Key Oklahoma Sooners offensive players begin building a connection

As the Oklahoma Sooners prepare for the 2025 season, we still have a ways to go until fall Saturdays are upon us again. However, it's in the winter, spring and summer where champions are built, and the Sooners are eager to get back to the championship ranks of college football.

With Oklahoma on a break from spring football this week, three of the team's biggest pieces on offense were still putting in the work on their own.

Quarterback John Mateer and wide receivers Javonnie Gibson and Deion Burks linked up to get a throwing session in earlier this week, as they look to build a connection that pays big dividends this fall.

Mateer is gearing up for a season where he'll be asked to carry the OU offense on his shoulders. After following offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Ben Arbuckle to Oklahoma from Washington State (with the aid of a hefty NIL deal), the FBS leader in total touchdowns a season ago looks to be the next great one in a line of excellent Sooner QBs throughout history.

Gibson is a fellow transfer, coming to Oklahoma from FCS Arkansas Pine-Bluff. He boasts good size at the position and has been a standout in spring ball to this point, making some big catches from Mateer. That duo will be seeing a big jump up in the level of competition, but there's clearly physical talent there.

Burks returns for his second season in Norman. He was supposed to star in 2024, but only played in five games due to injury. Last spring was his breakout moment after transferring to OU from Purdue after the 2023 season. He hopes that the hype can pay off with health and production in 2025.

As OU changes to a new offensive system under Arbuckle, and the offense has been remade quite a bit in the transfer portal this winter, there are plenty of benefits to this trio spending extra time to workout together. Firstly, good chemistry is an absolute must, as so many players on the offense have not played together before. Positions like Quarterback, wide receiver and tight end have been almost completely remade and the trio of Mateer, Gibson and Burks will enter the season as hopeful pillars of the offense. As a grueling SEC schedule awaits, there won't be a substitute for a solid connection between passer and pass catchers.

QB / WR connection will be dangerous !!#boomersooner @yeahhjv11 @deionkburks @John_Mateer4 #TROTD pic.twitter.com/EvPmnvQxPU
— Delfonte Diamond (@DelfonteDiamond) March 20, 2025

Secondly, Mateer knows the offensive system that Arbuckle is installing at OU. He sat behind Cam Ward as the backup in 2023, which was Arbuckle's first season at WSU. Then, of course, he was a breakout star under Arbuckle a season ago. But this system is new for everyone else on the roster, including Gibson and Burks. As they build chemistry, Mateer can help two of his top targets with the install months before the season starts in late August.

Oklahoma has changed so much on offense after that side of the ball was primarily to blame for an embarrassing 6-7 season in their debut year in the SEC. Some of the most important pieces offensively in 2025 are doing the work to make sure that that doesn't happen again in Year 2 in the SEC.

This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: New Oklahoma Sooners teammates building a connection

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