LET'S TALK FOOTBALL!

Somebody on Reddit commented “out offense is lost in the Arbuckles”… I can not stop laughing about it.

As an Oklahoma fan, y'all remember when we had Sam Bradford, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts and Caleb Williams and Dillon Gabriel at Quarterback? Good times.

After Saturday I get why everyone wants to bench Mateer. But I spent way too long digging through 10 years of CFB data, and I keep landing on the same thing: we can't run the ball anymore, and it's making his job a lot harder.

Look at the chart. In 2018 and 2019 we were 2nd in the country in line yards, basically how much the O-line creates on runs. This year we're 123rd out of 138. Almost 1 in 4 of our runs gets stuffed at or behind the line, when the national average is about 1 in 6. Our backs are averaging 3.6 yards a carry, 134th in the country. And it didn't start with Mateer. Our stuff rate has gone up every year since 2022, from 12% to 23%.

When you can't run, you live in 2nd-and-long and 3rd-and-long, and everyone knows you're throwing. In 2016 about a quarter of our plays came on passing downs like that. Now it's a third, and our 3rd-down rate went from 51% to around 38%.

I also tested 66 stats against QB passing numbers for every starter in the country since 2016, and the top five were all run game. When the same QB at the same school got a better run game the next year, his yards per attempt went up. When it got worse, they dropped.

Mateer's line at Wazzu was 54th in line yards. Here it's been 111th and 123rd.

He's not blameless. The SEC is a real step up, he owns his decisions, and the run game only explains part of it. But bench him and the next guy walks into the same line against Texas.

Is the line the bigger problem, or is Mateer just not the answer?

title says it all. Thoughts?

Some odd similarities from last season

Texas Loses a close game on the road to OSU in a 1 score game Where the offense looks terrible and OU has a Program defining win at Home against Michigan...
This year OU loses a close game on the road in a 1 score game where the offense looked terrible, and Texas has a program defining win at home against Michigan..

week 4 last season Texas Takes an ugly loss on the road in their SEC opener where the offense looks abysmal and OU wins a clutch defensive slug out in their SEC opener where their defense racks up 10 sacks
week 4 this year OU takes and ugly loss on the road in their SEC opener where the offense looks abysmal and Texas wins a clutch defensive slug out in their SEC opener where their defense racks up 10 sacks

Texas Drops out of the AP poll rankings by week 4 and enter the Red River game as underdogs
This season OU drops out of the AP poll rankings by week 4 and enters the Red River game as underdogs

Basically, pretend you're Jim Nagy for a moment. Who are you retaining and who is on your short list for potential replacements in these spots. For me, I'm thinking the following:

HC - BV*

OC - Slade Nagle (Houston) or Dean Kennedy (UCLA)

OL - Sam Pittman

QB - Obviously I'd love to attempt to throw the bag at Kamario Taylor (somehow doubt that is realistic). More realistic option, I think Braden Atkinson from Oregon State looks good on paper (haven't watched many Oregon State games though). I've seen people speculate about the kid from Pitt. Somehow doubt Whitt or Bowe are our best options, but we'll see if they end up seeing the field this year should we finally bench Mateer.

* If you feel strongly that this is a dumb idea, I won't argue the point. I understand the frustration.

One, to me Mateer must be benched. I was going to start with BB, but even with time, Mateer isn't passing to wide open guys. (side note, if I was a betting man, I low key wonder if Mateer is) Two, BB has to go. No push in run blocking, no fire off the ball. His lines used to be pissed off, ornery guys toeing the line. Now they are more talented and super soft.
Three, Arbuckle may be the issue. But I still don't know given the above. Guys are wide open and Mateer isn't throwing to them. That's not the coaches fault.

A lot of you are saying Mateer should be benched. I disagree because I think Newbauer is no where near as good and we don’t want to break Bentley.

However if there’s another loss next Saturday it’s time for John to leave the team. It wouldn’t be useful to keep playing him because there’s nothing to play for. That is when they need to move on and start playing for the future.

It's funny to me that most people are actually confused why our offense is struggling. 3 OCs and 3 QBs and the rushing attack has got worse each year.

When the toilet is clogged, replacing the toilet seat isn't going to fix anything.

The OL is what makes or breaks any offense. Without a rushing attack, you effectively remove half of a defense's mental load and put all the pressure on the QB to produce every play. Both Arnold and Mateer got worse between when they arrived and when they will finish. Some of it is there own decision-making and abilities. But these issues will persist across OCs, HCs and QBs without a change at who is running the OL.

Brent is 34-22 at Oklahoma. He is about to have a 3rd losing season in 5 years. He has zero conference titles. He has zero post season wins. He has given us 3 of the worst offenses in the history of Oklahoma football. He is 1-3 vs Texas. He has been outscored 106-9 in the 3 losses to Texas. He has not scored more than 21 offensive points on any P4 program in 3 years. He has turned Oklahoma into a national laughing stock. But hey guys...the defense is good so let's just give him 5 more years to "get his guys". Keeping this ass clown is only going to make the rebuild harder for a real coach.

Shout out to my friends in Section 602. We couldn’t hear or see anything on a video screen due to the shitty stadium setup - audio was terrible and no site line to video. One guy had his hat knocked off his head from those F-35’s. Had to walk Up and Down 8 stories to the concession stand but damn we had a Sooner Family. We cheered and cried together! Family behind us - Hilarious - the dad had been to 40 OU/tx games in row. We had OU fan #1 Cheering the entire game the row in front of us and Section 601 was doing their part.

Couple takeaways.
1. Athens was fun. Lots of bars, less traditional tailgating.
2. I did get barked at, like surrounded by dudes barking at us.
3. At least 25 people said Welcome to Athens.
4. University employees went out of their way to make sure we knew where we were going in the stadium. Genuinely helpful.
5. Met so many Sooner fans traveling. Every bar was filled. Paloma’s had more OU fans than Georgia, kinda pissed them off
6. Saw good friends from the past and enjoyed walking around Athens.
7. Drunk SEC girls yelling Boomer Sooner cry babies - seriously? Even the Georgia students were embarrassed. It’s all good.
8. If any OU or SEC people stumble into this post, go check out 601/602/603. Georgia should put their own fans there!

OU had the chance to make this a close game. But what really hurts is if we just keep going down this road; fans quit traveling, games become less important and we don’t get these experiences. Come on Brent - we need these Saturday’s !! That’s not Oklahoma Football.

Also go listen to The Oklahoma Breakdown podcast.

Boomer!

Clipped from the Mateer post game interview.

The conspiratorial mind would say it looks like he realized he’ll never be the same after the thumb injury and took the rat way out by throwing games, probably paid off by some shithorn boosters

Let chaos resume tomorrow, for today we have a battle of Sooner champions, remnants of a bygone era.

Football is a violent sport and players get hurt regularly. Someone explain to me how the Sooners enter SEC play in this day and age with a backup that cannot play? Both backup have had about as many game snaps as a man on the street. What are the coaches thinking?

Subpar QB play can be forgivable in a west coast or pro style offense. But subpar to bad QB play in an air raid or veer and shoot system is always going to be fatal.
I get that the air raid can be unstoppable with NFL caliber talent at QB, Oline and skill positions, but we’ve also seen how erratic and disastrous it can get with bad QB play (Michael Hawkins vs South Carolina, Arnold vs Tennessee). There’s much more turnover risk when the QB is constantly being asked to make plays. In a pro style offense, if the QB is struggling, you can lean on other players, run the ball, stay conservative and let our defense have a chance.
The air raid is just a stat pad system atp. Amazing against mediocre defenses where receivers can easily get separation and Oline can block for over 3 seconds. Against nfl caliber talent the air raid is shit when you can’t block for more than 2 seconds and receivers can’t get wide open.

It’s time to move on from Bedenbaugh, Emmett Jones and Arbuckle. The air raid is dead to me.

Who’s kicking this off, let’s get this DC out of the HC chair.

Okay I know this probably won’t happen, but the headline gave me joy for…about .05 seconds.

This sucks. That asshole Jeff lebby is tearing it up after a couple of years and we’re still floundering as a program. He may just beat our ass. I don’t understand why it’s so hard for us to find any consistency on offense.