Buckeyes get rolling, win 45-17

COLUMBUS -- Even after he finished scoring three touchdowns in Saturday's 45-17 rout of Indiana, freshman tailback Maurice Clarett was still scoring points with his Ohio State teammates in the afterglow.

"Maurice is always a threat to get three or four yards a pop, and when teams are concentrating on him, they can't have as many guys in pass coverage," said grateful split end Michael Jenkins after catching his first two touchdown passes of the season in this Big Ten opener before 104,194 in Ohio Stadium.

Clarett's mere presence not only opened up the passing lanes, it made for a dangerous running attack -- even when the bona fide Heisman Trophy candidate wasn't the one lugging the ball.

Case in point: A fake handoff to Clarett indirectly led to Chris Gamble's 43-yard touchdown run on a flanker reverse, breaking the game wide open for the sixth-ranked Buckeyes (5-0) in the third quarter.

"When Maurice is on the field, you have to key on him and try to stop him," quarterback Craig Krenzel said. "Just getting (the IU defense) to freeze for one second on the fake showed what can happen ... Chris is extremely fast and the defense wasn't able to recover."

Clarett rushed for 104 yards on 21 carries and scored on runs of 2, 1 and 4 yards after sitting out last week's 23-19 win at Cincinnati recovering from minor knee surgery. His 23-yard burst on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter set up Gamble's TD, part of a 31-point run by the Buckeyes en route to their 10th straight win over the Hoosiers (2-3).

Interestingly, coach Jim Tressel, perhaps sensitive to Ohio State being portrayed as a one-man gang, touched only briefly on the impact Clarett had on the outcome -- and only when asked. In fact, Clarett wasn't one of the three players that accompanied Tressel to the postgame dais for the opening round of questions.

"Maurice gives us a spark ... anybody that gets a chance to be in (the lineup) and happens to touch the ball five or six times in a row, that means we must be moving the chains and blocking some people," Tressel said. "I think all of us in the stadium were excited that he was back, and we're better when all the guys are here."

Luckily for Tressel, there were plenty of accolades to go around Saturday. In addition to Jenkins' TD receptions of 4 and 15 yards and Gamble's electrifying reverse, Mike Nugent kicked a career-best 51-yard field goal -- his 10th successful kick in a row -- and Dustin Fox blocked a punt that led to Jenkins' first touchdown in a 17-point third quarter by the Buckeyes.

"The biggest disappointment to me was the blocked punt and our offense's inability to move the football in the second half," IU coach Gerry DiNardo said. "That was really the difference in the game, but I don't know that we ever had control of the game."

Not after Clarett dragged middle linebacker H.D. Jones about five yards on a fourth-and-one, seven-yard gain from the IU 19, setting up the first of his three short scoring runs.

There was a glimmer of hope for the Hoosiers when they cut Ohio State's lead to 14-10 on a 17-yard pass from Gibran Hamdan to Tyke Spencer with 2:09 to play in the first half.

But Gamble returned the ensuing kickoff 28 yards and a late-hit penalty was tacked on, enabling the Buckeyes to start at the IU 45. Racing against the clock, Krenzel gained 15 yards on a quarterback draw to began the drive and then made connections with Gamble (21 yards), Chris Vance (15 yards) and Jenkins (15 yards) to set up Clarett's four-yard payoff around right end. The rout was officially on.

"We knew we didn't play about to our ability against Cincinnati," said Jenkins, who finished with seven catches for 93 yards. "Those weren't the 'real' Buckeyes. I knew the real Buckeyes would show up for the start of Big Ten play."

Originally published Sunday, September 29, 2002