OU head coach Brent Venables and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle spoke ahead of the Sooners' 2026 season.
Here are a couple takeaways:
John Mateer maturing
Arbuckle has been with redshirt senior quarterback Mateer since January 2023 at Washington State, and he has seen him grow this offseason through his eagerness to absorb others' knowledge.
Mateer has worked in the film room with Venables and former OU quarterback Sam Bradford, among others. Arbuckle said this relates to his relentless mindset to improve.
"I watch him attack it head on, whether it's meetings with Sam Bradford or coach Venables," Arbuckle said. "He's always up at the building. He'll pop in with every single position coach, trying to gain a deeper understanding of their room, how their room operates, what their room always looks for. He's constantly looking for that knowledge because he firmly believes that's going to translate to him playing better and having people in the right spot at the right time."
Arbuckle feels "fortunate" to coach Mateer for so long in an era where players are frequently on the move and growing into different systems.
"I consider myself very fortunate to get to be going into year four with John for a bunch of different reasons," Arbuckle said. "I've watched him grow up from I think he was 18 whenever I first met him to, now, 21 years old and just getting to see that maturation and and transformation of him as a leader and as a player and as a young man. And that builds, I think, a lot of confidence and a lot of trust, but then I get to see him as a player. ... I consider myself really fortunate just to get to be able to coach him again for a fourth year and really see him throughout pretty much this entire journey."
Arbuckle added, when watching film, he sees a great leap from how Mateer played back at Washington State.
"We'll be watching something, and and we'll see him do something on film. And then I'll just go back in the archives to whenever we're at Wazzu together and pull something up from an early practice that I remember him making a mistake, and I'm like, 'Oh, how far you have come,'" Arbuckle said.
Venables believes Mateer, in year two, has a better sense of what it means to be an OU quarterback.
"Understanding the gravity of being the quarterback at the University of Oklahoma, there's that piece; I think he's probably in a more peaceful place when it comes to that, ..." Venables said. "I've got incredible respect and appreciation for his athletic ability. But his best qualities, in my opinion, are the human being that he is, the leader that he is, the guy that shows up in the depths of preparation."
Run game update
Arbuckle shared his excitement for the team's run game progress after it ranked No. 13 in the Southeastern Conference last season.
The Sooners return running backs sophomore Tory Blaylock and junior Xavier Robinson after each recorded at least 400 rushing yards in 2025. Arbuckle anticipates them to make leaps under new running backs coach Deland McCullough.
"I'm fired up to get Tory and X rolling again," Arbuckle said. "They have so much to learn and so much to improve on still, and I think Coach McCullough has all the expertise to give it to them and hold them to a certain standard of how we expect to play running back here at Oklahoma but also hold them to a standard of what is your best and delivering your best every single day."
Arbuckle added that junior Lloyd Avant, freshman DeZephen Walker and freshman Jonathan Hatton Jr. gained valuable experience in the spring while Blaylock and Robinson recovered from injuries.
"Those three guys, it was priceless the reps that they were able to get during spring ball, ... just the different different reps, different moments that they got put in, the, sometimes, learning by fire out there," Arbuckle said.
