Tim Tebow, Roman Harper call for Oklahoma to protect John Mateer, sit him vs. Texas

By most accounts, Oklahoma star quarterback John Mateer appears on track to make a miraculous return to the field less than three weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a broken bone in his throwing hand. In fact, the sixth-ranked Sooners listed Mateer as “probable” to play in Saturday’s Red River Showdown vs. rival Texas in Thursday’s SEC availability report.

Should Mateer actually play Saturday, it would be exactly 17 days removed from his Sept. 24 surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles under the care of Dr. Steven Shin, one of the country’s leading hand and wrist surgeons. But while such a return could well qualify as a modern medical miracle, it also could be a costly gamble that SEC Network analysts Roman Harper and Tim Tebow cautioned against during Friday afternoon’s The Paul Finebaum Show on-site from Columbia, Missouri.

Harper and Tebow, highly-successful former SEC players in their own right, both suggested the Sooners (5-0, 1-0 SEC) consider sitting Mateer for Saturday’s rivalry game vs. the Longhorns (3-2, 0-1 SEC) in order to give their star QB one more week of rest and recovery.

“First off, you’ve got to protect the player from himself. I don’t think he’ll be 100-percent healthy, and I don’t think he should play in this game – that’s my opinion,” Harper said Friday afternoon. “I also don’t think you need him to win this game. This game will be won upfront. If Oklahoma’s D(efensive)-line gets ahold of Texas’ offensive line the way that Florida’s did last week, I don’t care who’s playing quarterback. … Because that will be where this game is won and lost at ultimately.”

Tim Tebow: ‘There should be a lot of conversations’ about sitting QB John Mateer vs. Texas

And given the the greater-than-zero percent chance Mateer could be at risk of re-injuring his throwing hand against the Longhorns, Tebow believes it would be prudent to consider sitting Mateer another week. Especially because the legendary Florida quarterback doesn’t expect the College Football Playoff selection committee will ultimately penalize Oklahoma should it lose to Texas without Mateer on the field.

“I don’t think the College Football Playoff committee is going to knock them that much for it, because you’d be missing the most best player on your team, the most valuable player on your team, and one of the most valuable players on any team in the country,” Tebow said Friday. “So I think there should be a lot of conversations around (not playing Mateer).”

Oklahoma has two more availability reports, including one Friday night, to reveal Mateer’s playing status ahead of Saturday’s 3:30 pm ET kickoff inside the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.