OU Football 2015: Counting Down Why, Ways Sooners Will Surprise This Season

It’s a dozen days till the opening kickoff of a brand new season of OU football, and we are counting down the days and the ways the Sooners will surprise all of us in 2015.

Beginning today and continuing every day, right up to opening day of the college football season, which for Oklahoma officially gets underway the night of Sept. 5, when the Sooners will host the Akron Zips out of the Mid-American Conference, we will offer up a series of ways and means for fans to ponder as we build a case for why OU football will be better this season than so-called people in the know are giving the Sooners credit for.

A Dozen and counting…

The Sooners’ 2014 season won’t get much attention in the long history of Oklahoma success on the football field, but as disappointing a year as it was, it proved to be a breakout season for freshman running back Samaje Perine, who began the season several levels down on the Sooner depth chart.

Dec 6, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners running back Samaje Perine (32) runs the ball while being pursued by Oklahoma State Cowboys safety Jordan Sterns (13) during the second quarter at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Very few folks know much about Perine at the beginning of the season last fall, but by season end, he was easily the featured player in an offense that had become very one dimensional and struggled to move the chains with much consistency, particularly at the back end of the schedule without its starting quarterback and leading wide receiver.

Perine pounded his way to a Big 12-best 1,715 yards last season, including an NCAA record-setting 427 yards in a single game vs. the lowly Kansas Jayhawks.

Perine is no longer the well-kept secret he was at this time a year ago. Even though he won’t be the surprise he was in 2014, that may not matter, because he is still a very dangerous threat every time he possesses the ball. And the Sooner coaches are saying that he is stronger and faster this season, if you can believe that, the result of a diligent offseason training regimen.

As good as Perine was in the 2014 season, he may not be the best back in the OU backfield in 2015. Prized five-star recruit Joe Mixon will get his chance to live up to the high expectations that he brought with him when he became the featured prospect in the Sooners’ 2014 class – the same recruiting class, incidentally, that included Perine.

Mixon had his Oklahoma debut delayed by a year because of a year-long suspension, which was handed down around this time a year ago. The 6-1, 216-pound running back from California was charged with a misdemeanor assault stemming from an incident in which he was accused of punching a female student in the face.

Mixon serves as the lightning to Perine’s thunder, and his speed, to go along with excellent pass-catching skills, will make him a dual-threat weapon in Oklahoma’s new Air Raid-style of offense that will get its debut in the season-opener with Akron.

The Sooners may not run the ball as often as they did last season, but if the new, quick-strike passing assault takes hold like it is designed, it is entirely conceivable that the run game could be even better, what with the exceptional talent and depth OU has at running back and because opposing defenses won’t be able to key on the Sooner running game alone.

A more balanced offense is very good news for the Sooners, but it will pose a very different and especially dangerous challenge for teams trying to defend against it.