When No. 6 Oklahoma faces Texas Saturday in the latest chapter of the Red River Rivalry, it will be unclear who starts at quarterback. Star signal caller John Mateer missed last weekend’s game against Kent State after undergoing hand surgery.
Backup quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. filled in for Mateer and finished with 14 completions on 24 pass attempts for 162 yards and three touchdowns in a 44-0 win over Kent State. Despite Oklahoma coach Brent Venables “assuming” that Mateer won’t be able to play against Texas, the opposition has other plans.
Steve Sarkisian said Monday that Texas will “plan” on Mateer starting at quarterback after being asked who he thinks will start at the position this weekend.
“We’ll plan for Mateer, you have to,” Sarkisian said. “He’s a dynamic player, he’s the heartbeat of that offense for sure, everything goes through him.”
Oklahoma QB John Mateer could return against Texas: Sooners star ‘showing progress’ following hand surgery
Brad Crawford
Mateer was in full uniform against Kent State with a brace on his right hand. If Mateer is indeed out this weekend, Hawkins will start at quarterback for the second consecutive season against the Longhorns. Hawkins finished 19 of 30 for 148 yards in last year’s 34-3 loss to the Longhorns.
“He had some experience playing in there last year,” Venables said last weekend. “Really, the mindset is no different than it was going into today. We need to play well in the areas that we’re in control: taking care of the ball, making layups when they’re there, not trying to do too much. We’ve got to be the sum of all of our parts as a football team… But I feel great about Mike.”
Sources told CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz that Mateer was expected to miss about a month after the surgery and that Oklahoma is hopeful to have the dynamic signal caller back before the end of October. Before the injury, Mateer ranked second nationally with 351.3 yards of total offense per game and rushed for at least one touchdown and passed for one touchdown in each of his last 10 games dating back to his time at Washington State.
Zenitz reported on Monday that it’s “possible” Mateer plays this week against Texas.
“Like we’ve reported the last couple weeks, it continues to be possible he ends up playing this week, but no final call has been made as of yet,” Zenitz said. “The post-surgery feedback was very good and led to optimism regarding the recovery timetable.”
Texas is a 2.5-point favorite over Oklahoma, per FanDuel.
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