only quarterback with 20 or more passing touchdowns and 10 or more rushing touchdowns.”

Now, Mateer, the No. 3 overall transfer per On3, is keeping a lot of what made him successful in Pullman as he followed his offensive coordinator to Norman. That, along with another year of development in his game, should be all the Sooners need to improve on what was their worst offense in this century with him arguably being the best dual-threat quarterback in the country.

“Now, what I love most now is that he’s going to be going to a place alongside his offensive coordinator, Ben Arbuckle, so there’s already great familiarity there. He knows exactly what Ben Arbuckle is trying to do,” said McElroy. “I think part of the reason why Ben Arbuckle is at Oklahoma is because John Mateer and him were a package deal and they’re going to try to improve on an offense that was 97th in scoring, 119th in passing. So, there’s only one direction to go at Oklahoma.”

“When he is dialed in? You can tell. He has some unstoppable qualities,” McElroy said. “He looks, on the surface, like he’s crazy competitive. He is a guy that is really athletic and, I think he’s a lot faster than you realize because, at 220 pounds, he’s not afraid to lower his shoulder and run through tackles. He can dance too. He’s got some wiggle. If he needs to, he can move, he can get out. And he’s excellent throwing on the run. That’s another thing that jumps out. When he escapes the pocket, especially to his right, he’s very accurate on the move and he has a great feel for where the line of scrimmage is so, when he takes off, it might look like he’s going to run, which draws a bunch of defenders and their attention up and allows them to leave their coverage responsibilities, and he’ll make them pay. He’s got a really quick release, gets it over the top and he creates really big plays on the move as a result of that feel for where the line of scrimmage is.”

With that, McElroy would compare to Mateer to a former great himself at OU in Baker Mayfield. He sees a similar approach and skillset but thinks Mateer will obviously be a better rusher than Mayfield was.

“When I look at John Mateer, his skillset does remind me a little bit of a slightly more run-heavy Baker Mayfield,” McElroy said. “Now, Baker Mayfield, from a build standpoint? They kind of look the same. But, from a build standpoint, Baker Mayfield was more likely to kind of carve you up from the pocket. John Mateer? He can carve you up from the pocket. Not quite like Baker Mayfield could but can he can carve you up from the pocket. But, man, he will kill you with his legs.”

Oklahoma is expected to be much better this season for a lot of reasons with the changes that they’ve made this offseason going into their fourth year under Brent Venables. However, of them all, Mateer has the chance to improve them the most if he works out for the Sooners.

“I think he’s amazing. I think he’s really, really good. I think Oklahoma has a star in the making,” said McElroy. “John Mateer has plenty of firepower and plenty of ability to reach his potential there in Norman.”