Coach Terry Hoeppner promised the offensive linemen on his Miami football team early last week that the RedHawks would run the ball against Kent State. He couldn't have delivered without tailback Luke Clemens.

        The junior, making his first start in 12 games in place of the injured Cal Murray, set career highs with 171 yards and 35 carries and scored two touchdowns to lead Miami past the Golden Flashes, 27-20.

Luke Clemens runs against UC last season. (Enquirer file photo) | ZOOM |

        “When you see a guy do it in practice every day and you know what kind of talent he has and you've seen him do it before, it's not a surprise,” Hoeppner said. “We didn't expect him to carry it 35 times, but we went into the game saying that we were going to run the football. It was important with his endurance and physical conditioning that we were able to run it out.

        “Watching the films of Luke carrying the ball, there was only one time when I thought, "C'mon, Luke, what are you doing? You could tell from the way he got up that he felt the same way.”

        “I started out getting eight and 10 and 13 yards a carry,” said Clemens, a product of Dayton Bellbrook High School. “We were in a pretty good rhythm.”

        Clemens scored two touchdowns for the second time this season. He also reached the end zone twice in Miami's season-opening win at North Carolina - which also was the last time before Kent State that the RedHawks ran the ball with any consistency.

        Clemens came out of Bellbrook as the school's career rushing leader and Ohio's Division III offensive player of the year. But he wasn't highly recruited, and he ended up walking on at Miami, where he almost immediately was moved to the defensive backfield.

        “I knew what I had to do to earn a scholarship,” said Clemens, who won Miami's Outstanding Walk-On” award as a freshman. “I had to play well. They weren't going to just give me one. I didn't care where I played. I just wanted to play. People were getting hurt in the defensive backfield my freshman year, so they moved me back there. They moved me right back to offense after the season.”

        The 5-foot-11, 213-pound Clemens beat out the smaller Murray and Steve Little for the starting tailback job before the 2001 season, and he started the first three games .

        “I think I'm a different type of runner,” Clemens said. “The coaches always tell me that I seem to pick up that extra yard. I think I'm more physical.”

        The 111 yards Clemens compiled against Cincinnati last season was his previous career high, but a high ankle sprain - the same injury suffered by Murray against Louisiana State in Game Three this season - cost him the starting job.

        “It took me a few weeks to get back, but I wasn't really 100 percent the rest of the year,” Clemens said. “They would rotate me in, but I never got back into a rhythm.

        “That was kind of weird that Cal had the same type of injury. I kind of thought about that the other day. That's just the way game works.”

        Clemens and the Miami offensive line - the main ingredients of the running attack - didn't feel particularly embarrassed that the ground attack had withered against Iowa and LSU, but they did realize the importance of getting it back on track.

        “I think Coach (Hoeppner) and (offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery) thought we needed to run the ball better to be more effective,” Clemens said. “I think we needed to run the ball to take the pressure off (quarterback) Ben (Roethlisberger). They say you have to run the ball to win.”

        “We felt that we could run the football on Kent State,” Hoeppner said. “It was important that we run the ball. It was important to send a message to the offensive line that we have confidence in them. I don't normally go into the offense's meetings, but I went into their meeting last week to tell them what we wanted to do and that we have confidence in them.

        “I told them, "We ran the ball against North Carolina. We'll run the ball against these guys.' That made them feel good. I know, from the defensive perspective, if you have to defend both elements all the time, it puts pressure on the defense.”

        Hoeppner knows enough about offensive lineman to understand that, in their minds, retreating while pass-blocking isn't as enjoyable as being able to bull ahead and block for running backs.

        “In their world, that's having a lot of fun,” Hoeppner said. “It was fun to run it.”

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