OU football coach Brent Venables stands by John Mateer: 'John's our starting quarterback'

NORMAN — OU football coach Brent Venables is standing by quarterback John Mateer for now.

After Venables said backups Whitt Newbauer and Bowe Bentley took "a lot" of reps during Wednesday's practice, he was asked if either of them will play against Texas in the Red River Rivalry next weekend.

"I have no idea," Venables said. "We're not there right now. John's our starting quarterback."

Venables said he has liked how Mateer has responded during the bye week after turning the ball over three times in the first half of the Sooners' road loss to Georgia last weekend, a game in which the coaches weighed benching Mateer.

With Mateer seemingly moving on as OU's starter, the coaching staff will need to look for ways to build back up his confidence, which Venables admitted last Saturday isn't "sky high" at the moment.

"How he responds — all of those things have been really good," Venables said. "Probably a lot better than you or I, or any of us could ever to be honest."

More: OU football QB John Mateer's stock is falling fast. Will bye week spark change?

As for Newbauer and Bentley — listed as "ORs" on the depth chart — Venables is pleased with the progress he's seen them make. Mateer and Newbauer have mostly split the majority of the snaps this season with Bentley getting around 20% of them daily, Venables said.

Venables said each has their strength and weaknesses but pointed to their lack of experience in games.

Furthermore, Venables shared his thoughts on why most schools lack established backup quarterback in this day and age in college football.

"The money, the opportunity to go somewhere and play to make money," Venables said. "And then a school willing to to pay for two really expensive quarterbacks is another layer to it. But somebody willing to go somewhere and maybe not be the guy, guaranteed, right away. It's a little harder than you want it to be."

Bye weeks are a time for reflection and reevaluation. The Sooners' coaches have undergone extensive reevaluations of every aspect of the program this week during a disappointing season thus far.

For now, Venables is hitching his wagon to Mateer. That could always change but he's liked the response from the entire offensive unit this week as they prepare to face the Longhorns next weekend.

"We want to be a more consistent unit, obviously," Venables said. "That side of the ball has had to work a little harder, and sometimes it feels like we're going upstream. Things have been a little choppier than you want them to be. Good play, negative play. First down, have a delay. First down, tackle for loss. We want to be able to play in a better rhythm that comes from a lot of different things.

"It's a lot of little things. ... We've got to do a better job overall of executing more consistently."

Colton Sulley covers the Oklahoma Sooners for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Colton? He can be reached at csulley@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @colton_sulley. Support Colton's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing adigital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football coach Brent Venables stands by John Mateer: 'John's our starting quarterback'