John Mateer reveals Jason Witten is already impacting far more than Oklahoma's tight ends

Brent Venables over the offseason brought in NFL great Jason Witten to transform the Oklahoma Sooners at tight end as a position coach, which he's already done, but his impact has even stretched to the quarterback room.

OU quarterback John Mateer was asked about the Sooners' new tight ends coach while at SEC Media Days on Monday. It's been clear Witten has been a stellar addition to Venables' staff after the tight ends raved about him during spring camp, but even Mateer is growing because of him as Witten will share his knowledge with anyone willing to listen.

"There's a lot of guys in this world. I was just at the Manning Passing Academy. I put him on that level, definitely," Mateer said of Witten. "You just hang around guys like that. It's gold. They're just giving you gold all the time. I'm around him as much as I can. Luckily he calls me and he gives me that wisdom. He wants to share his wisdom and we've seen that in the offense. And it's been great.

"He's a great dude, and to get the great dude and great wisdom and great coach, there's not a whole lot of people like that. But he's one of them, and I can't say enough good things about him."

Brent Venables hire of Jason Witten paying off more than expected for Sooners

Although this is his first coaching job at the college level, Witten certainly has knowledge to share after 17 seasons in the NFL that will one day have him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was an 11-time Pro Bowler, named First-Team All-Pro twice and was Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year in 2012 while spending most of his career with the Dallas Cowboys. Witten also played one year for Las Vegas Raiders before retiring after the 2020 season.

During his time with the Cowboys, Witten worked alongside and caught passes from the likes of Drew Bledsoe, Tony Romo, Matt Cassel and Dak Prescott. His quarterbacks during his lone year in Vegas were Derek Carr and Marcus Mariota. That's not too shabby of a list to learn from and share with Mateer what he saw from those guys. That's also a lot of years studying film of NFL defenses on a weekly basis to learn from.

Read more: Oklahoma tight ends quickly see Jason Witten’s NFL experience paying off

After playing and a brief stint in broadcasting, Witten became the head coach at Liberty Christian in Texas, where he led the program to a pair of state titles with one of the most potent offenses in the state. He led the high school program for five years before Venables plucked him away this offseason to replace Joe Jon Finley as OU's tight ends coach.

When Venables made the hire, he also noted Witten's character as a role model for the players in his program. College football even has the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year award, which goes to a player who shows strong leadership qualities on and off the field. That, too, has likely been an influence on Mateer using Witten to not just improve on the field but also off as a leader and man.

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