Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables said Saturday night that he’s assuming OU starting quarterback John Mateer won’t be able to play in the Red River Rivalry because of an injury, but Texas coach Steve Sarkisian is assuming otherwise.
After handling Kent State 44-0 in their first game without Mateer, who injured his throwing hand against Auburn on Sept. 20, the No. 6 Sooners will play unranked Texas at 2:30 p.m. CT Saturday in Dallas, and it’s still unknown if Mateer will be healthy enough to play in his first Red River Rivalry. If Mateer can’t go, it’ll be sophomore Michael Hawkins Jr., who also started against Texas last season.
Sarkisian says Texas will prepare for Oklahoma's starting QB
Maybe it’s some Jedi mind tricks from Venables before playing Texas, but he’s been tight-lipped about Mateer’s timeline since the beginning until finally slipping postgame after Kent State, “I'm assuming (Mateer) can't (play),” when asked about OU's quarterback situation heading into the Red River Rivalry.
Sarkisian must not trust Venables, and maybe even also thinks there could be some smoke and mirrors involved, because during his weekly press conference on Monday, Sarkisian said the Longhorns are preparing to play against Mateer. There’s also always the chance that Sarkisian knows something OU hadn’t made public yet.
“We'll plan for Mateer,” Sarkisian said. “We have to. He's a dynamic player. He's the heartbeat of that offense. Everything goes through him.
“We played against Hawkins last year. He's a much improved player. Like most young players, they get better over time. You can see his improvement for sure.”
Not only has Hawkins improved since the last Red River Rivalry, but the entire OU offense has under new offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, who brought Mateer with him from Washington State. The Longhorns kept an abysmal OU offense with a freshman quarterback out of the end zone last season in a 34-3 blowout.
Whether it’s Mateer or Hawkins again, though, Sarkisian knows the Sooners will be better offensively no matter who’s leading Arbuckle’s offense.
“Coach Arbuckle has a great scheme that we've got to prepare for,” Sarkisian said. “He's a fantastic coach. They tax you a lot of different ways with varying tempos, formations, trick plays, quarterback runs, shot plays. So we've got to prepare for the offense as much as we need to prepare for the quarterback, whichever one it's going to be. It's more about the offense in our world."