ON THIS DAY: Maurice Clarett's Second-Half Explosion vs. Washington State in 2002
Ohio State’s national championship season back in 2002-03 started with a pair of comfortable victories over Texas Tech and Kent State, but a massive test then loomed with a top-10 matchup scheduled in the Horseshoe.
The Buckeyes, ranked No. 6 in the AP poll, hosted No. 10 Washington State in a game that would go a long way for both teams on the national landscape. Freshman running back Maurice Clarett, already with five TD’s on the season, continued stealing the show and legitimizing himself to the college football world.
Washington State, behind veteran QB and Heisman Trophy contender Jason Gesser, led 7-6 by halftime as the Cougar defense stymied Ohio State’s offense to that point. Clarett had just 36 yards on 11 carries prior to the break.
The Youngstown native racked up 44 on his first carry of the second half, as the Buckeyes took over at their own nine-yard line before Clarett sprinted around the left side, bulled over would-be-tackles and muscled for extra yards despite multiple WSU players clinging on.
That set the tone for a second-half explosion, as he culminated the drive with a touchdown and ultimately carried 20 times for 194 yards after intermission. Clarett delivered an exclamation mark early in the fourth with another short score, putting OSU ahead by the eventual final score of 25-7.
Clarett finished the day with 31 carries for 230 yards, the sixth-best single-game rushing total in program history at the time and now tenth. He fell just shy of Archie Griffin’s freshman record (239) after getting stopped for no gain twice on two late carries, something Washington State coach Mike Price seemed annoyed with post-game.
“I guess he needs more practice, because they left him in until the very end,” Price said afterward. “But he is an outstanding back. He broke tackles, he was physical. He carried that team today.”
The performance put Clarett at 471 rushing yards through three games, more than halfway to Robert Smith’s freshman single-season record of 819 that Clarett surpassed easily. The freshman ended his lone season as a Buckeye with 1,237 yards, scoring twice in Ohio State’s memorable national championship victory over Miami in Tempe, Ariz.
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