NORMAN — There were a lot of hard lessons for John Mateer last season.

Nobody understands that better than OU quarterbacks coach John Kuceyeski.

Kuceyeski has played a pivotal role in Mateer’s development since 2023, when the pair connected while at Washington State. Last year marked the first season in Norman for both Mateer and Kuceyeski.

After an up-and-down season for Mateer, Kuceyeski is now tasked with helping his quarterback take significant steps forward in 2026. Over the last couple of months, Kuceyeski made video clips that included some of Mateer’s mistakes from a season ago.

“That’s really hard for anybody to learn from,” Kuceyeski said Saturday. “Then we kind of made our big rocks of, ‘Hey, where can we get progress in the spring first?’ Spring, then summer, then fall. The biggest thing is his foundation, his platform — throwing from a great platform, having consistency in his drops and his pocket movements. He dedicated himself to that and got a lot better with that. Now we start to move, as we go against another defense, with some of the eye discipline, some of the coverage reads pre- and post-snap process and elevating that.”

It wasn’t all bad for Mateer last season. He was an early Heisman candidate as he led the Sooners to wins over Auburn and Michigan. He flashed his talent as a runner and his ability to make things happen outside the pocket.

But everything changed after his thumb surgery in late September. He finished the year with just 14 passing touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Kuceyeski points a lot of Mateer’s struggles to that thumb injury.

“He had to get creative a little bit because of the grip,” Kuceyeski said. “He’ll never make an excuse, and we won’t make an excuse for him. Just some of the feelings of that and the way he could grip the ball —he lost a little bit of that strength with his thumb — so, yeah, he had to because naturally when you go with that angle and with that thumb, that ball’s going to go, and it’s going to go in bad places if you’re not really possessing that ball.

“I think he’s definitely feeling a lot better. He made a throw in the last practice on a movement throw that I haven’t seen him make in a long time, and you could just see the confidence in his eyes. Obviously, he’s continuing to feel through some of the scar tissue and stuff. He’ll never tell me it hurts, never tell me it’s bothering him — and I don’t know if it is or not, because he’s a tough kid, but I think it’s definitely getting back to what I’m used to saying, for sure.”

There has been a clear focus from Mateer and Kuceyeski on fixing his throwing mechanics. But that’s not a simple process.

“It’s not the easiest, and everybody wants you to go from here (45 degrees) to here (over the top), and it’s not going to happen, right?” Kuceyeski said. “Everything is gradual, so if we can just start to get the arm angle to here (over the top) more consistently, that’s going to be great. But it’s not going to be something where you’re just going to change it overnight. It’s been drilled for him for 21 years of his life, and so it’s just changing that and having awareness to that.

“Obviously, there’s going to be times where it’s going to demand a sidearm throw based on some movement and RPO throws; that’s not going to vanish, and he’s going to default to that at times when things speed up.”

There are obviously areas where Mateer has to be better from last season. Healing from the thumb injury and making adjustments to his mechanics will go a long way. But Kuceyeski has more confidence than anyone in Mateer.

“We have high expectations in the quarterback room,” Kuceyeski said. “Higher than any of y’all or Twitter-verse can have and we’re good with that. I think he’s a very tough and humble human and he’s always going to point the thumb and he’s always going to think he can do more, and I love him for that. It’s going to be tough at times and we really don’t care about what everyone else thinks as long as he’s doing things the right way.”

Kuceyeski has seen Mateer in a lot of situations over his career. Last season was a brand new situation for both of them that came with heightened expectations and lots of criticism.

Kuceyeski is confident Mateer will take a step forward in 2026.

“That’s been the greatest thing with him is he just continues to get better at the things we ask him to get better at,” Kuceyeski said. “Really excited to see him in his fourth year. His first year was way different. Way more basic, like reading base things and now he’s in level four of this offense and really taken ownership in the scheme and everything. That’s what I love the most about him, man, is just from start to finish, he’s grown up a lot and he’s grown up a lot, obviously, as a human, as well.

“He’s very process-driven and that’s always going to be a process and that’s what’s going to give him success.”