With Samaje Perine Out, Sooner Run Game More Predictable
By Chip Rouse
There’s not much question that having Samaje Perine out for a few weeks will have an impact on the Oklahoma offense, but if it had to happen, the timing couldn’t be better.
Head coach Bob Stoops announced in his weekly press conference on Monday that the Sooners’ prized running back would be out of action for two to three weeks as a result of a pulled hamstring he suffered early in the Kansas State game on Saturday.
Following the game on Saturday, Stoops indicated that Perine had a slight muscle pull and that he was held out of action as a precaution, but that “if forced to play, he could have.”
The junior running back apparently suffered the injury on a dive into the end zone that scored Oklahoma’s first touchdown on a 25-yard catch and run on the Sooners’ opening possession of the game.
How this will impact the Oklahoma offense – which, candidly, is the singular reason the Sooners are undefeated in the Big 12 through three games – remains to be seen going forward. For the short term, anyway, offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley will need to find ways to work around Perine’s absence.
Perine is a major weapon in Oklahoma’s ability to run the football. The Sooners are averaging 535 yards per game in total offense, which ranks fifth in the Big 12 but is 11th best nationally, and the running of Perine, fellow running back Joe Mixon and quarterback Baker Mayfield is a major part of the OU offensive attack.
The run game sets up the Sooners ability to spread the field and attack through the air, which has been good for another 322 yards a game. It is Oklahoma’s run-pass balance that make the Sooners so dangerous on offense. The Sooners are the only team in the Big 12 that ranks in the top four in both rushing and passing.
Perine and Mixon are used interchangeably at the running back position. The Sooners lose very little when either player is in the game. And when they are both in the game, which has happened on occasion, it becomes a double dose of trouble.
The ability to move the two talented running backs in and out of the game keeps a fresh set of legs on the field and also provides a valuable change of pace because of the different running styles.
Perine is the bigger of the two at 5-foot, 10-inches and 235 pounds. The combination of size and brute strength makes him difficult to bring down. Mixon, on the other hand, serves as the “lightning” to Perine’s “thunder, with speed, elusiveness and the additional versatility of being a pass-receiving threat with breakaway speed.
Perine and Mixon rank fourth and fifth, respectively, among the Big 12 rushing leaders, both averaging right at 80 yards per game.
Mixon will get more of the workload with Perine out, but with that comes a higher premium in not overusing the talented sophomore running back to the point of putting him at higher risk for injury. The last thing the Sooners need is to have both Perine and Mixon out of the lineup with injuries, like what happened in the College Football Playoff last year against Clemson.
With Perine sidelined, the Oklahoma offense may become a little more predictable, but not necessarily any more stoppable.
“We’ll have to be smart,” Stoops said, in how we manage the situation, but that Mixon is very capable of stepping into the role as the featured running back.
“He’s just an exceptional athlete,” the OU head coach said. “Not just running the football but he has great hands…A big physical guy who is unusually slippery just with his suddenness to go with the power.”
Freshman Abdul Adams, who the Oklahoma coaches are very high on but has seen only limited action so far in his first season in the program, will see more time, sharing the running back duties with Mixon while Perine is out, but that is the extent of the Sooner depth at running back right now, which is definitely of concern.
Coming out of spring practice, OU also had Rodney Anderson and Daniel Brooks at the position, but neither is currently available. Anderson suffered a broken leg in fall training camp, and Brooks was forced to retire from football because of concussions.
If Mixon can stay healthy (he also returns kickoff on special teams), there should be little drop off in the Oklahoma offense or in the Sooners’ ability to run the football. The highly recruited native Californian is as good as it gets in the Big 12 at the running back position, and as well as the offensive line has been playing in the month of October, Mixon should still be able to find the holes and pick up the valuable yards needed on the ground to keep the OU offense firing on all cylinders the next couple of weeks.
Of further solace to Sooner fans is the fact that the next three games on the schedule are not nearly as daunting as the first six or the final three to close out the regular season.
Texas Tech, Oklahoma’s opponent this week, followed by Kansas and then Iowa State, are the three worst teams in the Big 12 in rushing defense and they are three of the worst in total defense.
There is never a good time not to have Perine out of the lineup, but if it has to be that way, this is the time.
It is far more important to keep him sidelined now and give him the time he needs to heal his hamstring so, hopefully, he will be well rested and ready to go in the Sooners’ final three games against Baylor at home, West Virginia on the road and back home in Bedlam against Oklahoma State.