Ohio State football has named Maurice Clarett their first pregame Victory Bell ringer of the 2026 season. The job sounds simple. Before the Buckeyes take the field at Ohio Stadium, he will ring the same bell that has marked wins for generations of fans.
The meaning is not simple. Clarett remains one of the most important freshmen in program history. For a long stretch, he was also one of its most distant figures. Asking him to open the 2026 custom is the program saying both chapters belong in the same building.
The freshman season the film still shows
Maurice Clarett’s 2002 year is still easy to recite. He rushed for 1,237 yards, scored 16 rushing touchdowns, and finished with 18 scores in all. Under coach Jim Tressel, the Buckeyes went 14-0 and won the BCS title in a double-overtime Fiesta Bowl against Miami.
Two plays from that night still travel. Miami safety Sean Taylor intercepted a pass and started upfield. Clarett stripped the ball from him and stopped what could have been a touchdown return. Later, Clarett scored in overtime. That victory clinched Ohio State’s first national championship in 34 years.
The break from Ohio State, and the rebuild
The same season that made him famous also began his split from the school. Clarett was later suspended for the 2003 season for NCAA violations. The case involved alleged improper benefits and lying to investigators. He never played another down for Ohio State.
Denver drafted him in 2005. The NFL chapter was short. Legal trouble followed, and he spent more than three years in prison after a 2006 arrest.
He has spent the years since putting a different life together. In 2016, he founded The Red Zone in Youngstown, a behavioral health group that offers school and community mental health care, addiction recovery support, and social work. Ohio State’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health gave him its 2025 STAR Award for stress, trauma and resilience. During the 2024-25 season, when the Buckeyes won another national title, Clarett served as a mentor on Ryan Day’s staff.
Why the program wanted him first
Tressel and Day both framed the honor as more than a reunion with the 2002 tape.
“Maurice played a defining role in one of the most memorable seasons we had, but I’m even more proud of the man he has become and the lives he continues to impact. His journey is a powerful example of resilience, growth, and the importance of using our experiences to serve others. It will be a special memory to watch him ring the Victory Bell as we celebrate the legacy of the 2002 national championship team and the lasting bonds we built together,” Jim Tressel, former Ohio State head coach, said in a program news release.
“Maurice has been great with our players, sharing his perspective, his experiences, and the lessons he has learned. He has a powerful story, and our guys have benefited from the honesty, leadership, and care he brings each time he is around the program,” Ryan Day, Ohio State head coach, said in a program news release.
What ringing the bell actually means
Ohio State did not pick Clarett because the 2002 tape is clean. It picked him because the tape and the years after it now sit in the same sentence. The program that once pushed him out is asking him to start the season’s loudest home ritual.
When he pulls that rope, the Horseshoe will hear a sound it already knows. The difference is who is ringing it, and why the people who run the program wanted him there first.