By Brandon Drumm | OUInsider
Look, if Oklahoma is going to keep riding with John Mateer through the kind of mistakes we saw at Georgia, people are going to ask what the coaches really think of the quarterbacks behind him.
That is a fair question. And Brent Venables gave us another part of that conversation Wednesday night when he discussed what it costs to build a quarterback room in this version of college football.
The starter gets the attention. The backup can become the most important player on the roster in one snap. Finding somebody capable of handling that moment, and convincing him to stay when another school can offer money and a chance to start, is the problem.
Oklahoma’s situation brings all of that into focus.
Whitt Newbauer did play against UTEP. He completed his only pass for six yards and scored on a three-yard run in the 51-0 win. But he has not appeared in the three games since. Neither has freshman Bowe Bentley, who also saw action in the opener.
Those three games produced 10 points at Michigan, 14 against New Mexico and 13 at Georgia. Through the frustration, missed opportunities and turnovers, Oklahoma has stayed with Mateer.
So the question is more specific than whether the backups have played.
What would have to happen for the staff to use one of them when the offense needs a different answer?
Belief in the room has to mean something on Saturdays
Venables did not say he distrusts his backups. He said the opposite.
“We got great belief in them, trust in them,” he said Wednesday.
He said both received substantial work in that day’s practice. He also described an existing practice arrangement in which Newbauer and Mateer split work at the top, with Bentley receiving roughly 20 percent of the daily good-on-good reps since the season began.
Newbauer is not somebody who has never started a college game. He made seven starts at Mercer in 2024, throwing for 1,398 yards and 12 touchdowns. That experience matters. So does the difference between those games and being asked to settle an Oklahoma offense against an SEC defense.
The coaches see his work every day. We do not. But fans are watching the decisions those coaches make with a game on the line, and those decisions have consistently favored Mateer.
Offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle acknowledged that replacing him was discussed at Georgia.
“We discussed all options on the headset and ultimately still felt like John was our best choice to go win the game right there,” Arbuckle said afterward.
That tells us the staff preferred Mateer in that situation. It does not prove Newbauer cannot play. It does leave Oklahoma with a question that another statement of confidence will not answer: How comfortable are the coaches actually putting the game in his hands?
For me, that is where the depth discussion starts. A backup has to be somebody the staff will seriously consider using when circumstances call for it.
Money has changed the decision to wait
Asked why established backup quarterbacks are difficult to keep, Venables pointed directly toward the financial side.
“I think the money. I think the opportunity to go somewhere and play to make money,” he said.
He also raised a second issue: a school’s willingness to pay for two expensive quarterbacks, and a player’s willingness to join a program without being guaranteed the job immediately.
That is the squeeze NIL and the transfer market put on quarterback depth. A program wants its No. 2 to be good enough to start. A player good enough to start has a reason to look for somewhere he can do it.
I do not blame a quarterback for considering that opportunity. Playing time gives him a chance to develop, build a résumé and increase his value. Asking him to wait has a cost, particularly when there is no guarantee the job eventually becomes his.
From a school’s perspective, though, it makes keeping an experienced alternative more difficult. The money has to work, the development plan has to make sense and the player has to accept that he might spend the season waiting.
That does not mean NIL has removed talent from college football. It helps explain why talent can move away from one team’s bench and into another team’s starting lineup. The depth problem is keeping two capable quarterbacks in the same room.
Oregon just showed why that matters.
After Dante Moore was injured against USC, Dylan Raiola stepped in and completed 19 of 25 passes for 289 yards and two touchdowns in a 41-27 win. The Nebraska transfer gave the Ducks an experienced answer when they needed one, according to Oregon’s official game report.
Venables discussed Raiola’s fresh start at Oregon and called that kind of situation an outlier in the current game.
It is also the kind of situation a contender would love to have. Oregon had a quarterback ready to carry the offense after its starter went down. That is what useful depth looks like.
Venables expects the price of a backup to matter more
Later in Wednesday’s availability, I was able to ask Venables whether what Oklahoma and other teams have experienced will lead more programs to pay an extra amount for a backup quarterback starting this offseason and transfer portal.
“I do,” he said. “The longer you’re in this new version of college football you learn. Every week you’re learning. Every season you’re learning more and more about how to manage the efficiency of the rosters. There’s a financial piece and there’s a numbers piece when it comes to the depth and things of that nature. And then you’re learning watching other people and how they are navigating. The success they have and the success they don’t have,” Venables said.
Venables want on explaining, “Some of it is head scratching,” he said. “Some people in the supposed 45-50 million range, that for whatever reason, things aren’t clicking for them right now.”
In the end, Venables did not announce a specific increase in Oklahoma’s quarterback budget. But his answer makes the roster-building question worth asking now: How much should OU commit to having a second quarterback it is comfortable playing?
My view is that the cost has to be weighed against what happens when a team does not have that option. If the starter is hurt, struggling or repeatedly putting the ball in danger, the consequences reach every other position Oklahoma has invested in.
Spending more still requires getting the evaluation right. Venables also pointed out that big spending elsewhere has not guaranteed things click. A larger quarterback budget cannot replace coaching, development or an honest assessment of who can execute the offense.
Oklahoma still needs an answer with the quarterbacks it has
Whatever OU decides about future spending, its immediate choices are already in the building.
Venables said Wednesday that Mateer remains the starter. The bye gives the staff time to work with Newbauer and Bentley, evaluate what each can handle and decide whether either offers something worth using against Texas.
I am not going to declare Newbauer the answer when we have barely seen him play at Oklahoma. I am also not going to dismiss the question simply because the coaches say they believe in him.
If Mateer continues to struggle and the staff continues to leave Newbauer on the sideline, that deserves scrutiny. Either the coaches believe sticking with Mateer remains the best football decision, or they are not comfortable enough with the alternative. They have to own the evaluation either way.
The quarterback market helps explain why building depth has become complicated. Oklahoma still has to build it, develop it and be willing to use it.
Paying for a starter is only part of that job.
