Countdown to camp: What is WSU QB John Mateer’s ceiling?

PULLMAN – Here is the third installment of our countdown to Washington State fall camp, which starts on July 31. This issue covers the Cougars’ presumptive starting quarterback.

What is WSU QB John Mateer’s ceiling?

Across the first two years of his career, WSU quarterback John Mateer’s best attribute was clear. It was his speed, the way he could take a shotgun snap and zoom past the line of scrimmage and around trying defenders.

Now, as he steps up and potentially starts this fall for the Cougars, he needs to become a more well-rounded player. He has to be a reliable passer, which he showed with some regularity during spring practices, and coaches must be able to count on him to make the right decisions: where to throw the ball, when to hand it off, when to call timeout, when to check a play at the line of scrimmage.

Which puts into our field of view this question: What is Mateer’s ceiling? If he reaches it, how far can he take the Cougs this season?

What we know is that WSU coaches will almost certainly weaponize Mateer’s speed and shiftiness in the run game this season, which starts with an Aug. 31 home game against FCS Portland State. They know what they have in Mateer’s running ability because he put it on display the past two seasons, burning defenders with fake handoffs at times when coaches wanted to take the pressure off former QB Cam Ward.

That much Mateer will be able to show this season. More of a question mark is his arm, which looked solid in spring practices, albeit with a couple costly interceptions to his name. He was quick to turn those around, though, which might signal his ability to make quick adjustments. At his best, Mateer’s passes looked crisp and sturdy, hitting his cadre of new receivers in stride, especially on intermediate and short routes.

Can Mateer unlock the deep pass? If he can, if he can put it all together, it isn’t hard to imagine WSU rolling through a schedule that features eight games against Mountain West Conference teams, six of which come courtesy of a scheduling agreement. If the Cougars can escape their first three games – against Portland State, against Texas Tech, at Washington – with two wins, they might be able to reach a really prestigious bowl game.

That’s a lot of ifs, though, especially considering the amount of new pieces WSU will be working into the fold, at least on offense. Mateer has been spending much of the spring and summer establishing connections with his receivers, including four transfers who will be vying for meaningful snaps.

“It’s definitely a thing. It’s a real thing,” Mateer said during the spring, referring to the work required to build rapport with new pass-catchers. “If it’s routes on air, typically everybody’s on the same path, but when it’s live and there’s team reps and there’s situations, you need to settle here and you need to learn how to do this right.

“It happened to Tre (Shackelford). He didn’t look at me when I gave him a signal. He wasn’t looking. Stuff like that, you do need to learn and get better at.”

It’s important to note a couple things here. One: WSU’s quarterback battle is hardly settled. Mateer and FCS Bryant transfer Zevi Eckhaus will compete for the starting gig during fall camp, and the winner will clearly dictate much of the way the offense operates in the fall.

Two: Even if Mateer does win the battle, Cougar coaches will be handing the keys to a quarterback who doesn’t exactly have a huge cache of experience to draw on. He may be entering his third season at WSU, but he hasn’t played a ton.

In 2022, his true freshman season, Mateer completed 2 of 2 passes for 32 yards and one touchdown, plus four carries for 58 yards. Last season, he connected on 13 of 17 passes for 235 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, in addition to 21 carries for 93 yards and three touchdowns.

That’s a key reason why it may not be fair to expect huge things out of Mateer this fall, at least not right away. He already puts enough pressure on himself, and besides, WSU coaches know they’re trusting someone with little experience at the college level.

But if there’s good news for Mateer and WSU in there, it’s this: The Cougars are playing eight Mountain West teams, and relative to the Pac-12 teams they had grown used to squaring off with, those figure to be a step down in competition to some extent. Mateer might just be good enough to guide the Cougs to a healthy dose of wins this fall.