TV take: John Mateer’s special season in Pullman fizzles out in WSU’s loss to Wyoming

If there is any label to be put on the 2024 Washington State football season, it would have to include, in some way, John Mateer’s name. Even, like Saturday and the two weeks previous, the close defeats.

After all, the sophomore quarterback, a question mark when the season began, has his fingerprints all over the Cougars’ 8-4 regular season – including Saturday night’s last-minute 15-14 loss to a 3-9 Wyoming group before a quiet Thanksgiving weekend crowd of 17,088 at Gesa Field.

It wasn’t Mateer’s best game – his total offense numbers were his third worst – and he was unable to get WSU into the end zone in the second half.

Throughout the Cougars’ third consecutive loss, former WSU quarterback Ryan Leaf, in his analyst role with the CW Network, and play-by-play partner Ted Robinson, spoke glowingly of Mateer’s exceptional season, with Leaf even touting his Heisman Trophy bona fides.

What we all saw

• Just how good has Mateer been? For an answer to that, we asked a couple of guys who have played the position in the Pac-12 and have watched the Cougars religiously this season. To receive honest feedback, both were allowed to share their opinions without attribution.

The verdict? He’s really good. A powerful arm, physical runner, quick-twitch athlete. And he’s had as much impact on his team’s success as any quarterback in the nation.

But there are also fundamental flaws in his passing delivery that have held him – and the Cougars – back some. Imperfections that Mateer has worked on and improved as the season wore on.

The backdrop to all this? Saturday’s loss was just Mateer’s 12th college start, of which he’s led Washington State to eight wins.

But is he the best quarterback in college football, a position Leaf staked out a couple of weeks ago and doubled-down on during the CW’s pregame show?

“I don’t think the national map has really allowed him to be there,” Leaf said as we watched video of Mateer warming up. “And that’s the unfortunate thing. We’re going to take a really close look at what he’s done this year but he’s been the reason why Washington State has been in the (national) conversation.

“He’s been the leader. He’s been the general. He’s been, quite frankly, the best quarterback in all of college football this season.”

The CW showed a graphic in the second half which compared, favorably, Mateer’s stats with those of former WSU, now Miami star Cam Ward and Oregon’s Dillion Gabriel. It was accompanied by Leaf using the numbers to buttress his argument. He did, however, ignore that Ward and Gabriel play in Power Four conferences, while Mateer mainly faced Mountain West opponents.

No one, however, can argue Mateer’s importance in the Cougars’ success.

How important?

Mateer’s numbers are impressive. He threw for 3,139 yards, ran for another 826 and accounted for 44 of the Cougars’ 57 touchdowns. But those numbers don’t tell the full extent of his impact on the WSU offense.

Leaf touched on it midway through the second quarter, comparing Mateer to Boise State’s Heisman candidate, running back Ashton Jeanty.

“Jeanty to me is the Heisman Trophy winner,” Leaf said after he and Robinson lamented Mateer’s lack of inclusion in that race. “He’s been the best player in college football. If he’s not on that football team, Boise State is nowhere near where they are.

“Same difference here in Pullman. If John Mateer isn’t on this football team, Washington State is nowhere near nine wins.”

Robinson agreed, calling the comp between the two “fabulous.”

Robinson had already informed viewers, following a 37-yard, first-quarter screen-pass TD to Kyle Williams, Mateer’s touchdown total, passing and running, leads the nation.

• Mateer’s passing delivery is unorthodox, to say the least. A lot of current quarterbacks deliver the ball from a multitude of arm slots. Mateer has shown the ability to deliver the ball from whatever slot is called for, though he seems to favor calling on his baseball background with a sidearm look.

That can cause him problems. When? According to one former quarterback, when Mateer is called to put the ball in the hole between the linebackers and safeties. Throwing sidearm can allow the ball to sail, something that was happening often early in the year. But not as much anymore.

Part of it is better mechanics. And part of it is, according to an observer, is offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle is asking for fewer passes in that area.

Another stress on Mateer’s delivery has to do with his legs. One quarterback mentioned the battering Mateer takes while running the ball taxes his ability to keep his throwing form intact. A run that includes three or four big hits makes it tougher to deliver an on-time, accurate throw afterward. Again, there have been fewer such plays called recently.

• The Pac-12 believes it belongs in the power conference category, right? Then what happened with 4 minutes, 49 seconds left in the first quarter has to never happen again.

Wyoming quarterback Evan Svoboda scrambled on first-and-10 from the WSU 38. Svoboda ran right, where he was forced out at the 35 by WSU’s Tanner Moku. But after stepping out, he ran over head linesman Rich Troyer, standing out of bounds at the 40. The official was OK and the game rolled on.

With a second-and-13? Nope. Referee John Love’s crew marked the ball at the 39 for some unknown reason and the replay booth, which can chime in, did not. And the added yardage played a role in keeping the Wyoming first scoring drive – the Cowboys connected on a 40-yard field goal – alive. In a one-point game, the obviously missed spot played a role in the outcome.

It was just one of many egregious marks off by as much as a yard throughout the game.