John Mateer’s not afraid of the big stage. This is what he came to Norman for after all.
“There's a reason John Mateer came to OU; he wants to be the best,” offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said on Monday. “He wants to play the best; he wants to compete against the best.”
Mateer embraces the path ahead as he prepares to face Alabama in the College Football Playoff.
The redshirt junior quarterback will walk into the matchup after putting up 138 passing yards, a season low, the last time the two teams faced off, and having averaged 195 yards since returning from a hand injury he suffered against Auburn on Sept. 20. However, he’s not listening to the doubters or letting past performances get to him.
“He understands that it doesn’t matter what you do,” said Matt Harbin, Mateer’s baseball coach at Little Elm High School. “He could throw for 400 and have five touchdowns, and people will still find something. Once they get in that mindset of they just want to pick apart everything, they’re going to do it. He's learned to not pay attention to that.”
Though Mateer is turning a blind eye to it, the Sooners are also considered the underdog, according to betting odds, despite winning the last matchup 23-21. OU is not quite used to being doubted, being tied for No. 3 in number of national titles in the AP Poll era. However, Mateer is no stranger to the status.
Growing up in Little Elm, Texas, Mateer’s teams were often seen as the underdog in matchups. He led a program that has only three eight-win seasons since its first season in 2004, and he went up against schools like Allen High School, which has 19 10-win seasons over the same timespan, with four undefeated years, and Denton Guyer High School, with 13 10-win seasons over the same number of years. He then had to work his way up the ranks at Washington State University after being a three-star recruit.
“This has been where he's lived — being the underdog — not only when he was playing for us, but the recruiting, he was the underdog,” Harbin said. “And he was the underdog going into when he was at (Washington State) and everything. And I think that he's comfortable with this. … It's part of what has driven him, what has created that chip on his shoulder.”
‘Learned to play without fear’
Redshirt junior quarterback John Mateer during the game against Louisiana State University on Nov. 29.
Harbin recalls times from Mateer’s Little Elm years that inform how he perseveres in 2025.
During his freshman season as the varsity quarterback for Little Elm, he played against 10-win teams, Frisco Lone Star High School and Northwest High School, while guiding Little Elm to a 4-6 record and fighting through a back injury the first few games of the season. Harbin said that Mateer played through it for multiple games and did not tell anyone.
“He played with it for a couple games, and then he finally said something,” Harbin said. “And of course, by then, he's already been playing, and so he pushed through it.”
In the Northwest game, despite the injury, he kept it close with Little Elm losing only 41-34 in two overtimes. Harbin and others at Little Elm were surprised when they heard he had been playing through an injury because, according to Harbin, he looked like the same player.
“He was still scrambling and running because he had to,” Harbin said. “I mean, he was a freshman, and so you take into consideration that he's learning the game, learning the speed of the game. He's learning the offense. He’s got all these things that he just got thrown to the fire with, and so you didn't see any noticeable difference in the way he was moving or the way he was commanding the offense and the things that they asked him to do, whether it was a read option or if he was trying to pass or if it was a design quarterback run or anything. He just went right after it, and we were all shocked when he said something to us.”
Harbin said that Mateer playing through an injury earlier in his career is why he knew the quarterback would start against Texas this season and keep competing after the rivalry.
“As soon as that deal happened with his hand, those of us that know him know there was no way any of that would keep him out,” Harbin said. “Like, if they had to cut his right hand off, he would have figured out how to throw the ball left-handed to be in the game. That's just the way he is, and he's not going to let something like that keep him from … what he's been working on.”
Mateer also showed his confidence a couple years later against Allen, as Harbin recalls. He threw for 497 yards, a school record for a single game, in a 68-44 loss before Allen would reach the regional finals later in the year.
“The defenses, I'm sure, were gassed, and he was able to extend so many plays by scrambling and moving and dodging tackles and finding a guy or finding space to run, …" Harbin said. "He was the reason why we were anywhere near.”
The way Mateer rose to the challenge against Allen stuck with Harbin, and he correlates Mateer’s win against Louisiana State University in the Sooners’ final regular-season game with how he persevered in high school. Despite throwing three interceptions, including two in the third quarter, against LSU, he led the Sooners to a 17-13 win.
“He just kept firing away and kept firing away and kept firing away (against Allen), and that to me right there, that's one of the reasons why, even when, at the LSU game, things weren't going good in the third quarter for anybody on the OU side, … he figured it out,” Harbin said.
Mateer also said after the LSU game that, following the third quarter, he “was either going to hate (himself) forever or become a man.” Whether it be the Northwest game, the Allen one or another, Harbin connects this burden of responsibility to when Mateer always felt the weight on his shoulders in high school since Little Elm was often the underdog.
“There was no going back; it was John,” Harbin said. “And if John had the game that he was supposed to have, we got a chance. If John didn't, there wasn't anybody else behind them that could do it, and so all that pressure, I think, is why he has learned to play without fear. … He had to get used to that and learn how to thrive in it.”
‘Everything I could ask for’
Little Elm High School head baseball coach Matt Harbin and redshirt junior quarterback John Mateer after the game against Louisiana State University on Nov. 29.
Mateer, as he carries his past lessons with him, is not losing sight of the opportunity ahead of him — the one he came to Norman for.
“This is everything I could ever ask for as a kid, and I told myself that like a year ago,” Mateer said on Monday. “I prayed for this opportunity, worked for it, and I'm glad it's here. I don’t take it for granted.”
He is also set to walk onto the big stage healthier than he has been since before the injury. He has worn KT tape, a therapeutic wrap for pain relief and support, on his injured thumb until he was seen without it on Monday. While still not fully healed, head coach Brent Venables said that the lack of tape marks a positive sign in his recovery.
No tape on John Mateer's hand today from what I was able to see. Here's a little bit of him throwing during open practice. #Sooners pic.twitter.com/DEPl6fKxZb
— Willie Gillespie (@wgillespietv) December 16, 2025
"He still has some soreness, so he's not pain free," Venables said on Wednesday. "From a stability standpoint, he's better than he's been (with) gripping the ball."
Between the injuries he sustained in his younger days and the hand issue he now has, according to Harbin, Mateer’s ability to persevere has been key to him having great moments.
“When you take the ups and downs, especially the downs through this year, he's turned around and gone right back to work, … and that's why I believe he's able to have moments (when) things aren't going (well) and rebound,” Harbin said.
As Mateer prepares for Alabama, Harbin feels confident that the quarterback isn’t getting caught up in the stakes of the moment but is maintaining his sharp mindset.
“He doesn't buy into that it's Alabama or buy into that it's the playoff game,” Harbin said. “Yes, he's excited, and he understands that there's more that comes with it. But he doesn't dwell on that. He dwells on the fact that he's got to prepare, got to be the leader, got to be a great teammate, … and that's where I doubt there's a whole lot of people that prepare the way he does.”
This story was edited by Laurie Jones.
