I do appreciate your optimism, Eielson, I really do...and certainly hope you're right. What I saw from watching Mateer was Trevor Knight. I think we need an upgrade, but if you turn out to be right, I'll be owning what I said next year at this time. He needs to make decisions faster, but he also needs more help - especially from his offensive line. I have to believe there will be some noticeable changes in the offseason, most notably on offense.
I don't see Mateer as a star, but I also think our perspective of what is needed at the QB position is jaded by truly pathetic coaching and roster management at most positions outside of a few offensive positions after Bob left. If we had the offense with Baker, Ceedee, Andrews, and Hollywood -- we could win every CFP game by >20 points with Wichita calling plays.
I've said it repeatedly on here that Mateer is a 70-80 QBR player when healthy, which is all we need. Until last night, our only losses came with QBRs below 50, and both of those came soon after hand surgery. If this Alabama game happened after the Michigan game, we'd all be talking about him as a Heisman. He was a 73.4 QBR last night, which is a formula that very HEAVILY accounts for that pick-6, so if the WR picks up the check that was called and at least bats the ball down, his QBRs is in the 80s. If X doesn't drop that beautiful throw on third down before the dropped punt, he's probably pushing 90, which is truly elite stuff. Nobody shreds this Alabama defense like that.
This Mateer looked much more like what we saw against Michigan, which is good enough as is, and I just don't see how our supporting cast gets worse. Arbuckle loves to use multiple TEs and I think one or two portal additions there will go a long way. The quality RBs we had were not healthy for much of the season, and we will have the Ott money to spend on somebody else. Burks was okay, but given the money we spent, we'll be able to easily replace him. Sategna is about the only painful departure I could see forthcoming, and he's not even remotely close to a 1st or 2nd round talent.
Defensively, I only see it getting better, with many of our best players not even being draft eligible yet. I'd say RMT departure would hurt, but we didn't even have him for most of our key wins, and have guys like Okoye waiting in the wings that will be just fine. Wein and Kip are the two to watch, but I suspect Wein is back, and LB simply isn't a position I worry about with BV around.