On Saturday afternoon, the Oklahoma football program fell to 2-2 on the 2026 college football season with an ugly road loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. It was a particularly rough game for quarterback John Mateer, who continued his alarming trend of poor play with another bad afternoon against the vaunted Bulldogs' defense.
Now, more information has come to light on head coach Brent Venables' line of thinking regarding Mateer as the Sooners enter a bye week.
“Brent Venables says Oklahoma discussed benching John Mateer during the game. Said they will reevaluate ‘everything' moving forward into the bye week,” reported Josh Callaway of 247 Sports on X, formerly Twitter.
The Sooners quickly fell behind 14-0 in their game vs Georgia but had a chance to get back into it early in the second quarter, driving deep into the Bulldogs' territory.
Article Continues BelowHowever, Mateer then committed a comically bad fumble, losing control of the ball as he brought it back to pass, with Georgia returning the fumble for a touchdown to essentially put the game out of reach for Oklahoma.
Mateer also threw a brutal interception during the game, continuing his trend of poor play to open up the season, which included an ugly showing last week against New Mexico that had many fans wondering if Oklahoma would fall out of the rankings altogether.
They almost assuredly will this week after their loss vs Georgia, and it remains to be seen if Venables will indeed make a change at quarterback moving forward. Things don't get any easier from here for the Sooners, as they will next hit the field for their rivalry game against Texas following the bye week.

