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OU-Illinois State quick-hitters: Sooners get the win, Mateer shines, questions loom

Bob Przybyloby: Bob Przybylo08/31/25BPrzybylo
Kip Lewis6
OU linebacker Kip Lewis. (Kevin Jairaj - Imagn Images

OK, now we have our starting point for OU football for the 2025 season. A little slow to start, but things got rolling soon enough.

Paced by quarterback John Mateer, the Sooners took care of visiting Illinois State on Saturday evening. Here are your quick-hit takeaways.

OU 35, Illinois State 3

Mateer cool, calm, collected

If you could count on one thing for OU, it was that Mateer wasn’t going to be rattled. So even though the first two series were a three-and-out and a lost fumble, zero panic.

Mateer got everybody on the same page, and the offense started to hum. A lot of that was Mateer making things happen through the air.

It wasn’t just the chunk plays, but how Mateer was putting the ball exactly where it needed to be. That’s how five-yard plays become 20 and so forth.

Mateer accounted for four touchdowns, three through the air and one on the ground. He threw for 392 yards, completing 30 of 37 passes.

OU has found TE1

Perhaps? Let’s not overreact too much, but linebacker-turned-tight end Jaren Kanak looked the part.

After losing a fumble in the second drive, OU kept going back to him. To Kanak’s credit, he kept getting open time and time again.

He had four catches for 84 yards in the first half, including a 48-yard connection that led to an OU touchdown. Kanak finished with five receptions for 90 yards.

OU too vanilla? Or saving it for next week?

There’s cautious, and then there’s what OU was during this one. Tackles like Derek Simmons and Michael Fasusi not being available, same with guard Heath Ozaeta.

Running back Jaydn Ott only used for kickoff returns, never as an actually running back until early in the fourth quarter.

It wasn’t like a terrible performance by OU, but it has you wondering. Is OU going to have grind everything out each week? Or are the Sooners ready to show who Team 131 really is next weekend in front of a national audience? Just very, very vanilla.

Up next

We talked about it all summer. OU has to figure as much as it can because here comes Michigan. Here come the Wolverines and here comes College GameDay. Michigan makes its first-ever trip to OU in the top-25 showdown next Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

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