NORMAN — The best Oklahoma tailback in a quarter century will miss the Big 12 Championship Game Saturday, and no one in crimson — player, coach, fan, Schooner driver — seems concerned. Nor should they be.
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Think about that for a minute.
Adrian Peterson will miss the Kansas City Clambake, and OU confidence is shaken not a bit. Mister Franchise will be relegated to the shivering Arrowhead Stadium sidelines, and nary a furrowed brow can be found in Soonerville, other than for Peterson's comfort.
Maybe it's time we reassessed gridiron value. Maybe it's time we realized that outside of quarterbacks, even the best of ballplayers have small impact in the grand scheme.
"At times, you can overvalue any one guy," said Sooner skipper Bob Stoops. "There's 22 guys out there running around. One guy, you're not going to do it by yourself. At times, guys like Adrian do do it by themselves. But not for the long haul."
Peterson runs like Robby Gordon drives: very fast and doesn't care who or what he crashes into. He's the best Sooner ballcarrier since Billy Sims and maybe the second-best ever. But the darndest thing happened after OU lost its personal demolition derby.
The Sooners got better as a ballteam.
The Commodores withered without Lionel Richie. The U.S. Senate still stumbles from the loss of Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Yet Soonertariat goes to the stable, and still Oklahoma takes the flag. What in the name of Wally Pipp is going on?
Crazy numbers: OU has run more sans Peterson than with him. Of the Sooners' six most tailback-centric games, five have been post-broken collarbone, and the tailback-heavy game with Peterson was Middle Tennessee, which hardly counts.
More stats: Peterson averaged 5.6 yards per carry. Chris Brown (5.4) and Allen Patrick (5.2) almost have matched that, and if you throw out the Colorado game, OU's first without Peterson, Patrick is averaging 6.2 yards per carry.
A Grand Jury is in order to uncover the mystery of how you lose the best tailback God has made in a long, long time and it rates barely a ripple to your offense.
"I love Adrian," Bob Stoops said. "He's something special. But there's more to it that that, and I think we've been able to show that."
What the Sooners have shown is that tailback value is overrated. The Denver Broncos have proved that for years; they plug in any old runner and off he goes into the wild green yonder. These Sooners have done the same.
"The top back in the nation goes out, and you continue to pick up the slack," OU quarterback Paul Thompson said. "To be honest, I was shocked. ‘We're still moving this thing.'
"Allen's done a great job. No disrespect to him, but you don't expect to lose a back like Adrian and continue to have as much progress as we've had."
Here's the testimony. OU's offensive line has eaten its spinach. And defenses, knowing the big horse isn't running, have played slightly back, courtesy of the big-play hands of flanker Malcolm Kelly.
"It's an attitude and a commitment to get it going," OU co-coordinator Kevin Wilson said of the run game.
The Sooners have grown tougher. They sometimes go with three tight ends. They use the fullback more, even though the graduation of J.D. Runnels made Wilson wonder if the position ever could be adequately filled.
The Romper Room offensive line, with only one upperclassman, has been opening holes, and Wilson is quick to defend their honor.
"Contrary to what people think, there was actually some blocking going on when Peterson's been playing the last few years," Wilson said.
Next, factor in Kelly. Six-foot-4 and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, Kelly has drawn double teams in pass coverage. Safeties, who might have been near the line of scrimmage when Peterson dotted the I, now hang back in case a 'mate needs help dogging Kelly.
Wilson recalled the nine-man front the Sooners and Peterson faced against Washington; OSU and Texas A&M, which did not face Peterson, played their safeties back.
Finally, Patrick and Brown have been capable backups. Wilson said that despite the laurel wreaths draped around the blockers' necks, they weren't all that dominant against OSU. The offensive players of the game were the two tailbacks, who combined to gain 237 yards.
"They've done an excellent job of not only getting what's there, but getting more, sidestepping people, and in their own different styles getting extra yards," Stoops said.
Sounds goofy, but the Sooners have been just fine without Peterson. It's a valuable lesson. One man does not a football team make.
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