Maurice Clarett is not afraid of anything.
He's not fearful of Athletics Director Andy Geiger and other OSU officials, whom he accused of lying when they said he hadn’t filled out necessary paperwork to qualify for NCAA emergency funds to fly back to Youngstown for a murdered friend's funeral.
Nor does he feel threatened by the already-clamoring Buckeye nation, a rabid fan base where many are making it known they want their powerful back to run the ball and not his mouth. To that, he said, "I respect myself as a person, so I'm always going to say what I believe."
And Friday night you can bet Clarett will not be cowed by the top-ranked, unbeaten Miami Hurricanes, who are 13-point favorites against the Buckeyes in the Fiesta Bowl national championship game: "I look at them like I do every other team, they put their pants on the same way."
Already Clarett has stolen the spotlight from the star-laden Hurricanes who have been college football's headliner for two straight seasons.
In two days, the 19-year-old Buckeye has created a buzz like no other in a BCS national title game:
• He had one of his own coaches — running backs' boss Tim Spencer — grousing that he should keep his mouth shut in public when it comes to disagreements involving the football program.
• He had other people making him out to be a teenage version of Jim Brown, the hard-nosed Cleveland Brown who was just as forceful stiff-arming social injustice and personal slight as he was some overmatched defender.
• He's created a stir among giddy Buckeye fans who find their team on the cusp of what would be its first national title in 34 years. Hate messages are streaming into Internet chat rooms and media talk shows — "How can he do this now? Why is he thinking of himself instead of his team?"— but so are words of support and consolation for a young man, who in coach Jim Tressel's words, "is hurting very, very much."
• He was mobbed by the national press at Tuesday's Fiesta Bowl Media Day — at one point surrounded by more than 100 reporters and cameramen while All-American safety Mike Doss entertained two and quarterback Craig Krenzel just one. Everyone wanted to hear what Clarett would say next.
Monday, he surmised Ohio State considers "football more important than life" because he said he was given the run around rather than being allowed to attend the funeral. Afterward, Tressel said Clarett had permission to go, but that the matter wasn't in his hands. Geiger said the reason Clarett hadn't been given a ticket to return home was because he hadn't filled out the appropriate forms.
Tuesday — especially since Ohio State is ever so reluctant to let its players have a continual public forum — some thought Clarett would be offering apologies or saying his comments were misconstrued.
Just the opposite.
He didn't back down. This time he was more critical than before. He said he had filled out the paperwork and he took issue with OSU for saying otherwise: "I won't sit here and let them lie about that . . . I filled it out before I left so I could receive a Pell Grant before winter quarter."
Clarett took special issue with the school's compliance officer — Heather Lyke-Catalano — whom he said never returned his call. Tuesday, she said Geiger had told her not to talk to the media, that either he or sports information director Steve Snapp would speak for the school.
"I talked to Heather last night and she said (Maurice) has not filled out the proper paperwork," Snapp said.
According to a statement Geiger released Tuesday night, Clarett had not submitted a Free Application For Federal Student Aid Form to Ohio State as of Monday: "Maurice may have begun the process, but at the time we had to make the decision, there was no indication of a FAFFSA on file for Maurice. We were therefore compelled to follow the NCAA rules as they apply to the situation."
Since Tressel acknowledges Clarett asked to go home three days ago, you wonder why the university didn't help him through the paperwork the way it did when it originally signed him to a scholarship. That took nothing more than a pen stroke, why was this so impossible?
From the outside, it looks as if someone didn't want him to go home. Maybe there was worry he would not get back in time for the game, or that because of his uneasiness with flying, he wouldn't be the same player when he got back. Maybe there was concern for his safety at the funeral. Maybe it was thought that since he had been home on Christmas break — and his friend had been killed Dec. 21 — he'd had time to mourn.
However this played out, Ohio State isn't looking good on the national front. It's caught in a messy "he said-she said" battle with its most celebrated player and, in the process, it is taking its lumps in newspapers across the country. It is being saddled with a bit of that image — the school as football factory — it has tried so desperately to avoid. From afar, it does look like football comes before life.
In the past, players who spoke out publicly — All-American linebacker Matt Wilhelm comes to mind — seem to have been subsequently muzzled. But Tressel seems to allow Clarett added leeway, likely realizing this edginess that makes the back take a verbal stand is some of the same stuff that makes him the take-no-prisoners football player he is.
Without Clarett — who has given his team 1,190 rushing yards, 16 touchdowns and a confidence rooted in his toughness — the Buckeyes almost certainly would not be in this title game. OSU fans should remember whether the team wins or loses.
Clarett has set himself up as an easy target for any Buckeye failures. But he's speaking from the heart and right now that heart is hurting.
"I'm not going to go tell him here's how you should grieve," Tressel said. "I just want to make sure he knows that when he needs me, I'm there for him. And through it all we're going to work hard at the task at hand while empathizing with the situation at hand."
Friday night you wonder how Clarett will be. Will he be the kid who fumbled three times at Northwestern or that force who ran roughshod over one team after another? My bet is he will not wilt.
"Big players make big plays in big games," he said. "A lot of guys say that, they say they want to be special, but then they don't want the pressure that comes with it. Me, I'd like every carry, every ball thrown to me. I won't ever back down."
Ohio State learned that again Tuesday.
It hopes Miami does the same Friday night.
Contact Tom Archdeacon at 225-2156 or tom_archdeacon@coxohio.com
[From the Dayton Daily News: 01.01.2003]