Former Washington State quarterback John Mateer is officially an Oklahoma Sooner as many had expected. Easily the Sooners' top portal addition, Mateer rejoins his Wazzou offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Ben Arbuckle, who was hired just two weeks ago by Brent Venables
The Sooners weren't the only ones reportedy interested in procuring Mateer's services. Miami was rumored to be doing everything it could to get him to come to South Florida, just like Mateer's predecessor at WSU, Cam Ward, did at this time last year.
Mateer has two years of eligibility remaining and was one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the country this season, passing for 3,139 yards, running for another 826 yards and accounting for 44 total touchdowns (29 passing, 15 rushing). Every major recruiting service ranked the former Washington State signal caller as the best quarterback available in this year's transfer cycle.
I should not have to remind any Sooner fan of the success that the Oklahoma football program has had bringing in transfer quarterbacks who have gone on to grand achievement playing for the Crimson and Cream: Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts and, more recently, Dillon Gabriel.
Myerberg ranked the 10 best quarterbacks available this offseason, and Mateer topped the list, which included Darian Mensah, formerly of Tulane (committed to Duke), Connor Weigman of Texas A&M (committed to Houston), Miller Moss of USC and Jackson Arnold (now committed to Auburn).
This got us pondering how Mateer would rank among the best of the best among SEC quarterbacks for the 2025 season.
The SEC has long been known for outstanding offensive and defensive line play. You don't have to look any farther than NFL rosters every season to see how that has worked out. More and more, however, the SEC is becoming a quarterback league. In fact, three of the last six Heisman Trophy winners have come from the SEC (LSU's Joe Burrow in 2019, Bryce Young of Alabama in 2021 and LSU's Jayden Daniels in 2023).
The SEC will probably lose several outstanding quarterbacks ahead of next season, but another outstanding crop of talented QBs will be back and coming into the league for the 2025 campaign.
Although they still have a year of eligibility remaining, it is widely believed that Quinn Ewers of Texas and Jalen Milroe at Alabama will opt out and declare for the NFL. Carson Beck, who has been the starter at Georgia the last two years, also will likely leave for the NFL.
Given that assumption, arguably the five best returning quarterbacks in the SEC are Garrett Nussmeier of LSU, LaNorris Settles of South Carolina, Nico Iamaleava of Tennessee, DJ Lagway of Florida and Arch Manning of Texas or Marcel Reed of Texas A&M. Aside from Nussmeier, who will be out of eligibility after 2025, all will be in their second active season.
The question is, could Mateer also fit within this elite group of quarterbacks in college football's premier football conference? I believe he indeed would, and here is where:
1. Garrett Nussmeier (LSU)
Nussmeier completed 63.7% of his pass attempts for 3,739 yards this season with 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in leading LSU to an 8-4 overall record in the regular season and 5-3 in the conference. Next season will be his final season of eligibility.
2. Nico Iamaleava (Tennessee)
Iamaleava had an outstanding 2024 season in leading the Tennessee Volunteers to the third-best record in the SEC (10-2, 6-2) and a second-place tie with Georgia. The Volunteer quarterback will be a sophomore in terms of eligibility. The 6-foot-6 Iamaleava threw for 2,512 yards in 12 games this season, 19 touchdowns and only five interceptions. He completed 65.7% of his passes and also ran for 311 yards and one rushing touchdown.
3. LaNorris Sellers (South Carolina)
Sellers may have been a surprise this season to everyone outside of the Palmetto State. It was Settles' performance as much as anything that led to South Carolina's top-25 ranking and 9-3 record in the regular season. His versatility in throwing the ball and using his legs made Settles a dangerous threat at the quarterback position. He completed 64.9% of his passes in the regular season with 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions, and contributed another 665 yards on the ground along with six rushing touchdowns.
4. DJ Lagway (Florida)
Lagway, a five-star prospect when he signed with Florida as a member of the 2024 class, battled through injuries this season but did appear in 11 games. He is a dynamic talent who is capable of so much more than he showed in 2024. He began the season as the backup to Graham Mertz, but he got an early indoctrination when Mertz was hurt. Lagway passed for 1,610 yards, completing 59% of his passes with 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions. With a year of experience in the system, we should see more of his real potential in the 2025 season.
5. John Mateer (Oklahoma)
Mateer's numbers were better than every SEC quarterback this season, but he also did not face the level competition week in and week out in the decimated Pac-12 Conference that he will in the SEC. Still, his 2024 stats -- 3,139 passing yards, 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions, and 826 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns -- are impressive enough in any FBS conference. And he wll be playing in a system under former Washington State offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle that Mateer is highly familiar with and will have better weapons around him at OU than at Wazzou. Mateer could conceivabley have an even better year in 2025.
Honorable mention
Honorable mention on this list would be Arch Manning of Texas and Marcel Reed of Texas A&M. Some will no doubt argue that Manning should be somewhere in the top three, if not at the very top, of this list.
There is little question that the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning and grandson to Archie Manning, has huge expectations and a ton of pressure on him given his family background and former five-star rating. His talent was evident in the limited action he saw this season at Texas in garbage time and the couple of games Quinn Ewers missed with a shoulder injury.
In eight appearances this season, Manning posted 939 passing yards and nine touchdowns with two interceptions. He certainly will have a wealth of talent around him at Texas, but I just haven't seen a large enough sample size yet. At most, I would put him sixth or seventh among SEC quarterbacks.
Here are some of the other quarterback expected to be in starting roles in the SEC next season:
Diego Pavia (Vanderbilt)
Jackson Arnold (Auburn)
Blake Shapen (Mississippi State)
Taylen Green (Arkansas)