One year after a record, Kansas defense will try to contain Oklahoma’s Samaje Perine

Kansas coach David Beaty knows what awaits on Saturday. He has seen the film from that record-setting day. He knows that Oklahoma’s diesel truck of a running back is gassing up for another run. And he knows that this latest Kansas-Oklahoma game at Memorial Stadium could come down to the simplest of football battles: One team will run the football downhill, and Beaty’s team must stiffen up and try to stop it.

“We obviously have some things that we’ve really got to do,” Beaty said this week.

Saturday afternoon, No. 14 Oklahoma, 6-1, will enter Memorial Stadium and unleash running back Samaje Perine on the premises. That’s the same Perine who, just one year ago, was seen rushing for an NCAA-record 427 yards in a 44-7 victory over KU in Norman, Okla. The same Perine who appears to be heating up after rushing for a season-high 201 yards in a victory over Texas Tech last week. In other words: Good luck, Kansas.

“He’s talented,” Beaty said this week. “He is really good. He is a good back. He’s as good a back as I’ve seen all year.”

Beaty compares Perine to LSU’s Leonard Fournette, a sophomore Heisman contender who leads the Football Bowl Subdivision with 1,352 yards rushing. Fournette could one day be a top pick in the NFL Draft, and Beaty believes that Perine measures up quite well. His blend of sheer size (5 feet 10 and 230 pounds) and sprinter’s speed can terrorize opposing defenses. And after ripping through defenses for 1,713 yards last season as a true freshman, he returned as a more seasoned version of himself this year.

After seven games, Perine has recorded a more modest 621 yards in 116 carries while splitting time with redshirt freshman Joe Mixon, another former top recruit. Mixon missed all of last season after being charged with a misdemeanor assault charge involving a female student. And his return had added another layer to the backfield.

“They’ve done a good job of amassing talent,” Beaty said.

For the moment, though, Beaty, stressed that this is a new season, with new rosters and new regimes. Perine did the same this week.

“We watched film on (KU) a little bit, because they do some of the same stuff, but I try not to think much about what I did last year, because it’s a new year,” Perine told reporters this week in Norman. “They have some new players. I have to go out there and take it one play at a time and hope to do my assignments as best as I can. I guess I did a good job.”

Modesty aside, Perine’s dominance against Kansas was astonishing — even a year later. On a rain-soaked November afternoon, Perine averaged 12.6 yards per carry and scored five touchdowns. He shattered the NCAA record of 408 yards, set one week earlier by Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon.

“I just ran,” Perine said. “I didn’t have to do much. Those holes were huge.”

Perhaps Kansas, 0-7, can start there, by limiting the holes. A year ago, facing a KU squad guided by interim coach Clint Bowen, Perine ripped off a 49-yard touchdown run on his first carry and the dam appeared to break. During the next three quarters, Perine would add touchdown runs of 33, 34, 66 and 27 yards.

“I remember watching the game,” said Beaty, who was then an assistant at Texas A&M. “ … what he did last year was something that doesn’t happen very often. But as we went back and looked at the tape, we contributed to that a little bit. Hopefully, we can make the proper adjustments this week, and we can try to limit him.”

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 8:50 PM with the headline "One year after a record, Kansas defense will try to contain Oklahoma’s Samaje Perine."