There are a lot of reasons Marcus Mariota should leave the University of Oregon and go to the NFL.
Should we list them?
Mariota has already graduated from school. His classmates are gone or leaving, football and otherwise. Mariota is coming off of a season in which he won the Heisman Trophy in a historic landslide.
Mariota guided Oregon to 41 career wins, and it’s not just that his football stock will never be higher – it’s also that the personal narrative surrounding right now Mariota is entirely, not undeservedly, glowing.
Mariota is too good for college. He was head and shoulders above his peers this year, and he’d be even more dominant next year in a potential fourth full season as Oregon’s starting quarterback.
If he enters the NFL Draft this year, Mariota will almost surely be a top-five pick. He could go number one.
Mariota has never had a major injury. Right now, he’s healthy, he’s happy, and he has his entire life ahead of him.
Who knows if that is still the case after a potential 2015 college season? Mariota should take the money. For once, he should do something for himself. Go pro.
After all, Mariota has already come back once. He came back for this year, he graduated, and he led Oregon to the national championship game in 2014.
Marcus doesn’t owe the school anything. He has nothing left to prove, and chasing a national championship is not a reason to return. That’s a recipe for heartbreak.
Of course, Mariota is different. Returning to school for a second time – a fifth year – would only serve to confirm how unusual a talent and a person he is.
But the reality is that Mariota is probably gone. And as important as that is to the Ducks on the field next year and in years to come, it might be even more important off the field.
The 2014 Ducks were overachievers. Plain and simple. On paper, they couldn’t walk over teams like UCLA, Utah, Washington, Michigan State, and Florida State.
This Oregon team had talent, yes, but aside from running back and quarterback, they rarely had overwhelming talent.
Against Ohio State, we saw a talent gulf. It was clear on the lines, in the secondary, at the receiver position, and on special teams.
Oregon’s calling card had been flash, but this year, it was substance. There was a lot to this Ducks team. They were more than the sum of their parts.
That had a lot to do with coaching, certainly. From Mark Helfrich down, the Ducks coaches were fabulously underrated and incredibly important.
But Oregon’s team-wide steadiness and surprising steel – especially after losing to Arizona – stemmed from Mariota.
The Heisman winning quarterback operated with two feet on the ground, and his team followed. No excuses. No panic. No one is bigger than the team.
That’s the culture Mariota fostered this season. And that – not the trip to the national title game – is the biggest gift he gave Helfrich and his staff this year.
So we’re left wondering if the substance and the culture outlives the quarterback who committed himself with such grace. Maintaining that culture is Helfrich’s biggest challenge.
When Oregon loses Mariota, they lose their anchor. With #8 in Eugene, Oregon’s discipline problems all but fell away. There have been no major suspensions. There have been no NCAA investigations.
The biggest off the field issue this year was Darren Carrington having less than the legal limit of marijuana in his system.
It all comes back to Mariota.
Oregon saw what happened to a talented team without that rudder in the third quarter of the Rose Bowl.
The Ducks will get more great players. That’s not the worry. The next uber-talented quarterback will come along. Maybe not next year, maybe not in three years, but he’ll come. The question is will he handle himself with even half as much class as his Hawaiian predecessor.
Marcus Mariota was special. A once-in-a-lifetime player. In front of some 35 million people last night, Kirk Herbstreit called Mariota his favorite he’s ever covered in college football – and that comment came at Mariota’s most disappointing moment in the sport.
If Mariota declares for the NFL in the next 48 hours, Oregon won’t just lose a football player. They’ll lose their defining player.
Chip Kelly was about Win The Day. Mark Helfrich is about Men Of Oregon. The culture that Mariota helped build matters to this iteration of the Ducks. It was half the reason they were so good this year. Maybe more.
If Mariota declares, Oregon should build a statue for him outside of its practice center right now. Don’t waste a day. Build it so it can loom over every Duck football player and remind each coming team of what it should strive to live up to.
Marcus Mariota’s college football career could be – probably should be – over. But if Oregon is as good as we think they are, his impact and his guidance should be felt for generations.
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