Oklahoma's recent QB roller coaster has landed them in a good spot

It's hard to be the quarterback of the Oklahoma Sooners . That's a statement that's been especially true in the 21st century, where more emphasis has been placed on QB play and passing the ball than ever before in Norman. Even before the 2000s, the Sooners typically had excellent quarterbacks, but the duties of the job changed when Bob Stoops came to town ahead of the 1999 season.

Since then, OU has produced some of the very best quarterbacks in all of college football on a regular basis. However, that also means that there's a lot of pressure that comes with being the starting QB under center for the Sooners. Just ask Josh Heupel, Nate Hybl, and Jason White , who helped set that standard in the early 2000s, the formative years under Stoops. Ask Rhett Bomar and Paul Thompson, who were two of the final starters before the smartphone era and social media, which tends to tear quarterbacks down, instead of building them up.

More: 2026 Oklahoma Sooners quarterback outlook

Ask Sam Bradford and Landry Jones , two prolific pocket passers who took Oklahoma into the age of social media. Or, how about Trevor Knight, Blake Bell , and Cody Thomas, who were ripped for not being as good as the duo in the sentence before them (and were around when the first QB of the modern era of OU Football got fired from his post as offensive coordinator).

Sometimes, the pressure brings out the best in Oklahoma quarterbacks. That was certainly the case for Baker Mayfield , who navigated the transition from Stoops to Lincoln Riley beautifully. He turned around the late Stoops-era QB lull, and he was so good that Stoops was able to retire and hand the keys off to Riley in a great spot. It was also the case for Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts, two athletic, incredible quarterbacks who made sure that even though Stoops was gone, the Sooners were still awesome at QB under Riley.

When the results are regularly great, players with high potential and off-the-charts hype want a piece of the action. That's what happened with Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams , two shiny five-star prospects who showed flashes of greatness in crimson and cream, but who also ended up finishing their collegiate careers elsewhere. Thanks for that can go to the transfer portal, NIL, and Riley skipping town. Replacing him in command was a former Stoops lieutenant, Brent Venables.

The head coaches have changed, and the offensive coordinators and play-callers certainly have, but the expectations and pressure don't. Sometimes those expectations are warranted, like when Dillon Gabriel held things down under center in the early years of the Venables rebuild. On the other hand, sometimes Sooner Nation thought they had something that could turn into something more, but it never materialized. Austin Kendall and Davis Beville come to mind as examples of this.

However, Oklahoma thought they were set for the long haul when they turned the page to the 2024 season, their first as a member of the Southeastern Conference, after a long run of dominating the Big 12 Conference. Into the pressure cooker stepped another sparkling five-star QB, one that Venables and his staff couldn't wait to get on the field. Jackson Arnold was going to be the next great Sooners quarterback.

OU fans know what happened next. Those hopes mostly evaporated after about three-and-a-half games, when Arnold was benched, though he would get another chance later in the season, and was only part of a huge problem on offense. For a few weeks, out stepped Arnold, and into the spotlight stepped Michael Hawkins Jr. , a true freshman who never thought he'd see the field like this, at least not this early. Maybe he could rescue the Sooners.

While Hawkins performed admirably despite an OU offense that was totally broken, Arnold eventually got back in the saddle, though the results were only marginally better. By the end of the regular season, it was clear that Arnold's time in Norman was probably running short, just a few short months after he was anointed as the next great OU quarterback. He's perhaps the best example of the expectations and pressure getting into the head of an OU signal-caller.

Oklahoma hired a new offensive coordinator, Arnold quickly went to the portal and signed with Auburn, and that was that. Hawkins, an OU legacy who had shown promise despite insurmountable odds, chose to stay in Norman, but a new starting signal-caller was on the way.

John Mateer arrived to much fanfare, setting up the third piece of a trio of cautionary tales of the past two seasons of Oklahoma quarterbacks. Arnold was gone, Hawkins had taken a backseat, and Mateer was now in the limelight. All the while, the pressure on Sooner QBs builds and builds, with social media voices stronger than they've ever been. It's a hard job that only gets harder with naysayers everywhere: the minute you miss an open receiver, get tricked by a defense into an interception, or don't correctly identify a blitzing linebacker.

In 2025, Mateer was a definite upgrade from Arnold and Hawkins in 2024, even with a thumb injury that required surgery (and sent Hawkins back into the spotlight for one game). However, he was far from perfect and didn't always meet the colossal expectations that come with the territory. Still, he handled the pressure of the moment better than most would have , and he helped the Sooners get back to the College Football Playoff with timely throws down the stretch in "Red November."

It's been a whirlwind for Sooner Nation at QB over the last two seasons. Oklahoma has been through the fire, along with their quarterbacks, and OU might just be better for it in 2026 and beyond. In fact, all three players might be in better places for big 2026 seasons for each of them.

Starting with Arnold, his time at Auburn didn't go as planned, as he was benched late in the season and his coach was fired. He's transferred to UNLV for his final season of eligibility, where he'll team up with QB guru Dan Mullen in Las Vegas. Mullen has developed Alex Smith , Tim Tebow , Dak Prescott , and Kyle Trask , among others. Those are four QBs with four very different skill-sets that all thrived in Mullen's offense, and now he's betting he can do the same with Arnold and help the Rebels run the new Mountain West Conference in 2026. Arnold needs collegiate production, and he needs to throw off the habits that have hindered his college career to this point. He's taking a chance that Mullen can help him get drafted to the NFL.

Hawkins' loyalty to OU is unquestioned, but he entered the portal after the 2025 season, most likely because his path to becoming the guy in Norman was getting more and more crowded. Hawkins never got a long-term chance to be OU's starter, but he should be able to become that in his new home. He transferred to West Virginia for 2026, where he'll look to light up the Big 12 in an offensive system that looks like a perfect fit. Rich Rodriguez is excellent at getting the most out of dual-threat QBs, and Hawkins' dynamic skill set is just what the Mountaineers were looking for. He'll be in a QB derby with Scotty Fox in Morgantown, but Hawkins has all of the tools to thrive at WVU under RichRod, and he could also benefit from finally being handed the keys to an offense full-time, instead of on short notice.

Of course, that leaves the Sooners with Mateer, the best and most proven player of the trio. He considered leaving school a year early to go pro, but ultimately chose to stay at OU , with offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle by his side, for his final season of college ball. Mateer knows the system, and he knows the play-caller. He's already a captain, beloved by his teammates, and a clear leader for a Sooner squad that has unfinished business in 2026. Mateer has flaws (just ask anyone on social media), but he's the right quarterback to lead the Sooners into this season. Throw in a healthy throwing hand, more time to develop, and better offensive weapons, and you're looking at a player who could improve mightily from last year to this year.

It took longer than Sooner Nation wanted, and unfortunately cost Oklahoma not one, but two blue-chip QB prospects who will likely be starters on opposite sides of the country next year, but OU has a good setup once again under center. Mateer was unheralded coming out of high school, but he's done well for himself over the past four seasons. In fact, he may prove that a mindset for handling the constant pressure of being the Sooners' starting QB is actually the most important part of the job, rather than star rankings from high school. Social media pundits can rattle 18-to-23-year-olds, and it takes a unique set of skills to be able to block out the noise.

Maybe that's a lesson that Mateer will pass on to Bowe Bentley, the heir-apparent in Norman. He'll watch and learn while Mateer runs the show this year, then presumably take the reins in 2027, when Mateer is in the NFL. The Sooners (and Sooner Nation, and the social media folks) have seen a lot of peaks and valleys over the past two seasons under center, and hopefully, we've all learned a thing or two about pressure and expectations.

It's hard being the quarterback of the Oklahoma Sooners. In fact, in today's world, it's even harder than it was over a quarter of a century ago, when the job description changed for good in Norman. OU absolutely has to heed the lessons of Arnold and Hawkins in so many different ways, in order to set up a better present for Mateer and a better future for Bentley. Yes, it took a while, but the Sooners are back on track at QB. They clearly believe in Mateer, and he in them. He's got the right stuff to handle everything that goes along with the gig of being the starting QB at Oklahoma, a program that has taken its lumps recently at quarterback, and is now better for it.

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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: OU has taken their QB lumps. They're better for it