MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia hasn’t forgotten the battering Samaje Perine delivered last season. And Lincoln Riley hasn’t forgotten to feed Oklahoma’s workhorse even as the new coordinator installs a crimson-and-cream Air Raid.
Where and how often Perine is utilized Saturday may determine which top 25 team emerges undefeated from one of the Week 5’s most intriguing, and overlooked, games.
Until the No. 23 Mountaineers (3-0) prove capable of halting the run, you’d think Oklahoma’s play sequence would go “Perine left. Perine right. Perine middle. Repeat.” But Riley was hired specifically to speed up the tempo and jazz up the pass game, ambitions that don’t sync with the powerball attack that propelled Perine to 242 yards on 34 carries in Morgantown last year.