Buckeyes get rolling early in win

COLUMBUS - Early in the second quarter of Saturday's 51-17 blowout of Kent State, Ohio State safety and senior co-captain Donnie Nickey looked at the faces in the huddle and realized he was surrounded by freshmen.

How weird was that?

"I don't know how weird it was," Nickey said, smiling, "but it was definitely early."

Some Ohio State fans were probably still digesting their breakfast when Nickey's left hand deflected a Kent State punt, leading to Maurice Clarett's two-yard touchdown run less than three minutes into the game.

When Nickey's sidekick, Mike Doss, intercepted a pass on the ensuing series and returned it 45 yards for a score, the rout was on and OSU's backups wisely began reaching for their helmets.

The knockout blow was the one-two punch of Nickey and Doss, regarded in some circles as the best safety tandem in the nation.

"What do I call that?" said Nickey, when asked to describe their tag-team exploits. "I don't know ... I guess I call it good football."

There was plenty of that from the eighth-ranked Buckeyes (2-0) in the first 23 minutes, during which time they built a 38-0 lead helped along by two Clarett touchdowns, a 28-yard scoring burst by Maurice Hall, Craig Krenzel's first TD pass of the season (a 7-yarder to Clarett) and the first of Mike Nugent's three field goals.

Capping the splurge was a 34-yard interception return by freshman A.J. Hawk with 7:31 to play in the second quarter. Hawk was one of 14 true or redshirt freshmen to play against the Golden Flashes (1-1) as coach Jim Tressel took advantage of the lopsided score and overmatched opponent to empty his bench.

"Anytime you can make a big play on special teams, there's electricity in that," Tressel said. "The blocked punt by Donnie was the catalyst and scoring twice on defense was a big bonus."

Kent had to settle for moral victories. The Flashes outscored OSU 17-13 over the final 37 minutes and held the ball nearly twice as long (39:12 minutes to 20:48) behind multithreat quarterback Joshua Cribbs.

Cribbs rushed for 94 yards and threw for 160 with two touchdowns, but there was no overcoming his two costly interceptions or Kent's early special teams breakdown.

"No team can spot another team 21 points off the bat like that," Kent coach Dean Pees said. "You can't do that against any team, let alone the eighth-ranked team in the country."

Cribbs' mistakes looked even more glaring when weighed against another mistake-free performance by his counterpart.

All Krenzel did was complete his first 11 passes, including the dump-off to Clarett for six points. Krenzel's last pass in the opening 45-21 win over Texas Tech was also a strike, giving him 12 straight completions to tie a school record held by three other quarterbacks.

How hot was Krenzel?

"It was 90 degrees out there, so I'm guessing he was hot," Tressel deadpanned. "He made good decisions on where to get the ball."

Krenzel finished 12 of 14 passing for 190 yards. He wasn't sacked, didn't throw an interception and played the role of modest hero afterwards.

"It's easy to do your job when you've got a lot of talented receivers running great routes," Krenzel said. "With that kind of combination, it isn't difficult to complete passes."

While Krenzel was nearly perfect, Nugent was absolutely perfect. For the second game in a row he boomed all of his kickoffs into the end zone, and he converted field goals of 40, 33 and 45 yards, giving him five straight successful attempts dating back to the end of last season.

"I honestly don't think you can say I have a golden foot," said Nugent, who has come on strong after a shaky freshman season in 2001. "You could have three or four great games and then fall apart. The key word is consistency. I have to keep this up."

Originally published Sunday, September 8, 2002