You can count on one hand the number of times WSU has had a good season with a first-year starter. Mateer can run, at least in a straight line, and throws a nice deep ball when he’s not under pressure. But in his limited opportunities we’ve seen him throw balls that he should have eaten, and there’s no real reason to think our OL is any better than last year.
The saving grace is that we’ve got a pretty weak schedule - unfortunately almost all of the tougher games are on the road. If we’re as good as last year we should win 8-9 against this schedule. But we’re only going as far as our QB will take us.
Mateer's Resume is awesome, from starting at 6A Texas Highschool, since he was a freshman, to being named the BEST Texas QB, to Mateer having beat Allen Texas Highschool, to every highschool coach that has played Mateer in Texas, and in USA, all saying he was, is the best, and even opposing Highschool head coaches that not his coach, went to bat for him, helped him with his recruiting, said he was a 5 star level QB recruit, etc.
And his stats: 7000 yards passing, about 27+ passing TD's, and about 1300 to 1500 to 1650 rushing yards, and about 27+ rushing TD's, and about 53 to 55 to 57 total TD's, vs only a small handful of interception.
The last WSU QB's to have that kind of highschool stats:
Leaf, Bledsoe, etc.
Everybody that knows Mateer, or knows about Mateer knows that no other QB, highschool or college, works harder then Mateer. Mateer lives, works, eats, drinks, sleeps, football, being a QB, 24 hours a day.
Mateer is a excellent leader, knows the offense, runs the offense well, throws ok on run, throws a awesome deep ball, is mobile, etc.
This is Mateer's 3rd year at WSU. Mateer's stats at WSU is about 15 completions out of 19 attempts for 267 yards, 2 TD's, and about 25 runs for 150 yards, about 6 yards per carry, and 3 more TD's, with about a 5 TD to 1 int ratio(only 1 int)
Mateer beat out Zevi who either won, or was runner up, for the Walter Payton award, and Zevi was, is considered to have been the best FCS QB.
The only reason why Mateer and Zevi semi struggled at times, is because WSU's secondary, is pretty bloody dam fcking awesome.
Iron sharpens Iron. And both the Iron of the offense, and the Iron of the defense, have been like titans against each other, making big time plays against each other regularly.
As for the O Line the O Line is comprised of about 2 seniors, 2 reshirt Juniors, 1 redshirt sophomore. This is the most BEASTLY, BEEFY, DEEPEST, MOST EXPERIENCED, MOST DEVELOPED O LINE THAT WSU HAS HAD IN A EXTREMELY LONG TIME.
And the WR Corp of Kyle Williams, Tre Shackleford, Hutson, Meredith, Freeman, Kyle Maxwell, ARE ABSOLUTE FREAKING AWESOME STUDS, which is also great for Mateer.
And the RB Corp of Schlenbaker, Pulalasi, Wayshawn Parker, should be good enough behind that monsterly good O Line to combined with Mateer's mobility, runs, to be a NIGHTMARE for opposing defenses, because WSU's offense will truly use the whole field, etc, with runs, QB runs, passes all over field to 4,5,6 stud WR's, etc.
And the TE Corp is the best it's ever been in a extremely long time, with Senior Cooper Mathers, Junior Andre Dollar, Sophmore Trey Leckner, and they all block, run good routes, catch, etc, really well.
The only slight holes on team, is 1. LB depth. Budda is a STUD. Thornton is pretty decent, but after that, huge drop off, due to altho depth is talented, the so called depth is young, untied, etc.
And altho the Nickel, CB, Safety is a awesome secondary, there is Questionable depth at Nickel, and while one of the starting safeties is a STUD, the other is a unknown. And there is Questionable depth at the safety spot.
The CB Corp is the best it's been in a extremely long time with Hall, Jamorri Colson, Ethan Connor, Warren Smith, all 4 of them being absolute STUDS.
The defense should be able to keep games close enough, and the offense should be good enough to take advantage of the defense keeping it close enough, and should be able to help out the defense.
And to go with all that, the schedule is a good for WSU schedule.
WSU should be able to go 8-4, 7-5, at MINIMUM, with the roster, talent, etc, ON PAPER.
If WSU can't win at least 7,8 games, with the Roster it has, then it's coaching, lack of good coaching, not lack of a good Roster.
Massey, and Phil Steele, etc, and other so called experts, etc, have WSU at 10-2 at best, 9-3, 8-4 at average, 7-5 at below average, 6-6, bowl win, for 7-6 at worst.
As for other first year starters, Luke Falk, Redshirt Sophmore, 3rd year QB, Anthony Gordon, Minshew, are pretty recent examples of first year WSU starting QB's that did pretty awesome.
Remember Mateer is in his 3rd year. Other 3rd year QB's that did well are Luke Falk, Rosenbach, Bledsoe, Ryan Leaf, Gesser, Brink.
