Kyle Whittingham offers first impression of Oklahoma, ‘outstanding’ QB John Mateer
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The Michigan Wolverines host the Oklahoma Sooners in a critical non-conference battle on Saturday afternoon at the Big House. Coming off a subpar performance in the season opener, the Wolverines have a tall task at hand against Oklahoma.
Head coach Kyle Whittingham detailed his first impression of Oklahoma in his weekly Monday morning press conference with the local media.
“I’ve studied their personnel,” Whittingham said of the Sooners. “I can tell you right now that they have a very talented defensive line and they have an outstanding quarterback. We have our work cut out for us big time, but last year’s game will be applicable.”
Even though he wasn’t the head coach here last season, Whittingham knows there were a lot of lessons to be learned in Michigan’s 24-13 loss at Oklahoma last year. The Sooners were a much more explosive, physical and sharp team than the Wolverines — they jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first half and eventually finished with a staggering 408-288 advantage in total yards. That occurred thanks to an electric performance from quarterback John Mateer, as he racked up 344 total yards and three touchdowns.
“We did a deep dive on Mateer when he was at Washington State and went into the transfer portal, because we would have really liked to have him at Utah,” Whittingham said. “He’s a dual-threat guy that can really hurt you both ways.”
In addition to having a Heisman Trophy candidate under center, the Sooners are fueled by an elite defensive front. Last season, Oklahoma was third in the nation and led the SEC in rushing yards allowed per game (77.3) and total sacks (45).
Led by defensive linemen David Stone and Taylor Wein, as well as linebackers Kip Lewis and Owen Heinke, the Sooners have the potential to be the best defense in the entire country. A lot of that can be attributed to head coach Brent Venables, who is widely heralded as one of the nation’s premier defensive coaches. Now in his fifth season, Venables has helped the Sooners return to College Football Playoff contention.
Whittingham met with Venables a few years ago, and he certainly has a lot of respect for the Oklahoma head coach.
“Brent came out to visit us in Utah about three years ago,” Whittingham said. “We shared ideas for hours so I have a lot of respect for him. He’s extremely intelligent. I was very impressed with him. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s done this.”
Additionally, the Sooners possess an exceptional special teams unit that could make life difficult for the Wolverines. Tate Sandell led the nation with eight field goals of 50+ yards last year en route to being the Lou Groza Award winner.
“The special teams are outstanding as well,” Whittingham said. “They have the Lou Groza Award winner at place kicker and an All-SEC punter. They are very talented in all three phases so we will really have our work cut out for us.”
The Wolverines have a daunting task ahead of them, but players and coaches come to Michigan to compete in games of this magnitude. The program knows it must perform at a much higher level to have any chance of beating Oklahoma.
“The magnitude of this game is something that I appreciate and understand,” Whittingham said. “The bar has been raised at Michigan and that just comes with the territory. We want to coach big-time ball and this will be big-time ball.”
It certainly won’t be easy to move the ball against such a highly-rated defense or to contain one of the nation’s most dynamic quarterbacks, but Michigan has to figure it out quickly or this season could spiral sooner rather than later.
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