Brent Venables Is Still Sticking With John Mateer After Oklahoma's Loss to Kentucky

NORMAN, Okla. - Brent Venables did not leave much gray area Saturday night.

After Oklahoma’s 21-13 loss to Kentucky, the head coach stood behind John Mateer. Not in a vague, non-answer kind of way either. Venables looked at a night that included three second-half interceptions, a blown fourth-quarter lead, and another self-inflicted home defeat and still said he saw improvement from his quarterback.

That is going to sit however it sits with Sooner fans. But it tells you exactly where the program is right now.

Oklahoma led 13-7 heading into the fourth. The defense had done enough again. The Sooners had the yardage edge. Then the turnovers took over. Mateer threw a late interception that Jordan Castell returned 41 yards for a touchdown with 1:17 left, and he threw another one on the next possession to end any leftover hope.

That is the kind of finishing sequence that usually launches a quarterback controversy whether the building wants one or not. Venables clearly does not want one.

“I don’t,” Venables said when asked if Mateer’s night looked like more of the same old struggles.

“I saw improvement, and thought he did a really good job most of the game, played well and gave us an opportunity to win.”

That is the central quote from the night, and it is also the one that will get tested the longest. Because the eye test from the outside was a lot harsher. Mateer threw for 270 yards and still walked out as the central figure in a loss Oklahoma had every chance to close.

Three interceptions will do that. So will a fourth quarter that turned a one-score lead into a home loss against a ranked team one week after the Texas win.

Venables did not pretend the late mistakes were no big deal. He just refused to let them become the entire evaluation.

“Obviously the late one there that they returned for a touchdown was critical,” Venables said.

“We’re in a two-minute drill now to try to go win the game. So I’d like to be able to get that one back.”

That part is hard to argue.

The pick-six did not just stop a drive. It flipped the scoreboard and left Oklahoma in the worst possible spot: trailing late, needing a fast answer, and already living in turnover damage.

Venables also mentioned a tipped interception and said he wanted to see the film before putting all of that on Mateer. That is fair process. It is also not going to calm down a fan base that has watched this offense live on the edge for weeks.

The bigger theme Venables kept returning to was the same one he has used all season. The margins are tiny, and Oklahoma is still on the wrong side of too many of them.

“The margins are really small,” Venables said.

“They made the plays when they needed to, and we weren’t able to get it done as a staff or as a team.”

Venables was not interested in isolating Mateer as the lone reason the night fell apart. He pointed out that Oklahoma created five explosive plays and held Kentucky without one, then immediately brought it back to the number that actually decided the game.

“We lost the turnover margin. Obviously that’s kind of the name of the game,” he said.

He is right about that. Oklahoma outgained Kentucky and still lost because the ball kept coming out. Four turnovers to zero is not a bad-break loss. That is a formula for getting beat even when the defense is solid and the yardage looks fine.

Venables was just as firm on the fake field goal, which is going to get replayed in Norman for a while. With the Sooners down 7-3 in the second quarter and facing fourth-and-2 from the Kentucky 10, Oklahoma passed up the points and tried a jump pass from Jacob Ulrich to Rocky Beers. Castell picked it off in the end zone. Venables did not second-guess the call.

“Really liked the call, and our guy was open like we thought he would be,” Venables said.

“I thought we just missed on the throw.”

He said he would not change it. That is consistent with the way he coaches. It is also going to fuel the frustration around this team, because Oklahoma did not lose only because of one aggressive decision. It lost because the aggressive decision failed and the late-game execution failed right after it.

The same pattern showed up when Venables was asked about the offense’s late-game choices. Why go away from the run when Oklahoma needed to close? Why take shots when the lead was still there? His answer was that the throws were there.

“I thought we were throwing the ball efficiently,” Venables said.

“A lot of our quick game, it was there, and we were moving the ball.”

He also defended a deep shot with the lead by saying Oklahoma had become too easy to predict in that part of the field and needed to keep Kentucky from loading up against the run. In other words, the staff still believes the issue is less about the plan and more about finishing the plan cleanly. After a night with that many turnovers, that argument only travels so far with people outside the building.

Where Venables was on stronger ground was the offensive line context. Oklahoma is still patching things up front, and he made a point of praising the group’s fight.

“I have a great appreciation for the fight,” he said.

“I thought for the most part we had good, clean pockets, and we did have some success running the ball at times.”

Whether every fan agrees with the “clean pockets” part is another matter after five sacks. But the availability issue is real. Asked about Michael Fasusi, Venables put it back on the medical staff.

“That’s up to the doctors,” Venables said.

“The doctors decide that, when their evaluation says he can play.”

That has been the cloud over this offense for weeks. Mateer has not always helped himself. The supporting structure around him has not exactly made life easy either. Both things can be true at the same time. Venables is choosing to emphasize the second one while still publicly protecting the first.

He even found a smaller positive in the skill group, pointing to Manny Choice for the way he has worked in practice and on special teams. That was a small note on a big night, but it fit the overall posture. Venables was looking for pieces to build on. He did not sound like a coach ready to burn down the quarterback room.

The calendar is not going to be gentle about any of this. One week after the Texas win, Oklahoma is 3-3 and headed to Starkville. The emotional swing is violent even by SEC standards.

“We’ve got to get off the mat and go to Starkville,” Venables said.

“It’s a very unforgiving league, as we know.”

That may have been the most honest line of the night. The league is unforgiving. So is the job at quarterback for Oklahoma. Venables can say he saw improvement. He can say Mateer gave the Sooners a chance to win. He can spread out the blame to turnovers, margins, missed throws on trick plays, and a banged-up line.

None of that changes the reality that Mateer is still the face of the offense’s instability, and the coach is still choosing to stand behind him.

That is the real takeaway from Saturday night. Not just that Oklahoma lost a game it had in hand. Not just that the defense did enough again and got little help late. The takeaway is that Venables is not blinking on Mateer. Not publicly. Not after three second-half interceptions. Not one week after the best win of the year turned into another hard reset.

Whether that loyalty turns into stability or just prolongs the same problem is now the next test of this season. Mississippi State will not care what the head coach saw on film. The next opposing defense will not care either.

Oklahoma is sticking with Mateer. The rest of the season is going to decide if that is conviction or stubbornness.