Brent Venables says he considered benching John Mateer during Georgia debacle
By Mark Kern
Published:
Coach Brent Venables and the Oklahoma Sooners were on the wrong end of a beatdown in Athens on Saturday, as the Georgia Bulldogs defeated the Sooners, 41-13. There were many things that went wrong for the Sooners on Saturday, but quarterback John Mateer once again made huge mistakes.
After the game, Venables told reporters he did have thoughts of benching Mateer against the Bulldogs.
The Sooners were trailing 14-0 in the second quarter, but had the ball inside the Bulldogs’ red zone. However, Mateer fumbled the ball, and the Bulldogs took it 85 yards to put the lead up to 21-0. While his final stats look OK at 25-of-34 for 231 yards and 2 touchdowns, the Sooners couldn’t get anything going until the game was out of reach.
With Oklahoma on a bye this coming week, the Sooners will have a lot of time to make a final QB decision.
After the bye, the Sooners have another extremely difficult game against No. 1 Texas in the annual Red River Rivalry.
The season for Oklahoma is at a breaking point. The margin of error is completely gone for the Sooners, as they would have to almost run the table to even have a chance at the College Football Playoff. If Venables decided to go with a different quarterback, it would be either freshman Bowe Bentley or junior Whitt Newbauer.
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