2-2 after a disastrous loss to the Georgia Bulldogs, the Oklahoma Sooners are in a phase where pointing fingers and shifting the blame has become easier than finding the root cause of the issue. Fans, players, and even their parents are vocal about their concerns regarding how the program has chosen to use its talent, and a lot of the blame inevitably falls on head coach Brent Venables.

It goes without saying that the coach is on the hot seat and the pressure is intense. That said, it won’t be easy for Oklahoma to fire him, thanks to his contract. If they fire him, they would easily owe him more than $34.9 million. The actual buyout cost is said to be much higher, but isn’t publicly known. But do fans really want the coach to get fired mid-season?

Truth be told, no! According to Oklahoma reporter George Stoia’s fan survey, highlighted by Andy Staples of On3, 62% of the 13,000-plus respondents did not want the Sooners to move on from Venables.

The reasons were fairly consistent: a presumed buyout near $50 million, confidence in the defense and culture he has built, and the belief that quarterback play is the bigger problem. That last point, however, was hard to miss.

71.8% of respondents favored a change from quarterback John Mateer or at least wanted Oklahoma to seriously rethink the position.

They saw the quarterback situation, particularly Mateer’s play, as the issue keeping the Sooners from competing at a higher level. But wait, there are some more important conclusions from the survey!

The survey targeted three important demographs which were age range, current-students, and season ticket holders. While the survey showed a positive perception of the head coach, there are surely other aspects that need to be looked into.

• Fans want a change at the QB position.
• 76.9% of the fans want to also see the offensive staff change. However, that comes with a caveat. Only 38.8% fans who want the offensive staff to change specifically mentioned wanting a change at the offensive coordinator position.
• The fans blamed the offense for most of the issues the program is facing.
• They are also quite upset with the football program. The survey forms recorded a lot of profanity (1,452 uses of profanity).

And the fan sentiment is understandable, especially after the Georgia game.

Mateer did not just struggle against Georgia. He actively helped Oklahoma dig the hole it never escaped. The Sooners turned the ball over four times in the 41-13 loss, and Mateer accounted for three of them before halftime with two lost fumbles and an interception. The worst came with Oklahoma already down 14-0 but finally threatening in the red zone, when Mateer coughed up the ball and watched linebacker Chris Cole take it 85 yards the other way for a touchdown.

So, instead of making it a one-score game, Oklahoma somehow turned a scoring chance into a 21-0 deficit. That is one way to kill your own comeback before it even starts.

By halftime, the damage was already done. Georgia had turned Oklahoma’s four giveaways into 17 points and built a 28-0 lead, leaving the Sooners to spend the second half cleaning up a mess they had largely created themselves.

Despite a disaster of a game, fans still believe in Venables. But that also puts pressure on him. If a large section of the fanbase believes quarterback play is the biggest thing holding Oklahoma back, then how he handles Mateer becomes part of the judgment on his own future.

Will Brent Venables move on from John Mateer?

Venables addressed that directly this week when discussing how the Sooners are dividing practice reps between Mateer, Whitt Newbauer, and Bowe Bentley.

“We’ve got great belief in them. Trust in them,” Venables said of Newbauer and Bentley. “Both of those guys took a lot of the reps today. And we’ve split it up with the first two guys, Whitt and John, since the start of the season, with Bowe getting probably, give or take, around 20 percent of the daily good-on-good reps.”

The timing of those reps was hardly insignificant.

Oklahoma is idle on October 3, giving Venables a full week to reassess the offense before the Sooners face No. 1 Texas in the Red River Rivalry on October 10 at the Cotton Bowl. Mateer enters that matchup after three straight uneven performances and a Georgia loss in which he committed three first-half turnovers, while Newbauer and Bentley are now getting heavier practice work.

But for all the extra work going to the backups, Venables has made his immediate decision clear.

“I have no idea,” he said when asked whether Newbauer or Bentley could play against Texas. “We’re not there right now. John’s our starting quarterback.”

For now, Oklahoma is sticking with Mateer as QB1, even as the staff keeps both alternatives involved heading into its biggest rivalry game.