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Bowe Bentley on his first spring with the Sooners: 'It's been a dream'

by: Jesse Crittenden04/15/26JesseCrittenden

NORMAN — There’s been a lot to learn in the last few weeks for Bowe Bentley.

The former four-star quarterback arrived at Oklahoma back in January, and he immediate dove into the playbook and learning the new offense. That has certainly been put to the test during the Sooners’ spring practices.

It hasn’t always been easy. But that hasn’t taken away from Bentley’s excitement.

“It’s been a dream,” Bentley told OUInsider. “I mean, you kind of think about it during the fall. Obviously, graduating early, you’re gonna kind of roll into it. Kind of get prepared through January, February. But once it hits, it’s rolling. So I’ve learned a lot. The speed, it really just comes from the playbook, slowing things down. Just understanding why we run things. But it’s been a lot.

“It’s been great. I feel like I’ve matured as a player and just understand different things. Understanding the defense. Obviously, we go against one of the best defenses in the nation so I think that teaches me a lot of stuff. But it’s been great. I’ve learned a lot of stuff.”

Fortunately for Bentley, there are a lot of resources at his disposal.

For one, he’s learning from John Mateer, who is very experienced in the system. Bentley’s been able to learn from the veteran quarterback without the weight of the expectations that come with being the starter.

Of course, he’s learned a lot from OU offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and quarterbacks coach John Kuceyeski.

“It’s a similar offense from what I came from but it’s a lot faster,” Bentley said. “It’s a bigger offense I think, being able to do a lot more things than what I’m used to, from the run game to the pass game. There’s a pretty fine line between both so I think just having both of those is real nice.”

Arbuckle has been impressed with Bentley’s progress, and he mentioned that the most important thing for the young quarterback is to not get “bogged down” with the adjustment from high school to college. That’s been the focus for Bentley, too.

“I think just not getting down on myself,” Bentley said. “Obviously, I’m going to make mistakes coming here as a freshman. But just being able to go back and look at those mistakes and be mature enough to understand why I did that and how I can learn from that, I think that’s the biggest thing. Just not getting down on myself and trying to learn from mistakes.”

His composure has stood out to his teammates.”

“He’s cerebral,” OU freshman defensive end Jake Kreul said. “I’ll be in the dorm with him talking, just straight up probably his favorite thing to do is talk football, learn football. The way he’s composed in the pocket no matter what’s going on around him, I think that’s really impressive and that’s gonna carry over to the game very well.”

With Mateer leading the quarterback room, Bentley can focus on learning the offense and continuing to develop as a quarterback. He’ll have a great opportunity to do that during Saturday’s spring game.

But the focus over the next few months is just on getting better.

“I’ve kind of proved myself each day, just fixing things that are kind of messed up on the day before,” Bentley said. “I think that’s the biggest thing, is just showing improvement each day and getting better.” 

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