The McShay Show - Scouting John Mateer: Oklahoma’s New QB Is a Talented Agent of Chaos

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

Welcome back to The McShay Show! Todd and Steve are back with a deep dive into the tape of Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer, who’s one of the most dynamic—and chaotic—quarterback prospects in the 2026 draft class. (0:00) Welcome to The McShay Show! (5:13) Summer Scouting Series: Evaluating John Mateer(17:19) NFL Comps for John Mateer(20:00) Breaking Down John Mateer's Tape(25:17) Expectations for Mateer's 2025 Season at Oklahoma In Thursday’s episode, they’ll be diving into the tape on Arizona State’s Sam Leavitt. Be sure to subscribe to The McShay Report for full written breakdowns of every player discussed in the Summer Scouting Series. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Todd McShayGuest: Steve MuenchProducers: Tucker Tashjian, Mark Panik, Conor Nevins, and Daniel ComerSocial: Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The sun is out. The beaches are getting packed. The tea times are filling up. And here we are grinding it out in the film room, studying Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer. Who's got it better than us? Nobody. There he is.

The big fella in just 311 days until the NFL draft. Mench, you good? I'm good, man. All right, let's have it. Time to catch my breath, man. John Mateer. Whoa. Roller coaster, huh?

Whoa. That cardiac arrest watching his tape. I love him. I know. A lot of fun. If you've been with us throughout this summer, we appreciate you joining us. Mench, tell them how they can continue to support us because it's critical and we're doing our thing, but we can't do it without the help of the audience.

Go to YouTube. Check out the McShea show. Hit the subscribe button. Go to Spotify. Hit the follow button. He's at McShay 13. I'm at you good. M-U-E-N-C-H.

should please consider subscribing to the McShay report. A lot of good stuff. By the way, I'm going to have to go back and look at this. Okay. I think I can tell how excited you are about or intrigued you are about a quarterback prospect with the amount of plays included in the McShay report because I didn't count them, but there was a lot of John Materer plays, man. It seemed like you're like, well, look at this.

Well, look at that. Look at this. Look at that. And I cut it short. I cut it short. I had to stop. Yeah. I sent a note to Dan and Con.

honor and i was like listen i just i'm going to be blunt like i so here here's my process real quick go through the tape taking down notes by play but that also have the scouting report like the blocks of you know accuracy mental makeup and we'll get to that in a second from a tier mental makeup accuracy arm strength and um and pocket mobility and so i've kind of jot down notes in both spots a specific play i'll jot down a little note but i red flagged the plays, okay? So essentially I'll just, and you can in our system, right? You can, you can red flag a play. So I'll red flag it and then do like a positive or negative just so I know like kind of what I'm, what I'm going back to. And then when I'm done with that process, I'll go back. And if I have

30, 40 plays that are red flag, I'll go back and watch those plays because like what's different I'm making like the scouting report is a scouting report. And yes, like sometimes I have to tailor it a little bit to explain it. Like, I'm not turning it into a GM, like an NFL scout. I have to kind to explain the language a little bit more, which is, you know, we've been doing that for 20-something years. So that's normal. And the same is true for when, if you've, the McShea report, by the way, if you haven't subscribed, please subscribe. You can subscribe for free. You also can, you know, throw in a little scratch and get every, every bit that we have. I think it's a very reasonable price. We go year round. And, and, and we're going through the scouting reports this summer.

And then we'll get into the some, you know, the fun stuff, like the updated mock draft in August and all and the appropriately early mock draft. And we'll get through position rankings and, you know, deeper dive and get everyone ready for the season. Throughout the season, we'll have it. Then when we get into the draft, that's our sweet spot and we roll. But when I'm doing those plays, I go and flag them, right? Right. So I'm going back yesterday, which is Sunday. Happy Father's Day, by the way.

Happy Father's Day. Thank you, sir. And, and I'm sitting there and like, the kids are running around and we're doing stuff. And it's me as birthday, too. So it's like, oh, wow. Yeah. So I'm trying to celebrate her, all of that stuff. And I'm finding myself that I'm like distracted.

I've already got like, I don't know, 50 or so plays into Connor and Dan. Finally, I was like, here's the deal, guys. Like, I've got like another 50 or so red flag from the rest of the season. I got through Boise State. I'm like, you know what? I'm out. So funny. you bring that up that's going to come up later keep going yeah i'm out because it's father's day it's

me his birthday and it's fucking june for an evaluation that we're going to talk about in april so like every once in a while you got to be like all right well i'm going to save myself i'm going to save my kids i'm going to save the the reader like they don't need a hundred plays talking about the same stuff so that's that's why it was it was it stopped at boise state by the way's boise state was september 28th That's how far you got before you were like, man, you had so many plays at that point. And I was the same way, there was a point. I got to the point where I was like, man, I know we're still in September, but I've seen this enough.

And he keeps doing all of these crazy things. And I watched all the other tape. It's not like I just stopped watching tape. I watched the whole season. Right. But I just, I had to stop writing, you know, because it's not like I can just do my notes. Like, I've got to explain to the reader at least a little bit. But anyway, so that, that's the backstory on that.

I guess let's just jump right into it. Let's get right into it, man. I can't wait. Yeah. Give it a little bio here, okay? John Mateer obviously started his career at Washington State. He's transferred now to Oklahoma. I thought an interesting thing.

His offensive coordinator is transferring with him, right? Ben Arbuckle. 29 years old, Ben Armuckle. Yes. He's a young dude, yeah. He's not transferring. He just took a different job. But he's making the move with him.

But just for Mateer, his backdrop, he started his career, Washington State. He was a three-year player, one-year starter, okay? Started 12 games this past season. And he was named Team Captain, 2024, this last year, started all 12 of those games this past year. And he completed basically 65% of his throws for 3,139 yards, 29 touchdowns, only seven interceptions. also rushed for 826 yards and 15 more scores. Okay? Hey, oh.

Yeah, so that gives you a little backdrop on Mateer. Let's do it. Honestly, like it's just become a fun game. I just like doing it where we go through our, I'd mention the categories before, mental makeup accuracy. And the third one is, as we talked about it, like the load to arrival,

the LTA. It's basically from the millisecond a quarterback decides he's going to start the delivery. process to when the ball arrives at the wide receiver. It's combination. Obviously, the velocity on the ball is the vast majority of this grade, but it's, but part of it too can be if it's a long windup delivery or, you know, what is that process? So we call it the release slash arm strength.

And then the final one is pocket mobility. It's a combination of kind of the poison, the movement inside the pocket with how much of a running threat he is when he decides to tuck and run or a design run play. So with those four quarterback-specific traits, we have a grade. We've always done this. 20 plus years, it's a one through five grade. Think about it as golf, as I always say. Like the lower the score, the better.

The U.S. Open yesterday, just awesome. I don't know if you watch any of it spawn when 65-foot putt. Father's Day, two daughters come on rushing on the course. Like I'm like literally holding back tears, just chill bumps, goosebumps all over my arms. I guess he's at CVS at 3 a.m. that morning getting his daughter, like, medicine because she was thrown up. And we're both dads.

We know the drill. Perfect, man. Separate church from state. Yeah. I've got a big match. I've got the biggest match of my life tomorrow. It doesn't matter. My daughter's sick.

CVS here I come. Open the doors. So that was really cool. But sticking with the golf theme, the lower the score, the better. One is excellent. Two is good. Three is average. Four is below average and five is market.

We've turned this into a fun game. And it's like a reveal party, you know? So I'm going to, for John Mateer, mental makeup, what was your grade, one through five? Three. Three. That's exactly what I had. All right. Here we go.

All right. Accuracy, one through five. I did your point five. I did three point five. I could have. I really could have gone four. We're going to get into that. Okay.

I went three. Okay. Release arm strength, one through five. One. Ooh. I went two. Okay. Pocket mobility.

One through five. Uh, one point five. I gave him a one point five. We haven't been close. There's been some guys that we've been off on. This one is probably the closest. Who are the, we've done Nussmeyer, we've done sellers.

We've done Clubnik. We've done Aller. Am I missing any? I think we did, we did Arch Manning to begin with. Yes. Obviously a limited report. So this is interesting to me. That's good.

It's good. Loaded quarterback class, by the way. I know we said it last time. But like every time I watch a guy, I'm like, oh, he's, he's interesting. Okay. Especially coming off of last year's class, which was a, it wasn't a great group. we all know that two in the first round cam ward number one overall jackson dart giants trade up for shador sanders falls to the fifth the whole story but um certainly was disappointing coming off the

year before where you had a record setting six quarterbacks drafted in the top 12 picks um so mature as we've done and i enjoyed doing it i have a i have like a colin cowherd type parallel to run with with mature but i'm going to save it and let you get stuff started. Go ahead. That's going to be good. Yeah. All right. So I can't wait to listen to you talk about the mechanics because the mechanics are an issue. You're a former quarterback. I feel like that's that's right in your wheelhouse and I'll let you talk about that. And I could see going in to an offense coordinator and showing them John Meteer's film and the office corner being like, wow, there's things I really like, but we got a lot of work to do here. But I'll take the I'll take the flip side of this. Imagine going into a defensive coordinator's offense and saying that this is the kid you guys. got to go against this week. And your as a defensive coordinator, man, it's going to be some long nights. I like how you frame that.

I really like how you frame that. Yep. This kid's skill set is a problem. Yes, he misses throws. Again, we'll get into that. But when I look at his arm. I should mention six, six one, he listed six one, two, twenty. I saw where it's like four, five, four, five.

I wouldn't shock me if this dude's four, four, five, but go ahead. Wow. Yeah. I mean, I think the four or five is good. Maybe he's a little bit faster, but you're looking at that skill set. There is no throw he can't make. He makes throws where you think you have him. You have him dead to rights. He's off his spot. And all of sudden, he makes some kind of just zips it in there. He's got that kind of ability. And then on top of that, you're talking about the running only quarterback last year with 20 plus passing touchdowns and 10 plus rushing touchdowns. So he's a if you, you want to play him with man and, and, blitz him and you got your back seven turning their backs on him and he takes off you're in trouble he is a guy that can hurt you with his legs he can get in the red zone he can make plays with his feet in the red zone that that running element is a big part of his game and the second thing i really want to talk about and try to try to stay mature about this is a hole balls and hole balls are hole balls are when you're throwing to the holes in zone coverage. And this is why I was going to bring up Boise State.

He throws 30-yard hole balls outside the hashes to his receivers in front of the safeties behind that second-level defender, and he makes it look easy. And he had made five or six of these throws by the Boise State game, and I was like, this is crazy to me. He just, it reminded me of watching Steph Curry warm up. That is not as easy as it looks. It's a tough throw to make, but he makes it consistently. And his ability to get that ball there is going to be a problem for defenses that want to play zone against him.

And then you added in his ability to throw into tight windows over the middle against zone. If it all comes together for him, he is going to be a problem for defenses. Yeah. Yeah, there's just so much unpack. No, yeah, right, right. Let me start with this. And this is what I was talking about the Colin Coward thing. Colin does the I actually got to work with Colin early in my career and sit in the studio and I was kind of like who is Jason McIntyre who now works with them I was kind of in for like a limited time just he was they were trying to different things in the studio.

Colin Colin likes to have someone in studio with him. It's not like secret sauce. It's like you can just tell by being a viewer to have someone is where he's taught so he's talking to someone. But like it's all his show. So it's going to. be a 90-10 or a 95-5 split at the time. So I was in there. And I think I told you the story after the first day, I was kind of like the guinea pig and the producer was like, yeah, like you did great, but like that's not the show. This isn't this isn't a 70-30 split big, big boy. Like, you're the 5% and maybe 10 if he asked you more question. So it's like our show. Shut up. But, but Colin does the best job, I think, of anyone of like, telling like giving an giving an example of what he's thinking about whatever whatever sport it is and bringing it into like a real life uh real life you know and then somehow drawing a parallel

you know and he'll be like you know getting washing your washing your laundry is like this guy is a three point shooter and you're like what the hell is you talking about and then he lands it and you're like oh okay it helps it helps you frame it in your brain right i don't even know if this is like what Colin does necessarily, but, but John Mateer to me, and I wrote this down like a side piece of paper. I was just like, he's YouTube. The good and the bad. John Mateer is and it makes sense because he's like in the YouTube generation.

And maybe he's the first of the YouTube generation. Because when you watch him, like everything's 1.5. speed you watch your kids stuff when they're what it's going like that and and they're and they're like i went to i went to tuck my son in last night and he's got youtube going like what are you doing man and and i took it as an opportunity to be like when we talk about brain rot like they literally so i'm like i watched about a minute and they had nine different things all sport stuff all like harmless but like it went from like an athlete injuring the knee to like throwing a basketball off the side of the hoop like none of them were within a hundred miles of each other and it's like your brain is here there and you're talking about like the ADHD generates all that stuff this was like watching the first but it was like a shining example watching his tape of like oh this is the youtube brain one 1.5 speed it's highly entertaining and And by the way, there's a ton of good content in there.

But in the same breath, it's frenetic. It's frenzied. It's out of control. You feel out of control watching it. And sometimes there's some dangerous stuff in there. Shield your eyes stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean?

And like if you go down a rabbit hole, all of a sudden you start by watching like a thing on shooting free throws. There's a lot of really good informative, healthy. content. There's a lot of positives. There's a lot of good things. It's happening fast, but there's not a lot of like, okay, let's take a breath. Let's set our feet. Let's get, let's get our feet set. Let's, let's, let's follow through into delivery. Let's read go through our progressions. Let's like, let's operate the process. Let's take it from 1.5 speed and bring it down to one. Let's, you know, that's, he's like the YouTube brain at the quarterback position. And I also, And it's like, it was interesting because I didn't know his bio.

I just started the tape. I didn't know his bio. And I start and I'm like 40 plays in. I'm like, I betcha. I'm going to Google his name right now and John Mateer bio. I betcha. This guy played Texas high school football. Yeah.

Yep. And he did. Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield. Johnny Mansell. It's all the same. stuff. It's 100 miles an hour. It's everything sudden. You love so much of it. It's tempo. It's moving the offense forward. It's it, you know, you're putting the defense on its heels, every play. But you're going to miss some easy stuff. Yes. You're going to, you're going to, you're going to give up some like easy change

out there. And it's a lot of like every like your feet aren't set. It's the old Texas tech stuff. Like, why do you think like Kingsbury and and all like all those guys it was like the Mike leach Texas tech get the ball at shortstop we just call it like the shorts off like catch it side or get it out so the mechanics aren't always right the footwork's not always right the ball place they're going to excuse me miss a lot of throws that that are easily made had you just calm the fuck down put it on one point oh speed thought through it a second got your feet set get your base underneath you you get your arm not here but here you know what i mean you're but it doesn't matter because we're running a hundred of these things and so what if we leave 10 of them 15 of them on the field

we're just going to run so many and there's going to be so much coming at you defensively that we're going to we're going to wear you down with all of it so we can afford to admit and it was like you know chip kelly did some of the stuff mike leach it was like and that's how they beat you But what happens is sometimes these quarterbacks coming from Texas high school football where that's kind of like that's the start of it, right? And get to a program that's a lot of whether it's air rate or what and they there were its quantity over quality. But you get quarterbacks like Kyler Murray who have unbelievable athleticism in a big arm and make these throws that are like off the charts. Johnny Mansell. We think just about what he did to Alabama and some of the big games.

And we know Johnny Mansell's off the field problems led to all that stuff. But the dude was absolute magic. Baker Mayfield. Baker Mayfield, you think about Texas high school football, Oklahoma. Lincoln Riley, though. Lincoln Riley was the different one. He broke off from that branch, from that tree. He was a branch that broke off the tree.

Let's run the counter. Let's be more physical up front. Let's have pro elements. into this thing. And so it's interesting, I just wanted to give that all as a backdrop. Because, yes, there's so much munch to like about his tape. He is tough as nails. John Meteer is one of the most competitive motherfuckers you'll ever see. There is a, there's a run. I don't even know where it is in my nose. There is a run. I'm going to find it right now. It's worth it. Um, there was a run late in the game at some point.

Go ahead. You're going to say something. I'm going to find it. I was just going to say it really quickly. Did you see the clip or I don't know if you saw the clip of Brady talking about someone asked Tom Brady, how hard is it to throw the ball on a straight line? And he said if your technique is great, if your mechanics are great, it's not that hard. But what he does is he talks about the cone. And he talks about how everything should be funneled towards where the ball is going to be. And with Mateer, he hasn't seen that clip yet. He hasn't learned that yet.

There are times where his hips are, he had a throw against Portland State where he was rolling to his left. If I had tried to make that throw, I would have blown out every ligament. I would have torn every ligament in my lower body, like every one of them. I don't know how he did. It was a great throw, by the way. It was accurate. And that's his, you know, that's what he's great at is making plays like that.

He can do that kind of a thing, but it is inconsistent. and he's going to have to learn how to, you know, throw with his lower body as much as his upper body. You can even see it how violent his throwing motion is when he doesn't get his feet set. I mean, he is, the torque and the upper body is crazy when you see it on tape. 754 fourth quarter against Texas Tech. They're leading 3416. It's midway through the fourth quarter, obviously. If you want to know about this guy's compete level, go back and watch.

754 fourth quarter it's a long run versus Texas tech okay first of all most almost every guy you watch in this moment up 3416 fourth quarter you get a long run deep into their zone kind of put the game away run it out of bounds we if we kick a field goal here it's 37 16 you're getting the ball back with like six minutes this dude takes off run and breaks a tackle races down the sideline and there's two defenders converging on him. And instead of just sliding, he can slide, he's very capable. He showed it over and over again on tape.

Instead of just sliding or darting out of bounds, he looks this son of a bitch back. He looks and he's got one defender coming from his right, another from his left. He picks, he's like, boom, boom, picks the guy on his left and attacks him, stiff arms him, rips off of him, and then takes it down, takes it down the sideline.

and almost gets in for the score. I think they marked him at like the one yard button. So like I started off with the tough as nails, plays his tail off insanely competitive because you need to know that about like the makeup of this guy. He is an absolute gym rat competitor. Every play, it's on the line for this guy, okay? I thought he showed fast eyes.

I'm going through kind of the mental. Yes. I'm glad you brought this. Yes. Because a lot of concepts he understands. There are some concepts he understands. there are some concepts he understands really well, I think, based on what I'm seeing on tape. I think there's some encouraging stuff about how he reads the way defenders are their leverage,

how they're set up. You know, there was, you know, out of spread sets, if the safeties are doing this, he understands he's got the steam route down the middle to the running back. There are things that he sees against zone looks with anticipation and ripping it over the middle. There are some encouraging things about how he processes. In the pocket, there's flashes. You talked about that with Cam Ward, right? Like I think that I think that Callahan, Brian Callahan saw enough like it wasn't flashes,

but like if you did the clip reel of Cam Ward when he was playing on time in rhythm, top of his drop, right foot planted, receivers, you know, about to break. And he's on time. He was an absolute assassin. I talked a lot about that, right? This guy, it's more flashes. There's a catalog for Cam Ward. This is like you've got to go through your notes and maybe you find 20 of them for the season,

whereas Ward, you probably find 100, whatever the numbers are. But my point is, he can. Yes, he can. He can go from right to left. He can hang in the pocket when he's trusting what he's seeing, when he knows the concept and when he knows the importance of waiting for it to develop. He can do it. Now, I mentioned that R. Buckels going with him from one place.

to the next. That's great news for Oklahoma. And I don't know Arbuckled that well, and I love what they did. And I, like, that offense, like they had a lot of success with not a ton of talent. He had a great wide receiver. We know not a ton of talent around him. They had a lot of success. So they're going to have a lot of success at Oklahoma. I truly believe that. But I think some of the things that that Materne needs, let's put it this way. Sooner, Fans should be thrilled that Arbuckle is coming and John should be thrilled that Arbuckle's coming. John Mateer. And I think it's a great thing. And I'm heaping praise on Arbuckle because what he did with the first year starter was magical, right? But I'm saying from an NFL scout's lens, you'd almost like to see him go somewhere else with a new quarterback.

Yes. A new OC and get drilled, something else drilled into him. Because we know what he can do in that. I'd like to see him in this, but we're not going to. And that's fine too. That is fine. But it's an important note. Go ahead. The level of competition is a lot different in Oklahoma. I'll tell you that, too.

I mean, you got Michigan rolling into town week two. You got the Red River shootout with Texas. You are at South Carolina. You got Ole Miss coming. And then at Tennessee, at Alabama, and then you end the year with LSU coming into town. I mean, that is a, that's, That schedule is legit, man. The mind-blind spots you always said.

I didn't even think that's awesome. So we're going to find out of stuff. Exactly. So you're not getting that change in terms of the scheme. But, you know, like, it's nice when you beat Washington and you're in Washington State. You know, that's a nice little win for you last year. There's a big difference between beating Washington and beating an LSU or going into South Carolina and getting a win. That brings me perfectly to this point.

the dude absolutely thrives in turbulence he some some pilots like a nice clean right this guy loves loves it seeks it needs it like through his veins he's a turbulence guy he loves the it's a great attribute because so many times we're like how many times are we have like USC quarterbacks or Michigan quarterbacks come out in the NFL draft like when at the peak of their programs or Alabama, whoever it was, and you're like, like JJ McCarthy, I remember having these conversations. Sanchez, only 13 starts, great supporting cast.

Matt Liner, great supporting cast. There's a lot of quarterbacks we've said over the years. It's like, yeah, but like, what's it going to look like in the NFL when he doesn't have two offensive linemen first rounders, three other guys who are mid-rounders, are running, two running backs with Lendale and Reggie White and wide receivers. What's it going to look like, right?

And so now, like, you go from Washington State where he didn't have a great supporting cast, but the competition wasn't great. Now he's going to have a better supporting cast, but it's not like, you know, it's, it's not one of these elite programs in terms of offensive talent, as we saw last year. And he's going to have to do it. Because I wrote in my notes, I wrote in my notes, can he be trusted? And I said that because it's a question that NFL teams are going to ask, if he doesn't show a lot of progress in terms of a lot of the things we're talking about,

getting his feet right, more consistent with his throws. You and I gave him a three, right around threes, which is middle of the road. And probably we tend in the summer to give grades that are mercy grades, because there's always the hope for progression, especially with the first year starter. So it's the footwork. It's the mechanics. It's getting those things right. It's making the right read and not turning everything into a fire drill, all those things.

things, can he be trusted? Yeah, we had the same questions about a lot of other quarterbacks at this point in their progressions. And I think obviously Cam Ward is a former Washington State guy, transferred to another school. You know, it does seem easy to make this comparison. But were we asking the same question about Cam Ward a year ago? Can he be trusted? Can he be?

And the question will be, can he make the same kind of progress? Will he be on the same kind of an arc? And so I look at it. And to his credit, I'll give you a couple things. that are to his credit for all the chaos all the insanity all the weird arm angle throws all the off balance stuff all the trick i wrote down like trick shots trick plays like you had a little flip to the running back and that yeah yeah even the second play the second play that i wrote down i was like i wrote in there like what the hell is the i said what the hell are we doing here climb the pocket

tries to make a trick shot throw running forward this is 1257 the first quarter against texas tries to, like, side, I didn't even know how to, I remember I had to rewind it a couple of times, literally to try to explain to the reader what I was talking about. He was like side slinging it to his right while running forward. So he's going running forward. Right. His feet are going north south and his body's open. He is literally, think about you dead sprinting. Be like, run as fast at me, munch as you can't.

And now go. And what I say go, I want you to rip open your body. body. This is exactly right, though. It is exactly right. Sprinting towards me. And then I say, I say, go. And all of a sudden, it's rip your body open to the right arm like this and try to sling it.

And he tries to do it to, I think he was running back in the flat. And what I said with his, but so when he does it, he gets his whole body turn and his back when I actually froze the frame. His back was three quarters the way, turned to the line of scrimmage. And his arms like this, he's like this. And his body's going like this. And he's trying to throw it, trying to throw an accurate pass to the, to the flat. And he misses by like five yards.

I know I'm out of breath. But honestly, that's the experience watching this guy. But the Boise State game, I wrote this down, because it was one of the best defenses he faced all year. Yep. And Boise State is really, they're talented, right? But they're also really, like, disciplined and physical, and they get after your ass for four quarters,

and they don't give you a break. They smother you, right? They suffocate you. And I want to give them credit. It's been that way for decades. It's been that way for decades. I want to give them credit in two areas, because this is important to note,

all of this madness that we're trying to, explain. He only threw seven interceptions all year. Right. He got to wait with some, but they all do. And he only fumbled the ball three times. And he, he has weirdly good ball security for a guy who's playing like, like an insane asylum. Yeah, he averaged 14.8 carries per game, by the way. So we're looking at those fumbled. Yeah, it's like a running back. Almost 15 carries per game. That's And in a lot of it, like hectic carries, not like design the hand off the ball. No, no, no, yeah. Six points of ball security.

Like a lot of craziness going on and bullets flying and flashing from everywhere. Only fumbled three times. Only seven interceptions. This guy was like the whole offense ran through him, run game, pass game, all of it. So I want to give him his credit there. I also want to give him a nod in this Boise State game. I thought he played great. He completed like 69% of his throws.

He showed me more in that game in terms of like going through progressions. It's like he can do it stuff. He showed some spots in that game where he can go through his progressions and make accurate throws from the pocket and all that stuff. But he was sacked eight times. And now you read me that schedule again. Michigan at Tennessee, South Carolina. You say LSU, Texas.

At the end, Texas, yep. At South Carolina. The other one was at Alabama, I think. The bullets are going to be bigger. They're going to be more piercing. They're coming faster. And they're coming from more directions now. So that's going to be fascinating and critical to watch this year.

A couple other things. Well, I'm on a rant right now. Go for it. My goodness is he, generate a lot of torque. I'm telling you. So like the accuracy is all over the board. The mental makeup, like he can, but he's got a lot of things to clean up, but he still

protects the football. Also very young and a first year starter, which we had already mentioned, but keep it in mind that this is a guy who's, you know, learning on the fly, going. So he's young and he's a first year starter. Totally. And I also want to say this, he improved a lot from the beginning of the year to even that Boise State game to like the last four games. I saw improvement.

He was in over his head in the first couple of games. And he progressed like just incrementally every single week it felt like. And we've seen with other quarterbacks, we talked about Nussmeyer, like middle of season, had a lull. Other guys have like ups and down. I thought he like gradually progressed. Not every single week, but like there was a positive arc and trajectory in my opinion. Okay.

So you saw improvement. He's tough as nails. He's an unbelievable competitive. He's fast. He's sudden. He's quick. Everything he does is sudden and quick and it's exhausting to defend. He's a running threat. He all of these things, right? So we've got the accuracy covered. His footwork's a disaster and his arm angles are all over the place. But he's still like, but I say all those to say he's a naturally gifted passer in terms of placing the ball when he has the opportunity to do it. even with average.

And his accuracy throwing on the run is really good. He does a lot of good things. Then we get to the arm strength. You get him a one. I gave him a two. Like I don't know that he's elite. And I didn't, I just don't,

I don't know what his normal stroke is. So I think maybe I gave him a little not like, because I was wondering who. I was watching. I was like, if McShay doesn't give him a one, my thought was the release was going to be your issue. Was it the release?

down the back shoot it's a little funky he brings the ball down the back shoot he's got to work on more consistency of his carriage right it there's times where he's running around i i've threw a play on i'm on threads now by the way and i'm thoroughly enjoying threads i think it's mitchshay mshae 13 um yeah i don't i'm not i don't i don't i stay a million miles away from politics and this is this and this is that and all that i'm just like i like to go on there because the feed is purely like what I'm looking for, the sports, okay? The vast majority sports and, you know, like golf yesterday and certain things. But my point is I put it up on threads.

I think I may have added it to X as well. But it was just, like the torque that he's able to generate, there was one play where he's rolling to his right. And like not something you're teaching in coaching camp. Like I brought Tate to see like the M2QB here. It was Alex McLaughlin, one of the two guys. guys and Mike McCarthy. And like, they're not teaching, carrying the ball right, rolling right, ball out like this

and flicking it like that. But they are, but he, every once in a while you get a glimpse into what is the, like, we talk about arm strength, literally with nothing else from his body helping. What is, what's the, what's the velocity he can generate from just simply flicking his going with his arm. And this throw he made, probably a 10, 12 yard out, but he's rolling to his right. And the that he had on it with no help from his lower body was pretty remarkable. I think that's similar to the accuracy because I gave him a lower grade than you did. He makes some on-time accurate throws on tape. He does. When I was giving that grade, I was like,

this could easily go to it too. If you can get him right, this could easily go to it too. It's not there yet. And I think maybe for the, arm strength and tell me if I'm putting words in your mouth, maybe you feel the same way. If this kid learns to reset his feet and throw with his base when he can, your arm strength rating could go up. Yeah, I'm going to sum it up here. Because I think you just said what I really want to drive home to the viewer and people who, whether you're an Oklahoma fan or an SEC fan or just a college football fan or

you're getting ready for next year's quarterback class in the NFL. Meteer has a lot of stuff that can be improved upon. and it's like a very clear path. And it's not always the case. Like Lenore Sellers is very raw and he's got a lot of work to do and a lot of steps to get there, but he's unbelievably talented. He's not,

Mateer's not as talented as sellers, but he's still damn talented. Can I ask you something about this? And I always think about Tim Tebow when this comes up, right? Because when Tim Tebow was at Florida, everyone knew his throwing motion was an issue, right? But he was also the best, I think he was probably the best college quarterback of all time.

And it didn't matter how he threw the ball. So they didn't really have to fix it. With our buckle going from Washington State to Oklahoma, the success they've already had, do you think he's going to be really drilling in on improving his feet and getting him into a better spot with his feet and his mechanics? Or is that a concern for you that we've already seen him with two years with our buckle and he still has a footwork issue? Is that a concern for you at all or no? I went back to it like 15 times in my mind and two or three times in my room. report. And it's hard because I like I again, I can't say enough good things about our buckle

29 years old, what they do offensively and all of it, all of it. But you're talking about winning you're talking about winning college football games and then you're talking about getting a kid ready to be the best pro he could be. There's two different things there. And our buckle's number one job is to win college football games for Oklahoma or Washington state. So I get it. I'm not being critical of that. But I've seen it before where if guys can win, they don't want to start tinkering. And I do wonder if they're going to be like, hey, man, just do your thing, go out and play.

That's what makes you great. Here's what I wrote. Here's what I wrote. Like I said, simply put, and this is the most important thing that I wrote in the entire report, Mateer's biggest challenge is to bottle up all of that magic that I just saw on tape while dialing down the turbulence. It's a great way of putting it.

That's it, really. Because when I talk about the turbulence, it's self-inflicted, it's self-generated turbulence. A lot of it, not all of it. So like utilizing all those skill sets, all that, all the Mansell, the Kyler, the, you know, I don't even say Baker, because Baker was more refined, but the, all, like the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the homes, all of that wildness. Mahomes, I can't believe I didn't mention him. There's one that, like, like, a tight exercise high school football. Just insanity.

But Mahomes is the perfect example of a guy who, at the next level, got with the right people, worked on his footwork, had a year behind Alex Smith, right? Not everyone gets that. So this is a year where he has to show improvement. And I went back to the Arbuckle stuff a bunch of times in my mind. God, I'm happy for John Mateer. I'm happy for Oklahoma. This is going to be a huge success compared to the unmitigated disaster that offense was for the sooner as last year. but is it the best situation for John Mateer developing as an NFL prospect?

We'll see. We'll see. It could be. Yeah, I mean, I wrote it over and over again. But there was even one fade that he threw. It was one fade that he threw. It was like such a microcosm. He actually stayed in the pocket, had protection.

Three step off the shotgun, maybe one, one or three step off the shotgun, feet set, goes to throw it. Clean is a whistle. It was like, yeah. It was like you and Tyler in the backyard playing catch, okay? Right. Clean, nothing around. No worries in the world. It's 75 and sunny.

There's no real breeze to speak of. No precipitation. No one's running the lawnmower. No kids throwing other balls around. Just you guys playing a healthy. game a catch in the backyard. And he still cut his follow through short, left it there, and then does does this thing, man, where he hops to the left three times.

Yeah, he's on the dance floor. He's, he's doing his thing. It's his, it's his comfort zone. Yeah. It's fascinating. And I know that's a lot of detail and people are like, all right, enough. But like, I just, I wanted to share the experience because it was absolutely an experience. watching this guy. He's fast. He's tough. He's smart. He's competitive. He's got a big arm. He can create and generate energy from on the ball from all these crazy arm angles and all these different things. It's not Josh Allen arm strength. It's not Patrick Mahom's arm strength. It's not in that level. But he's got a lot of zip and a lot of energy. Driving the deep ball, it's good. It's not elite, but I think it's really good. There was a throw from the left hash over to the 40 yards, but it was from left hash to the outside.

side. And they were trailing, I think, in the Boise State game. He throws it. They're down like 14. It's worth a shot taking it. He took the shot. DB, the ball's like right by his hand. And he made it. It was a brilliant throw. Couldn't believe he made that throw. Yep. Couldn't believe it, right? Yeah. One of many, but yeah. So you have all that stuff. But if he's going to take the next step and if he's going to be a first round picking much more importantly, he's going to have the success in the league, we got this off season. I'm hoping, like John, if you're watching or anyone in your family like i am hoping the emphasis is on drilling home the footwork basic mechanics and and figuring out a way to know that you got that in your bag you got that shot in your bag but it we don't have to pull that club out of the bag every single shot we're in the middle of the

fairway we got to go 180 you know bring out bring out the six iron or whatever it is for you you know it doesn't have to be this trick shot behind a tree all that so i'm wearing my golf shirt today is tucker's making fun of me because i'm not wearing a hoodie um but yeah i don't know he's interested let's leave it at like right now in june and who cares because so much changes especially when you're changing teams conferences competition levels all that's in first year to second year as a starter all of that like so much can change right now i'm comfortable saying i think this guy like if if he was thrown into the draft and we saw the same exact product on the field this year for a second year i think he's a day two pick i'm comfortable with that but i but i honestly think

like if baker mayfield was the number one overall pick in the draft and kiler murray like cam ward i mean yes. I think this guy could be a first round pick, a top 15 pick something like that. I do. But is he going to make that progression against better competition and maybe not a ton of change in his mental approach to the game and to his mechanics? Yep. We'll see. Can't wait to watch it. I'm exhausted. Just, yeah, it was exhausting in like the most fun way. It was like a wild. Yeah, it was like getting done with a roller coaster ride. I sat in a chair as I did watching tape.

Yeah. I didn't do any work, but somehow I get off the ride and I'm like, I need a minute. Like get me some water. I get like, I'm not ready to. But then you're ready to get back in line for that same ride. I mean, you're going back around again. Yeah. Yeah.

What in the first weekend in September like I'm glued. And this is Connor. This is Connor Nevins guy. It is. Like we would hang up or go off air. We do our Saturday night shows. Anyone who wasn't with us last fall and we'd get it. We started the season, October 22nd.

We started the show on October 22nd, midway through the season. But FYI, every Saturday night this year starting the beginning of the year. I know. I love those. Live shows after the prime time game. We're on live. We're now cutting into like five minutes before and watching it together. It's the most fun thing we do.

Truly. It is so much fun. But every time we would get off, like, Connor would be like, yeah, yeah, we're done. Like, I'm going to watch materials. Right, yeah. Meanwhile, it's like two in the morning for us. So I'm like, no. Yeah, okay. But now I true, like I had watched him, but I had like gone through the experience like Connor had gone through. And I get why he, it's almost like I could see it being like a cult following. This guy's going to be playing in the SEC. This guy is going to become a legend.

I feel like fun. All right. This is awesome. We're back on Thursday. Maybe our last guy. Sam Levitt from Arizona State. Maybe the last quarterback we're going to do in this series, at least for now. We're going to put a plug in the quarterbacks and recognize that other positions play the game. We're going to do some stuff. We're going to Caleb Downs deserve some love.

Speaking of love, we're going to get to the running back from Notre Dame, Jeremiah Love, and we'll get to some other running back, some other D.Bs. We're going to do a mailbag talking about where are we after many camps and different things. with the rookie class. We're going to ask questions. You're going to ask questions, audience, and we're going to give answers. We're going to go through some of the top defensive prospects.

We're going to do a Clemson breakdown because I'm telling you. Hey, wait. My guys. I know, you're a Clemson Tiger at heart. But, yeah, we got a lot of fun, some stuff coming up in the summer. Kind of going to go a little easy in July, but we're going to be with you every week in July. And then we're going to just load back up in August, getting ready for the season.

So this is fun. And see you on Thursday. stay with Sam Levin. Later. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com or visit 1888-787-777 or visit ccg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MDGamplinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helplinema.org or call 1-800-327-50-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts. Or call 1877-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope N-Y in New York.