Slam-dunk legend: After a deftly-executed dunking of coach Mark Helfrich, Marcus Mariota was all smiles on the field after Oregon’s win in the PAC-12 Championship. He’s in Orlando tonight for the Maxwell and Davey O’Brien Awards (Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports photo).
Chip Kelly called Marcus Mariota the best player he ever coached. In an interview with Rueben Frank of Comcast Sports Philadelphia yesterday he said, “When he was a freshman, I remarked this kid’s going to win the Heisman.”
Mark Helfrich discovered Mariota him scouting his predecessor at quarterback, and when Mariota came to Oregon summer camp before his senior year at St. Louis High, before he’d even started a game in high school, the Ducks offered him a scholarship.
The Ducks recruited two quarterbacks that year, Mariota and Johnny Manziel, and for a while Marcus and his family considered taking an offer from Washington.
His dad Toa told him he’d have competition wherever he went. Go where you feel you belong, Toa said.
Manziel bolted for Texas A&M, and Duck fans became the luckiest in the nation.
In the spring of 2012 there was an open competition for the starting quarterback job between the promising Hawaiian and sophomore Bryan Bennett, a tall passer who’d won a couple of games for the Ducks the year before as a redshirt freshman, an emergency start against Colorado and a relief stint versus the Cougars, subbing for a banged-up Darron Thomas.
Bennett ran well and threw a pretty ball, and people wondered with practices closed, “who’s winning the job?”
There was less doubt after the Spring Game. Bennett played credibly, but Mariota shined in his first public appearance before Oregon fans, completing 18-26 passes for 202 yards and a touchdown, rushing for 99 and two more scores, including an 82-yard run.
In August Kelly named redshirt freshman from Hawaii the starter, a competition that was a dead heat until Mariota outplayed Bennett in the final scrimmage.
Looking back yesterday Kelly said, “He’s just got a gift for playing football. He’s everything you want. He can throw the ball, he can run. He’s the most talented kid that I coached in college.”
In his first game as a Duck Mariota faced Arkansas State in a tune-up. His father asked him, “Are you ready?”
Yeah, Dad,” he responded. “I’ve been waiting my whole life for this.”
That afternoon a legend was born as the redshirt freshman signal caller connected on 18-22 passes with 3 touchdowns, running 4 times for 24 yards.
Right away Oregon fans not only fell in love with his talent, but also his grace and humility. There was some confusion about how to pronounce his last name, however:
In his first start in Autzen Stadium his quarterback rating was 97.2. It pretty much stayed that way for three years as he led the Ducks to 35 wins as a starter.
There were stumbles. Oregon reeled off 10 straight wins before meeting Stanford that November, and the #1 Ducks seemed to tighten up in a game in which they missed two field goals and lost 17-14 in overtime. De’Anthony Thomas missed a block on the last man as Mariota was tackled at the 15 after a 77-yard run.
The Ducks dropped out of the national championship race, with Alabama beating Notre Dame for the national title. Oregon settled for a Fiesta Bowl win over Kansas State. Mariota was the MVP, throwing for 166 yards and two touchdowns, running 8 times for 62 yards and another. His 32-yard run was the longest play of the game.
In 2013 Super Mario was leading the Heisman race until a late-season knee injury limited his mobility and throwing motion in losses to Stanford and Arizona. Despite throwing for 3665 yards and 31 touchdowns, rushing for 715 and 9 more, he didn’t even finish in the top ten on the Heisman ballot, even after drilling a 12-yard touchdown pass to Josh Huff in the last 20 seconds for a come-from-behind win in the Civil War.
The Ducks went to the Alamo Bowl to cap an 11-2 season, their gifted dual threat quarterback again earning MVP of the game, 18-26 passing for 253 yards and a touchdown, also the leading rusher with 15 carries for 133.
Many thought he’d head for the NFL in his first year of eligibility, but Mariota, center Hroniss Grasu and cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu shocked fans by announcing in January that they were all returning for another season.
Mariota said he’d made a promise to his mom to get his degree, and he wanted to improve his footwork and ball security.
The 3-man Decision changed the course of Oregon football. Instead of rebuilding the Ducks instantly became contenders for the PAC-12 and national championships, and with a great core of leadership the team went to work that winter, intending to get stronger and tougher, partly in response to what pundits were calling “The Stanford Problem,” the Ducks having dropped two in a row to the Smashmouth Cardinal, who seemed like the chief obstacle to returning to supremacy in the league.
Oregon served notice early that their national ranking was legitimate. In game two Mariota led a third-quarter rally as the Ducks beat Big Ten and Rose Bowl Champion Michigan State 46-27, a comeback triggered when he scrambled out of trouble and flipped the ball forward to Royce Freeman for a 17-yard gain on 3rd and 10, down by 11. The Ducks went on to score 24 consecutive points and won going away.
Three weeks later with the offensive line battered and decimated Mariota absorbed 12 sacks in two games. He rallied the Quack Attack for a fourth quarter comeback against Washington State, but the season looked ruined when the Arizona Wildcats upset UO in Autzen, the second year in a row that Wildcat coach Rich Rodriguez had engineered an upset over Mark Helfrich and the Ducks.
Suddenly Oregon had an Arizona problem, with three challenging games ahead, at #18 UCLA, a rivalry game against Chris Petersen, the Huskies and their physical defense, and Stanford again on November 1st. The Ducks were 3-3 in their last six PAC-12 games, Mariota was banged-up again and there were loud doubts about the future of the program and the soundness of coaching hires like moving Don Pellum to defensive coordinator and installing offensive coordinator Helfrich as the successor to Kelly. Did he really have the coaching chops to handle the job?
The Ducks fell out of the Top Ten, and UCLA loomed. Linebacker Eddie Kendricks was one of the most agile and physical players in the game, and quarterback Brett Hundley was a potential rival to Mariota in the Heisman Trophy race. Though nobody cared much about that then the Oregon quarterback had slipped behind Dak Prescott of Mississippi after the loss, and Melvin Gordon was gathering steam in the Big Ten.
Oregon went into the Rose Bowl and played their most focused game of the season, burying the Bruins with an early rally and winning decisively, 42-30. Two late Bruin touchdowns made it look closer but it wasn’t: Mariota threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more.
With left tackle Jake Fisher back in the lineup the offense found its rhythm, grinding out 258 yards on the ground. They’d surpass 200 for every game left on the schedule as they won 7 in a row to secure the PAC-12 North title and earn a rematch with Arizona in the PAC-12 Championship Game. The College Football Playoff Committee slotted them second in the poll.
Along the way the Ducks buried the Stanford problem with a 45-16 victory, Mariota 19-30 passing for 258 yards and 2 tds, 9 carries for 85 yards and 2 more.
In the rematch with Arizona he settled it early, escaping pressure to find Darren Carrington for a 46-yard strike and Charles Nelson for 77. The Ducks built a 23-0 lead behind a perfect half by the defense, winning in a deluge at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, 51-13.
Mariota won another MVP trophy with 25-38 passing, 5 total touchdowns.
The stats and numbers and the 35-4 record as a starter only begin to illustrate the brilliance of Marcus Mariota. Duck fans came to love him for his character and humility, the way he deflected praise, his absolute sincerity. Kelly said, “The type of kid he is, he had an impact on everybody who had an opportunity to mentor him, and (head coach) Mark Helfrich and (offensive coordinator) Scott Frost will tell you the same thing. He’s just a special young man and very deserving.”
He’s set a standard for how the quarterback position is to be played at Oregon–not in raw numbers and statistical dominance, because it’ll be hard for the next guy to duplicate his uncanny escapes and dead-solid, mistake-free accuracy. Mariota has been a quarterback who rarely made bad decisions: in three seasons he’s thrown a school-record 101 touchdowns with just 12 interceptions. The closest he’s come to controversy or bad off-field behavior is one lone speeding ticket, and even then the citing officer reported he was cooperative and polite.
Every one who’s had contact with him remarks on what an exceptional young man he is, completely unaffected or unchanged by fame. He remains Toa and Alana Mariota’s son, and Michael Mariota’s brother, the friend and teammate, the guy with complete loyalty to his brothers in green and yellow, and they have total trust and loyalty to him.
That’s his legacy. The Heisman, while a great honor and accomplishment, is the answer to a future trivia question. Marcus Mariota made you proud to be a fan.