‘He was made of the right stuff’: Inside John Mateer’s winding path to becoming WSU’s QB1

PULLMAN — Eric Morris saw the future one sunny afternoon in the Bay Area. It was late in Washington State’s blowout win over Stanford in 2022, back when Morris was the Cougars’ offensive coordinator, so he put heads together with head coach Jake Dickert and gave starting quarterback Cam Ward the rest of the game off.

In came John Mateer, a true freshman, for the fourth quarter. Morris had spent months recruiting Mateer out of the Dallas area, convincing him to flip from FCS Central Arkansas to WSU, so he figured he knew Mateer’s play style well enough: Strong arm. Lightning quick. Confident kid.

What Morris couldn’t be sure about until he saw it: How would Mateer fare in a Pac-12 game?

When the fourth frame began, Mateer provided an answer clearer than cellophane. On his first play from scrimmage, he took a shotgun snap, faked a handoff and raced upfield, darting into open space for some 15 yards. Moments later, he faked another handoff, but this time he unfurled a long pass, placing a perfect ball into receiver Orion Peters’ arms in the end zone for a touchdown.

By the time the clock ran out on the Cougs’ 52-14 win, Mateer had registered these numbers: 2 of 2 passes for 32 yards and one touchdown, plus four carries for 58 yards. Morris was hardly surprised. Mateer had shown off everything Morris saw in a workout months prior. It all added up.

But now Morris had seen the only thing he couldn’t have before: Mateer didn’t just have talent. He had moxie.

“That was the first time I kind of thought in my head, like, ‘This kid has that gamer mentality,’” said Morris, who is now North Texas’ head coach. “When he gets out there, nothing bothers him.”

It’s a key reason why, two years later, the redshirt sophomore Mateer finds himself at the helm of WSU’s offense. He was named the Cougars’ starting quarterback last week, winning a position battle with transfer Zevi Eckhaus that spanned from spring ball to fall camp, turning a two-year backup stint into a full-time starting role.

It’s a long time coming for Mateer, who got the news last Sunday from Dickert. He strolled into Dickert’s office for a 12:30 p.m. meeting, made small talk for a few moments. Then Dickert delivered the news: Mateer would be QB1, starting with WSU’s season-opening home matchup with Portland State on Saturday.

“I thought John expected to hear that answer because he put everything into it, and I don’t consider that a bad thing,” Dickert said. “I think at quarterback, you gotta have that type of competitiveness. You gotta have that type of conviction in yourself and your talents. John’s a very confident guy, and I appreciate that about him.”

Mateer isn’t just WSU’s new starting quarterback. He’s also in charge of a special opportunity. In the wake of the Pac-12’s collapse, WSU is playing eight Mountain West Conference teams this season, and with the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams, the Cougs have a path to national contention unlike any in program history.

At the heart of the operation will be Mateer, the 6-foot-1 quarterback who first turned heads as a freshman at Little Elm High. It brought Morris back to Mateer’s first game at WSU, when he saw Mateer dice up Power Five defenders, which is about when he got on his headset and addressed Dickert directly.

“Coach Dickert,” Morris said, “we got us another one sitting behind Cam.”

First, Mateer had to put himself in position to get Morris’ attention to begin with.

***

By the end of his junior year at Little Elm, Mateer figured he had done enough to earn the attention of schools like WSU, like Texas and TCU, powers closer to home. In his third year as the Lobos’ starting varsity quarterback, Mateer broke the school record with 2,268 passing yards, including a school-record 497 against Allen.

“The goal was always to play Power Five ball,” Mateer said.

But those offers weren’t pouring in the way Mateer hoped. He collected a couple of offers from FCS programs, including Houston Baptist and Morris’ previous stop of Incarnate Word, and he appreciated those schools’ interest, but he didn’t feel like he was seeing the true fruits of his labor.

Kendrick Brown, Mateer’s high school coach at Little Elm, could make a little sense of it. Mateer’s height is a little shorter than the 6-3, 6-4 power programs look for. The Lobos were also on the schneid, compiling a 6-14 record in Mateer’s first two years. Otherwise, though, Brown thought he had one of the best quarterbacks in the Dallas metro area — which is saying something.

It was one thing for Mateer to have the backing of his coach. It was another to have the endorsements of opposing coaches around the area, all at the 6A level, the highest in the state. As Mateer built credibility, heading into his senior season with four FCS offers, coaches who had been burnt by Mateer were so impressed they began to lend him a hand by recommending him to college recruiters — including Morris.

“Everybody just raved about how he made that team go,” Morris said. “Really didn’t have a crazy supporting cast around him. He’s playing against the Allens of the world, some of these powerhouses in Texas, and still winning football games. And he was always the best player on the field. Whenever I asked the coach what they thought about him, their eyes kind of lit up.”

“There were head coaches in our district, from Allen to McKinney Boyd, all these coaches. Like, ‘The best quarterback that I’ve ever played against is John Mateer,’” said Brown, now the athletic director at the Lancaster Independent School District. “So people were coming by there after the football season to see what was all the hype about John Mateer. They had heard about him, so now they wanted to really see him throw, see more.”

So Mateer gave them more. During his senior season, Mateer shattered his own school record with 2,449 passing yards, adding 23 passing touchdowns, 847 rushing yards, 15 rushing touchdowns and 38 total touchdowns. He finished his Little Elm career — which started when he took over starting duties a few games into his freshman year — with 7,060 passing yards, 66 passing touchdowns, 1,223 rushing yards and 22 rushing scores.

That helped Mateer earn District 5-6A Offensive Player of the Year honors, a unanimous spot on the all-district first team and a three-star rating from 247 Sports and ESPN. He broke records. Won games. Showed his versatility as both an accurate passer and a speedy scrambler.

Still, there lived a gap between the player Mateer saw in the mirror and the prospect Power Five teams saw on their radars.

“I was like, ‘What do I have to do?’” Mateer said.

Turns out, the answer was simple. He had to wait. More specifically, he had to wait for Morris, who took over as WSU’s offensive coordinator in December 2021. Morris had offered Mateer when he was Incarnate Word’s head coach, but Mateer had his sights set higher, and the Cardinals had already established a pecking order at quarterback, notably with Ward at the top — so Mateer declined Morris’ offer to play at UIW.

“I used to give him crap about that,” Morris laughed.

When Morris left UIW to become WSU’s offensive coordinator, he didn’t just keep Mateer on his radar. He extended an offer. He trusted Mateer’s talent translated to levels much higher than the Southland Conference, and after talking it over with Dickert and WSU general manager Rob Schlaeger, he understood all three saw eye-to-eye on Mateer’s potential.

For Morris to follow through and try to land Mateer, though, the Cougars’ coaches had to make two decisions. First: They opted to open up a spot by dropping an offer that the previous coaching staff, led by Nick Rolovich, had made to Phoenix-area quarterback Adryan Lara. He didn’t fit the play style Dickert envisioned, and Morris felt convicted about Mateer.

Morris had to clear another hurdle. He had to convince Mateer to decommit from Central Arkansas, to which he had committed in August 2021, just before the beginning of his senior season. Part of the Bears’ allure, which other schools like WSU didn’t offer, was they would allow Mateer to play football and baseball.

“He didn’t like it. It didn’t seem like the right fit,” Mateer’s high school baseball coach, Matt Harbin, said. “So he didn’t sign with them.”

Mateer couldn’t play baseball at WSU, but many of the skills he honed playing for Harbin at Little Elm made him a more enticing football prospect. Playing all over the diamond, Mateer developed a quick release, much like the one he uses to toss footballs. He also polished his sharp footwork, which he uses to climb the pocket and scramble when necessary.

Put all of it together and Morris had no problem hopping on a plane for Dallas and watching Mateer work out. “It was a no-brainer for me,” Morris said. Everything he saw in person confirmed what he saw on Mateer’s game tape, so he invited him on a visit to Pullman, kicking off the final push to make Mateer a Cougar.

Only 10 days passed between the time Morris offered Mateer a scholarship at WSU and when Mateer accepted. He committed to the Cougars on Jan. 24, 2022, and he signed on the ensuing National Signing Day a week later.

“I think he brought me there for a reason,” Morris said of Dickert, “and trusted that we’ve evaluated and developed really good quarterbacks in the last 10 years. John was one of those guys we thought was gonna be the next in line.”

Headed into his first season starting at WSU, Mateer is still working on proving Morris correct on that front. But the fact that Mateer is still in Pullman, out of the transfer portal and committed to sticking it out at WSU, proves Morris right about what mattered more to him: He could tell Mateer could see the bigger picture, that he would wait his turn and work accordingly.

“Even last year, when everyone knew Cam was the quarterback, because Cam’s a really talented player, John was still one of the hardest-working guys in the team,” WSU strength and conditioning coach Ben Iannachione said. “He was preparing as if, ‘What if I do have to play a game?’”

“The one thing about John is that he’s very loyal,” Mateer’s mother, Judy Newkirk, said. “Very loyal to the team that he’s on. He’s very loyal to Little Elm. So he’s gonna be loyal to Washington State if it’s the right fit for him — which it seems to be.”

To the WSU coaches who pursued Mateer, it wasn’t just his arm that made him the right fit in Pullman. It was his mentality.

***

When he thinks back, Brown can still remember the time he called Mateer into his office to inform him he was taking over as Little Elm’s starting quarterback, way back in fall 2018, when Mateer was a freshman.

Who, me? Really? Mateer answered.

“Yes, John,” Brown replied. “You’re ready.”

It was the last time anyone around Mateer could sniff a hint of nerves. So much of the way Mateer ascended recruiting boards, the way he turned himself into the kind of prospect Morris and the Cougars would want, involved his development of confidence. He made himself better by making those around him better.

With every team he’s played on, Mateer has breathed confidence into his teammates. Before he became LEHS’ starter, Mateer’s senior teammates began to bug Brown about it, telling him Mateer should take over at QB. “That was something really special,” Brown said, “and so we moved him up to varsity.”

At WSU, Mateer’s teammates have gravitated to him like moths to a flame, another reason he won the starting job. He’s earned their respect by sticking it out as a two-year backup, by getting on them, by demanding more of them. “I try to put in the most work I can,” Mateer said, “so they believe in me, so it’s not hypocritical. That’s really my big thing.”

In one sequence early in fall camp, Mateer was watching true freshman quarterback Evans Chuba throw to receivers without defenders, a drill called routes on air. Chuba released a wobbly, errant throw. Mateer, knowing Chuba could do better, lit into him.

“Dude, you’ve gotta be kidding me,” Mateer said, according to offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle. “This is routes on air. Our receivers aren’t running for nothing. Put the ball on them, use your footwork and let’s go.”

“John is more of a vocal leader,” WSU receiver Tre Shackelford said. “He’s been here, so of course he has the swag, and he has everyone’s back. I feel like he’s more vocal, and he’s a little more passionate.”

To those who know him best, Mateer’s development into a vocal leader is the best kind of endorsement. He’s always felt comfortable as a leader, which is why 18-year-old Little Elm players put their trust in a 14-year-old to start at quarterback, but he’s working on finding the right balance.

Am I being too hard on this guy? Am I not being hard enough? Do I have a good enough relationship with this guy to be a little more harsh with him?

That’s the thing about Mateer and his confidence as a leader: He’s smart about it. He wants to establish credibility with his teammates, wants to show them why they should trust him.

At Little Elm, for example, he made sure he was the hardest-working guy on the team — any team. During his senior football season, he took advantage of his shortened class schedule. Three days a week, he would wake up early, go to weight-lifting sessions with his baseball teammates, return home for a nap, go back to school for classes, go to football practice, then visit the batting cages to get extra swings in, when night had fallen and he had to ask coaches to turn on the lights.

Within the football program, Mateer made clear who was in charge. He was a regular at summer workouts, where he would volunteer to give teammates rides if they didn’t have them. He pointed his guys in the right direction. Got on them when they didn’t finish a rep. By prioritizing his nutrition, carrying around a jug of water throughout the day, he made sure he was healthy, available throughout the year, available to push everyone forward.

“It was no doubt that he was the leader of our ball club,” Brown said. “Anything that he talked, man, he was out in front with it. He was the first there. He was the first running sprints. He was the first in meetings. He led like a true quarterback, like you would want that leader to lead.”

At WSU, Mateer knows he can be a little harder on a receiver like Josh Meredith, who he’s been working with for several years. Together, they’ve practiced on scout team, with the second-team units, and Meredith knows Mateer’s capabilities. He hasn’t enjoyed the same experience with sophomore tight end Trey Leckner, so in fall camp, Mateer has thought harder about how to reach teammates like Leckner.

“Sometimes I’m like, ‘Damn, I don’t wanna come off as being too, who’s this guy?’” Mateer said. “But I’m getting better at it, and people know, because I try not to make the same mistake twice. So if I don’t make the same mistakes twice, you can’t either.”

The other parts of Mateer’s makeup that led him to WSU, the characteristics that led him to stay when others might have left, have surfaced in more private settings.

***

Connor Stewart wasn’t sure if it would work, but he figured it was worth a shot. It was January, and he had recently wrapped up his sophomore year at Pullman High, where he took over as starting quarterback midway through the season. He was hungry to improve, and with Ward transferring away, Stewart decided to hit up the WSU quarterback who had come to his first start: Mateer.

Stewart opened his Instagram app and messaged Mateer, explaining his situation and asking if Mateer might have time every so often to meet and help him improve.

“Right away, he was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll help you,’” Stewart said.

Absent the Cougars’ spring and fall practices, when he had to commit more time to the WSU program, Mateer met with Stewart once a week at WSU’s Rogers Practice Field to drill on footwork, arm angles, release speed, strength. Mateer had Stewart explain what his PHS coaches wanted from him, that way he could complement that coaching, not create conflict by introducing his own.

It’s a special connection, Stewart said, the kind Mateer might not have fostered in a bigger community. How many other college towns are tight-knit enough for the team’s starting quarterback to volunteer his time with the local high school’s quarterback? How many of them would do so in the first place?

In those sessions, Stewart and Mateer would bond the same way they did earlier this month, when Mateer first came to Stewart’s preseason scrimmage at PHS. Afterward, Mateer went to the fence to chat with Stewart.

“Gave him some pointers,” Connor’s dad, Jake, said. “Talked to him about plays and who was at fault for this … It’s just been such a fun relationship to help along.”

In that way, Mateer isn’t always public about the traits that make him who he is, about the qualities that made him the right fit in Pullman. He sure wasn’t public about the way he handled receiving the news that he was taking over the Cougars’ starting quarterback job.

That, Iannachione says, went like this: Mateer learned the news on Sunday afternoon. On Monday morning, Iannachione arrived at the Cougar Football Complex, where his office sits at the back of the weight room, at 6 a.m.

At 6:05 a.m., Mateer came strolling in, the first player to arrive that morning.

“John’s always one of the first guys in the building,” Iannachione said. “John has always been one of the hardest-working guys on the football team. John has always been one of the guys that cares about this team more than anybody. Even in the backup role last year, John was one of the most enthusiastic, positive guys through a season that didn’t go the way that we wanted it to go.”

The truth is that for as much legwork as Dickert and Morris put in to land Mateer, for all the decisions they made on the recruiting trail to open up a spot for him, he also landed in Pullman because of a gravitational pull, because in a college football system that has made transferring easier than ever before, Mateer was always the right guy to stick around and lead a WSU program headed straight into uncharted waters.

How Mateer handles the opportunity is yet to be written. But everyone around the Cougars’ program seems to think they’ve given the pen to the right guy.

“He was made,” Morris said, “of the right stuff.”