Cougars Can't Handle Clarett, Buckeyes
Washington State allows 292 yards rushing in 25-7 loss to Ohio State.

Sept 14, 2002

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COLUMBUS, Ohio - Maurice Clarett had a simple assessment of his latest accomplishments.

"I was always told, `Big players make big plays in big games,"' the freshman said with a grin after rushing for 230 yards and two touchdowns in No. 6 Ohio State's 25-7 victory over No. 10 Washington State on Saturday.

Clarett was shackled by the Cougars' defense in the first half - 36 yards on 11 carries - but he ran 44 yards on his first carry of the third quarter and never let up. He sprinted outside and ran past potential tacklers, lowered his shoulder and bulled them over, and muscled for extra yards with several Washington State players holding onto him.

The Buckeyes (3-0) trailed 7-6 at halftime on Jason Gesser's 5-yard touchdown pass to Devard Darling.

After Ohio State's defense stopped Gesser and the Cougars (2-1) near midfield on their first possession of the third quarter, Clarett took over with the Buckeyes pinned at their own 9.

On first down, he burst off left tackle and then cut outside for 44 yards until he was run down from behind.

"He bounced it outside and then just took off," said Ohio State running backs coach Tim Spencer, himself a former star tailback for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said the run lit a fuse under the team.

"You could see it in our guys' eyes," Tressel said. "All of a sudden, that gave you that rush or that raise you need to do even bigger and better things."

Quarterback Craig Krenzel kept the drive going with a 6-yard pickup on third-and-4 to the Cougars' 29. Clarett then skirted right and collided with defensive backs Erik Coleman and Jason David. They both collapsed, and Clarett - last year's USA Today national offensive player of the year - rumbled for 20 yards to the 3.

He powered in off right tackle on the next play and scored to put the Buckeyes ahead to stay at 13-7.

Later, Clarett had another 44-yard run to help Ohio State play keep-away in the final minutes.

Near the end, the massive crowd chanted Clarett's name. That's "cluh-RETT," and Washington State will be glad not to hear it on the public-address system again this year.

Clarett, who ran for 175 yards and three TDs in Ohio State's opener, flirted with the school's freshman rushing record held by Griffin, the only two-time Heisman winner. In the second game of the 1972 season, Griffin ran for 239 yards against North Carolina. Clarett needed just 10 yards on his final two carries to break the mark, but he was stopped for no gain.

Washington State coach Mike Price, already annoyed by a couple of questionable interference calls, said, "I guess he needs more practice, because they left him in until the very end."

Clarett's total was the sixth-most rushing yards in Ohio State history.

"He's an outstanding back," Price said. "He broke tackles, he was physical. I've got to tell you - he carried that team today."

Clarett now has 471 yards through three games and is more than halfway to Robert Smith's Ohio State freshman record of 819 yards, set in 1990.

"I don't seek any individual attention," Clarett said when asked if he ever considered his own Heisman chances.

He said playing for one of the nation's top teams this fall isn't a whole lot different from what he went through last year on his high school team in Warren, Ohio.

"It's the same thing," he said. "You work hard every day and you get the same results."

Gesser, touted as a Heisman Trophy contender, looked the part in the first half. He finished 25-of-44 passing for 247 yards but was intercepted twice in the second half, once near midfield by linebacker Matt Wilhelm and deep in Ohio State territory by freshman defensive back Tyler Everett.

"I didn't hit my hot reads," Gesser said. "I'll take the full blame for not putting points on the board. We have to score to help our defense, and we didn't do that today."

Mike Nugent converted his third field goal from outside 40 yards - after making just 1 of 3 from that distance a year ago - to push the lead to 16-7. He has made eight field goals in a row, a vast improvement over 2001, when he started 6-for-13.

The Ohio State defense also turned around its performance in the second half. The Buckeyes limited Washington State to 91 yards on 28 plays in the half after the Cougars picked up 189 yards on 39 plays in the opening two quarters. Washington State had minus-17 yards rushing in the second half on eight attempts.

"The way Clarett was running and the way our line was blocking gave us a sigh of relief," said Buckeye linebacker Cie Grant.

By RUSTY MILLER
AP Sports Writer



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THUD!
Noise, humidty and no answer for Clarett

By PAT MITCHELL
Cougfan.com Associate Editor

UPDATED 9/15 WITH PHOTOS

COLUMBUS -- If only they could have ended this one after 30 minutes. Then the bloom would still be on Washington State's national rose and Jason Gesser would still be considered a Heisman contender. But football, as Ohio State so forcefully proved Saturday, is a game of 60 minutes.

Fred Shavies, Jason David (right), Al Genatone and a fourth Washington State player tackle Ohio State tailback Maurice Clarett in the first quarter. (AP/Jay LaPrete)

Jason David and Virgil Williams chase Ohio State tailback Lydell Ross in the second quarter. (AP/Jay LaPrete)

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel reacts angrily to the Cougar's lead in the second quarter. (AP/Terry Gilliam)

Colin Henderson gets taken down by Ohio State defenders Richard McNutt and Robert Reynolds in the fourth quarter. (AP/Chris Kasson)

Coach Mike Price yells from the sidelines as the Coug's first half lead slips away as Matt Kegel looks on. (AP/Jay LaPrete)

Ohio State quarterback Craig Krenzel keeps cool in a sea of Cougar defenders, including Virgil Williams, Mawuli Davi and Faafetai Tupai. (AP/Terry Gilliam)
And the vaunted Buckeyes opened up a second-half can of ground-it-out whip ass that propels them into the national title race and thrusts freshman back Maurice Clarett into the Heisman sweepstakes while Gesser's candidacy all but ends.

No. 6 Ohio State overcame a 7-6 halftime deficit to score 19 unanswered points in front of a national television audience and waltzed to a 25-7 victory over the No. 10 Cougars.

Clarett, running left, running right, and really running straight up the middle, rumbled for 230 yards and two TDs on 31 carries to pace the Buckeye comeback. He had 194 of those yards in the second half. The Cougars tried nine in the box, five down linemen and who knows what else, but all for naught in the effort to stop him.

QUICK LINKS
Scoring Summary
Individual Stats


"Some people look forward to Ohio State games the entire week," said Clarett. "I want to make sure people get their money's worth whether they're sitting in A deck or way up in C deck."

Indeed.

This was Ohio State football the way Woody Hayes wanted it to be -- devouring yards, and the clock, on the ground. In all, the Buckeyes had 292 ground hashes and threw but ten passes. The Cougars, conversely, managed only 40 yards on the ground.

Coupled with spirited throng of more than 104,000 whose vocal ways directly or indirectly led to a 12-point swing -- nine for the Buckeyes and three that should-have-been for the Cougars -- by fouling WSU's long-snapping game, OSU rolled while the Cougars melted in the noise and unremitting Ohio humidity.

The Cougar offense that opened the game with a textbook, 11-play/80-yard drive to paydirt sputtered most of the rest of the way and only collected 91 total yards in the final two quarters. And even when they did show later flashes, they couldn't capitalize -- spoiling one long drive with a muffed snap on a field goal attempt just before halftime and killing another in the fourth quarter with an interception near the goal line.

It was a dramatic turn of events. WSU actually had the Buckeyes where they wanted them in the first half --- trailing, trying to pass and doing it without the benefit of the notorious crowd which took a first-half rest after Mawuli Davis and Issac Brown sacked QB Craig Krenzel on back-to-back plays. In fact, the Buckeyes didn't convert on a third-down play until the third quarter, going 0-6 up to then.

And then the bottom fell out. Tackles were missed. The line of scrimmage was lost. A long snap sailed into the endzone. Passes weren't threaded. Hot reads weren't executed. The ground game was ground to a halt and the defense, seemingly on the field forever, grew weary.

Gesser looked every bit the Heisman contender in the first half, but was pressured mightily in the second half and concluded the day completing 25 of 44 passes for 251 yards, one TD and two INTs.

"Missed opportunities and missed tackles," said Mike Price afterward. "But I'm proud of the kids, they played their hearts out, just not very well all of the time. We had the opportunity to make the big play and didn't, and they did. We just didn't get it done."

The Cougars are now 2-1 and prepare to host Montana State next week.

NOTABLE NOTES

Starting Cougar offense lineman Josh Parrish left the game with an injury in the first quarter and did not return.

There was a popular word in the Cougar locker room after the game: Execution. Consensus among players and coaches was that OSU did nothing that surprised them, the Cougars just didn't perform.

Clarett had two runs each of 44 yards. And his 230 total yards marked the sixth best single-game effort in Buckeye history and the second-best freshman output since Archie Griffin piled up 239 against North Carolina in 1972. Mind you, this is a school that has produced six Heisman Trophy-winning running backs.

The announced crowd of 104,551 was the largest in OSU history.

SCORING SUMMARY

FIRST QUARTER
OSU: Nugent 43-yard FG
WSU: Darling 6-yard pass from Gesser (Dunning kick)
SECOND QUARTER
OSU: Nugent 43-yard FG

THIRD QUARTER
OSU: Clarett 3-yard run (Nugent kick)
OSU: Nugent 44-yard FG
OSU: Safety, ball snapped out of endzone

FOURTH QUARTER
OSU: Clarett 1-yard run (Nugent kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATS

RUSHING
OSU: Clarett 31-230, Ross 10-47, Krenzel 10-14, Hall 3-1
WSU: Tippins 10-46, Green 3-1, J. Smith 4-(-) 1, Gesser 3-(-) 6
PASSING
OSU: Krenzel 4-10-72-0
WSU: Gesser 25-44-251-2, Henderson 1-1-16-0.

RECEIVING
OSU: Jenkins 2-50, Vance 1-13, Gamble 1-9
WSU: Darling 6-65, Bush 6-63, Lunde 8-61, Smith 2-40, Henderson 2-26, Green 1-6, Tippins 1-6

TOTAL TACKLES (leaders only)
OSU: Cie Grant 8, Donnie Nickey 7
WSU: Virgil Williams 10, Erik Coleman 9, Rien Long 7






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