NORMAN, Okla. – The Oklahoma Sooners have already experienced life without Adrian Peterson and it wasn’t all that scary.

Sure it would’ve been great to have the third-leading rusher in school history back for his senior season, but the Sooners have a quintet of tailbacks lining up to take his place.

“No one can ever fill Adrian Peterson’s shoes,” said DeMarco Murray, a freshman who dazzled enough in the spring that coach Bob Stoops called him the team’s best big-play threat at the position. “All you can do as the next guys is just step up. I think that’s what we all have in mind. We’re not worried about Adrian Peterson.”

Peterson ran for 4,045 yards in his three-year career, including a school-record 1,925 yards as a freshman when he finished second in Heisman Trophy voting. He ranks behind only 1978 Heisman winner Billy Sims and Joe Washington in the Sooners’ storied history.

But Oklahoma’s running game never broke stride after Peterson broke his collarbone midway through last season. Allen Patrick, Chris Brown and Jacob Gutierrez filled in for Peterson admirably, combining for 1,149 yards as the Sooners won six straight games.

A year earlier, Patrick and Gutierrez took over after Peterson sprained his ankle – and the Sooners won back-to-back games.

“I think we’re 8-0 without him. So in the end, we’re used to that,” Stoops said. “That won’t be a factor for us in how we run our offense.”

Instead of focusing on how to replace Peterson, the Sooners have spent the months since their dramatic overtime loss to Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl determining the best quarterback among three unproven candidates: Sam Bradford, Joey Halzle and Keith Nichol.

Bradford earned the starting job, and he’ll take control of an offense that returns mostly intact.

The entire receiving corps is back, along with two proven tight ends and four of the five starting linemen.