After four days of spring ball, WSU QB John Mateer meshing with new receivers

PULLMAN – John Mateer, Washington State’s incumbent quarterback looking to secure the starting job come fall, admits part of his personality might be a flaw.

“I don’t mind attention,” Mateer said.

It’s good news for Mateer, because he’s in line for a lot of it over the next few months, especially when WSU kicks off its next season, playing in the Mountain West Conference as an affiliate member.

Mateer, the Cougars’ backup quarterback each of the past two seasons, is finally in line for the starting gig. Following the departure earlier this year of Cam Ward, who Mateer played behind the past two seasons, he’s ready to assume the top job.

He’ll have to compete for it – Bryant transfer Zevi Eckhaus will be his main challenger – but for Mateer, it’s exciting. He knows he has a chance to start now. He’s been playing like it in practice, including Tuesday’s practice No. 4 of spring ball, when he connected with receivers like Carlos Hernandez and transfer Tre Shackelford for what felt like dozens of receptions.

“It’s fun. It’s the goal,” Mateer said. “I didn’t come to Washington State to sit. I came to play. So all my preparation, the last two years has been for this point. So the way I go about my business and talk to people, it’s not different. It’s the same. It’s like really just the attention, social media, and I’m in bigger conversations, more important conversations.”

To stay in those conversations, Mateer will need to establish a good rapport with his receivers, of whom there are many. Wideout Kyle Williams is the most tenured, and he broke out last season, so he figures to be the biggest target next fall.

But WSU’s receiver corps also includes a host of transfers, including Shackelford (Austin Peay), Kyle Maxwell (Louisiana Tech), Kris Hutson (Oregon), Tony Freeman (College of San Mateo), plus returners like Hernandez and Josh Meredith.

How will Mateer mesh with those guys – and is that approach different between guys he’s played with before and ones he hasn’t?

“It’s definitely different, but it’s the same process to begin with,” Mateer said. “So like with Carlos and Josh, we’re taking that next step. And the other guys aren’t far behind. It’s not like a whole new, oh, I gotta introduce how I think. It’s a whole upbringing together of chemistry.

“I mean, they’re all running the same routes. They’re all moving around together. Concepts are the same, right? They’re not all different depending on who’s out there. So I’m telling all of them what I’m thinking. So it’s meshing together differently. It just takes time. I don’t think it’s bad at all. But it just takes time to perfect and it’ll get there.”

Then there’s the process of getting all those new receivers acclimated to WSU, adjusted to the way the Cougars do business on offense. It’s a process, coach Jake Dickert affirmed, which is why it’s good news that the calendar still reads April.

“We need some big-body, outside guys,” Dickert said. “It’s good to see Maxwell back out there. But (Shackelford) has brought a toughness to that group. And when you put it on tape, that toughness is infectious because you can say, ‘Hey, look at Tre doing it. We all have to do it.’ ”