Since 2000, Oklahoma has produced 10 Heisman Trophy finalists. Eight of the 10 were quarterbacks, and four Sooners went on to capture college football's ultimate individual prize. No other school can match that over that period of time.
In the three consecutive years between 2017 and 2019, two Oklahoma quarterbacks (Baker Mayfield in 2017 and Kyler Murray in 2018) won the Heisman and a third (Jalen Hurts in 2019) finished as runner-up. During that time, the title "Quarterback U" of college football, or the place with a proven track record of developing college quarterbacks for careers at the next level, was bestowed on the Oklahoma program.
That unofficial designation could actually extend to the first two decades of the 2000s, recognizing that four Sooner quarterbacks were awarded the coveted Heisman hardware over that time.
Jason White, in 2003, was the first OU quarterback to be awarded the Heisman. He finished third in the Heisman voting the following year. Five years later, in 2008, Sam Bradford won the prestigious prize.
And in 2000, Oklahoma's last national championship season, Josh Heupel was runner-up to Heisman winner Chris Weinke of Florida State. White and Bradford were OU's fourth and fifth Heisman winners, respectively, but they were the first two Sooner quarterbacks to achieve that honor.
Oklahoma also had outstanding quarterback play in the three years following the Mayfield-Murray-Hurts sequence, with a pair of five-star recruits in Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams in the final two seasons Lincoln Riley was head coach. Former UCF transfer Dillon Gabriel continued the pattern in high style in the first two seasons under Brent Venables.
Rattler and Williams were both named Freshman All-Americans in successive seasons at Oklahoma, and Gabriel was a unanimous First-Team All-Big 12 selection in 2023. The last three seasons, however, the quality of Sooner quarterback play, and by extension the performance of the offense overall, has fallen appreciably below the bar set by the previous six starters at the position.
OU's decline as college quarterback royalty took a free fall after Dillon Gabriel
Jackson Arnold was signed as a five-star recruit in the 2023 class. He spent his freshman season backing up Gabriel, but when he moved into the starting role the following season, he proved to be a prime disappointment and transferred to Auburn at the end of the season. It didn't work out there, either, and the former highly touted QB prospect is now at UNLV.
Michael Hawkins, Jr., four-star 2024 recruit, shared the starting role with Arnold in the former's freshman season and returned to the team his sophomore season, but saw action in just two games in 2025 in a reserve role behind John Mateer, who the Sooners brought in from Washington State.
Mateer was coming off a 2024 season in which he led the Wazzu offense to the sixth-best scoring offense among FBS teams, the 17th-best total offense, and was rated as the top quarterback in the 2025 transfer rankings by 247Sports.
It also helped that Mateer was joined at Oklahoma by Ben Arbuckle, his offensive coordinator at Washington State, who took over that same role on Venables' staff at OU. Because of that combination and the success the pair had engineered in 2024 at Washington State, expectations were high for good things to come out of the Sooner offense after a lackluster 2024 performance.
Mateer and the Oklahoma offense looked sharp through the first three games of the 2025 season, including a big win over a ranked Michigan team, with Arbuckle calling the plays and Mateer directing the action on the field. Things were going so well that, by mid-September in 2025, Las Vegas oddsmakers had Mateer as the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, and it appeared the Sooners once again had found magic at the quarterback position.
Then, in Game 4 of the season, Mateer suffered a fractured thumb, and he and the Oklahoma offense haven't been the same since. The Washington State transfer had surgery on his thumb but surprisingly missed just one game. When he returned to action, however, things were not the same.
While Mateer's courage and toughness were admirable, his ability to grip and throw the football with accuracy was greatly affected by the injury. Moreover, Mateer's strength has always been his ability to escape the pocket and use his legs as part of the run game, but his rushing numbers were also clearly impacted after the injury.
The Sooners still managed to win 10 games and earn a berth in the College Football Playoff last season, so the belief was that with a completely healthy Mateer back in 2026 and surrounded by additional offensive weapons, if anything, the situation with the Oklahoma offense could only be better this season.
We all know, at least so far in 2026, things haven't worked out that way. In fact, the situation has taken several giant steps backward, and Mateer, like it or not, has been a major part of the problem, with poor decision-making, inaccurate throws, and, worst of all, an inability to protect the ball and avoid costly turnovers. Through four games this season, Mateer has been directly responsible for six of the Sooners' 10 turnovers.
Oklahoma's quarterback depth is not what it once was. Or at least it's not to the point that Venables feels comfortable or compelled to turn the reins over to one of the backups, former FCS transfer Whitt Neubauer or true freshman Bowe Bentley. Combined, the two Sooner QBs have thrown a total of five passes in an Oklahoma uniform at the FBS level.
That speaks to a whole different problem regarding quarterback recruitment and development, but the fact remains: Oklahoma is no longer the attraction it used to be for top quarterback talent. And it's not just about the quarterback.
The guy on the field, the one executing the play calls, is truly only as good as his connection and trust in the offensive coordinator. The chemistry and communication that exist in that critical partnership are the fuel that powers the offense. If either of those end points is flawed or falters, the chances for effective execution of a play or offensive game plan are significantly diminished.
Regardless of what you may think of him now, Lincoln Riley was the right guy at the right time for Mayfield, Murray, Hurts, and Williams, and Jeff Lebby and Gabriel were good together. That was not the case with Seth Littrell and Joe Jon Finley as co-offensive coordinators with Jackson Arnold, nor has the combination of Arbuckle and Mateer delivered the effectiveness or offensive consistency that was expected or built upon all the success that the pair had working together two seasons ago at Washington State.
I'm not sure how or how soon Oklahoma's quarterback situation will get rectified, but it's become blatantly clear that the current arrangement is not working. The Sooners brought in Bentley in the 2026 recruiting class as OU's prospective quarterback of the future. Will he get the starting call next season, or will general manager Jim Nagy make a serious run at the transfer portal for the next Oklahoma starting quarterback?
Either way, there's a better-than-good chance we'll see another new offensive coordinator-QB1 combination at Oklahoma a year from now.
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