Paul Finebaum: Playing John Mateer was a 'terrible decision' by Brent Venables

Leading into Saturday’s Red River Rivalry game, the debate centered around whether ailing Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer would be available to play just 17 days removed from surgery on his throwing hand. Turns out, maybe the real question should have whether the Sooners coaches would even allow their star QB to play against rival Texas.

ESPN’s Paul Finebaum blasted Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables for his “terrible decision” to let a clearly limited Mateer play less Saturday, than three weeks out of surgery, after the former Heisman Trophy frontrunner struggled with three interceptions vs. the rival ‘Horns. Finebaum also pointed to the potential impact Saturday’s 23-6 loss to Texas could have with the College Football Playoff selection committee, which has taken into account injuries to star players before.

“It was a terrible decision by Brent Venables to play John Mateer. I didn’t like it going in, because here is the reason why it was such a bad decision. They had to know Mateer was going to be severely limited,” Finebaum said Sunday morning on The Matt Barrie Show podcast. “So they did two terrible things, they put (Mateer) in harm’s way, which he shouldn’t have been in. Secondly, they cost themselves a great argument to the CFP (selection committee) if they ended up going 9-3 and saying, ‘Listen, our biggest game of the year, we didn’t have our best player.’

“It’s a similar argument that FSU did not win on, but (Oklahoma) might very well have won on (this time). … So they gained nothing, they lost everything, and now the schedule becomes very problematic. They have road games, if my memory is correct, at Tennessee and Alabama. How do you like those two (games)? Plus Ole Miss and LSU at home.”

As Finebaum points out, the Sooners’ road doesn’t get any easier moving forward with five consecutive Top 25 games to close out the regular season, beginning with Oct. 25’s home game vs. No. 5 Ole Miss. From there, Oklahoma has back-to-back road games at No. 11 Tennessee and No. 6 Alabama, before rounding out the month of November with home games vs. No. 16 Missouri and No. 10 LSU. And while it was big at the time, the Sooners’ season-opening win over then-No. 15 Michigan likely won’t have the same impact in the CFP committee’s eyes following the Wolverines’ 31-13 loss at unranked USC on Saturday.

“The Michigan win means very little right now after what happened with Michigan last night (loss to USC), and besides, he’s 1-3 in the biggest game of the season (vs. Texas),” Finebaum concluded.