Going into the 2026 season, the Oklahoma Sooners have four quarterbacks on the roster. Redshirt-senior John Mateer returns as the starting QB, as he’ll use his final year of eligibility to lead OU this year.
Behind him, freshman Bowe Bentley is the heir-apparent, but he’ll use this season to learn and develop. Redshirt-sophomore Whitt Newbauer returns after being a backup last year, and redshirt-freshman Jett Niu also returns to fill out the depth chart. With offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Ben Arbuckle, quarterbacks coach John Kuceyeski, and offensive analyst Blaise Bentsen (who works with the QBs) all returning for their second seasons in Norman, there’s more stability in the OU quarterback room than there’s been in a long time.
ESPN’s David Hale ranked every single quarterback situation in the FBS ahead of the 2026 season, placing the 138 QB situations into tiers with spring ball in the rearview mirror. Hale ranked Mateer and the Sooners in Tier 3 of his list, placing him in the company of Georgia’s Gunner Stockton, Indiana’s Josh Hoover, Penn State’s Rocco Becht, Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed, and Utah’s Devon Dampier.
Hale pointed out Mateer’s loss in the College Football Playoff and his loss to Texas last season, but he also highlighted that the Sooner QB started eight games against defenses that ranked inside the top 25 in the SP+ metric.
It’ll once again be a tough schedule for Mateer and the Sooners in the SEC this year, but they believe he’s got the goods to deliver for Oklahoma this year. OU and Mateer chose each other when he transferred in from Washington State after the 2024 season, and they chose each other again after the 2025 season, when Mateer decided to come back to school and OU placed the offense in his hands again. Both parties believe in the other, and both parties have worked hard since last season ended to better support the other in 2026.
For Mateer, it’s been a focus on his footwork, his throwing mechanics, and making better decisions from the quarterback position. For Oklahoma, it’s been placing more playmakers around him and putting more of an emphasis on the run game to take some of the pressure off of him. With a defense and a roster that look like they should be ready to compete, the Sooners need their pairing with Mateer to pay off this season.
What doesn’t show up on the stat sheet are Mateer’s guts, his leadership, and his ability to make plays other QBs simply can’t. While Mateer isn’t receiving the same kind of national hype that he was going into the 2025 season, Oklahoma believes that they’ve got one of the nation’s best QBs heading into 2026.
Oklahoma starting quarterbacks since 1999
Number of games started for each season in parentheses
- 1999: Josh Heupel (12)
- 2000: Josh Heupel (13)
- 2001: Nate Hybl (11) and Jason White (2)
- 2002: Jason White (2) and Nate Hybl (12)
- 2003: Jason White (14)
- 2004: Jason White (13)
- 2005: Paul Thompson (1) and Rhett Bomar (11)
- 2006: Paul Thompson (14)
- 2007: Sam Bradford (14)
- 2008: Sam Bradford (14)
- 2009: Sam Bradford (3) and Landry Jones (10)
- 2010: Landry Jones (14)
- 2011: Landry Jones (13)
- 2012: Landry Jones (13)
- 2013: Trevor Knight (5) and Blake Bell (8)
- 2014: Trevor Knight (10) and Cody Thomas (3)
- 2015: Baker Mayfield (13)
- 2016: Baker Mayfield (13)
- 2017: Baker Mayfield (13) and Kyler Murray (1)
- 2018: Kyler Murray (13) and Austin Kendall (1)
- 2019: Jalen Hurts (14)
- 2020: Spencer Rattler (11)
- 2021: Spencer Rattler (6) and Caleb Williams (7)
- 2022: Dillon Gabriel (12) and Davis Beville (1)
- 2023: Dillon Gabriel (12) and Jackson Arnold (1)
- 2024: Jackson Arnold (9) and Michael Hawkins Jr. (4)
- 2025: John Mateer (12) and Michael Hawkins Jr. (1)
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Where does OU’s QB situation land on ESPN’s list of all 138 FBS teams?