Samaje Perine Zeroes in on Becoming Best of OU’s Best Running Backs
By Chip Rouse
Two years ago at this time, many Sooner football fans had never heard the name Samaje Perine. They certainly know who he is now, and he is quickly moving up the list of Oklahoma career rushing leaders.
Perine is entering his junior season at Oklahoma in 2016. In two short years, the 5-foot, 10-inch, 235-pound Sooner running back has rumbled for 3,062 total rushing yards, averaging 6.3 yards every time he has carried the football.
He begins the season ranked 10th on Oklahoma’s career rushing list, but he is well within reach of becoming the career leader, and that’s saying something when you consider the number of great running backs who have played for the Sooners over the years.
Perine’s size and strength make him very difficult to bring down one-on-one. He led the Big 12 his freshman season in 2014 with 1,713 yards and 21 rushing touchdowns. That same year, he set an all-time single-game record with 427 rushing yards against Kansas.
With redshirt freshman Joe Mixon complementing him in the Sooner backfield last season, Perine’s rushing numbers were down slightly from his inaugural season, but he still delivered 1,349 punishing yards on the ground and 16 touchdowns.
Perine was a relative unknown on the Oklahoma roster when the season began in 2014. This despite the fact that the Perine, who got away from the University of Texas after growing up in Pflugerville, just outside of Austin, was listed by ESPN as the No. 17 running back and the 23rd player overall in the state of Texas coming out of high school.
If few knew his name at the beginning of the 2014 season, the 77 net yards Perine gained against Akron in the Sooners’ season opener that season and in Perine’s collegiate debut dramatically changed all that.
Perine is 1,047 yards away from eclipsing the great Billy Sims (4,118) as the Sooners’ all-time rushing leader, and he will have done it in just three seasons. Sims’ total was produced over parts of five seasons (1975-79).
Only one player ahead of Perine on the Oklahoma career rushing list – Greg Pruitt 1970-72) – had more rushing yards on fewer carries. Pruitt totaled 3,122 rushing yards in 67 fewer attempts than Perine through the end of last season. Pruitt’s 7.40 yards-per-carry average is the highest among all Oklahoma running backs, past and present, with at least 450 rushing attempts.
The number of yards Perine must get to pass Sims, a two-time consensus All-American and Heisman Trophy winner, is fewer yards than Perine posted in either his freshman or sophomore seasons. So it appears highly likely that, barring injury or some other unforeseen circumstance, Perine will jump to the head of Oklahoma’s all-time list of outstanding college running backs.
It is also widely speculated that 2016 will be Perine’s final season at Oklahoma. He is eligible to declare for the NFL draft after this season.
The distinguished list of names ahead of Perine as he makes his assault on the all-time OU rushing record are:
- Billy Sims (4,118 rushing yards)
- Joe Washington (1972-75, 4,071 yards)
- Adrian Peterson (2004-06, 4,045)
- Steve Owens (1967-69, 4,041)
- Quentin Griffin (1999-02, 3,938)
- DeMarco Murray (2006-10, 3,685)
- De’Mond Parker (1995-98, 3,403)
- Stanley Wilson (1979-82, 3,198)
- Greg Pruitt (1970-72, 3,122)
- Samaje Perine (2014-15, 3,062)