The 2025 Oklahoma football season has been great, primarily because of John Mateer at quarterback. Mateer has completely re-energized this offense, catapulting him into the Heisman Trophy conversation. The Sooners are undefeated at 4-0, but Mateer injured his hand in their last game, a win against Auburn, leaving some questions about Oklahoma as a contender.
Mateer's injury required him to undergo surgery, and because of that, he will be out of the lineup for about a month. FOX Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt put it bluntly on his show, “The Joel Klatt Show,” and said that Mateer was the Sooners so far this year, and with him gone for a month, they are a pretender and can't compete with the rest of the bigger programs, and then when they get him back, they will be too far behind.
“Pretender,” Klatt said. “They’re not going to win without John Mateer, and then the back end of their schedule is atrocious. I could see them losing three or four games.”
“After consulting with medical experts, it became clear that surgery is the best option for John and his short- and long-term future,” Venables said. “He’s extremely disappointed he will miss some game action, but is eager to correct the issue and move forward. As he is with everything, we know he will be aggressive with his rehabilitation and work to return to the field as quickly as possible.”
Mateer also posted on X after his surgery and assured fans that his procedure went well and that he was excited to return to the field.
