Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota was so good in the Ducks’ victory at Washington State that UO coach Mark Helfrich looked at the statistics and seemed taken aback:
“There were four incompletions? Ridiculous. Ridiculous. That’s a joke.”
Mariota completed 21 of 25 passes for 329 yards and five touchdowns. It was football’s version of a perfect game.
Not a joke.
A follow-up headline in the Eugene Register-Guard said: “Savor it Duck fans, Oregon will never have another Marcus Mariota.”
Scott Frost, the Ducks’ offensive coordinator, told reporters: “Listen, I think he’s the best player in college football.”
Sports Illustrated pictured Mariota on its Sept. 22 cover and wrote that he “may project as the best dual-threat quarterback ever to come out of college football.”
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Best now? Best ever?
Records are broken in Pac-12 football with such frequency that in this century alone, USC has produced three “best-ever” quarterbacks: Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and Matt Barkley.
Now it is Marcus Mariota on the floor, the best-ever in a league of best-evers.
Do you buy it?
The reason Mariota has set himself apart is not that the Ducks are winning big.
They were doing that with Darron Thomas, who was 24-3 as Oregon’s starter. Thomas, undrafted, is now playing for the Portland Thunder.
After Sunday’s workout, Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez used neither hyperbole nor cliché to define the difference between Mariota and Arizona’s Anu Solomon, and most other QBs, living or dead.
“I think Marcus is three inches taller, 20 pounds heavier and a couple tenths (of a second) faster than Anu,” he said. “He probably has a stronger arm.”
Bingo.
Mariota is 6 feet 4 inches and 220 pounds. When Arizona Hall of Famer Ricky Hunley was the Pac-10’s most dominant linebacker in the 1980s, he was listed as 6-2, 240. He was a sideline-to-sideline terror.
Mariota is Ricky Hunley with deadly accuracy and the ability to speed-read a defense, whether it be the 4-3, 3-4 or Arizona’s 3-3-5.
The Pac-12 has never had a quarterback with Mariota’s dimensions, athleticism and instincts. OK, never is a bad word. Let’s say maybe Andrew Luck of Stanford is in the same conversation.
In three years at Stanford, Luck, 6-4 and 235 pounds, completed 67 percent of his passes and rushed for 957 yards.
In a bit over two seasons at Oregon, Mariota has completed roughly 67 percent of his passes and rushed for 1,681 yards.
On Monday, asked how he would react if Mariota wasn’t one of three finalists for the Heisman Trophy, Rodriguez used one word: “Shocked.”
But best-ever in a league of best-evers? Let’s see:
Jake Plummer became a sainted figure in Tempe for leading Arizona State to a 1997 Rose Bowl win. He was the “best ever” of his day.
But Plummer was, in retrospect, not close to Mariota’s class. ASU was an ordinary 26-19 in his starting career. He completed just 55.4 percent of his passes, which today would get a QB benched. Plummer’s career rushing total was minus-113 yards. Minus.
How about USC’s Rodney Peete, runner-up in the 1988 Heisman balloting?
Peete was 6-1, 215 as a Trojan, an “L” to Mariota’s “XL.”
Peete was one-dimensional even though he was touted as one of the most superb athletes of his generation. Career rushing yards: 415. But here’s the number that eliminates Peete from the conversation: He had 54 touchdowns and 42 interceptions. Mariota is at 76 and 10.
UCLA’s Troy Aikman matches Mariota’s size. Aikman was listed at 6-4, 220 as a Bruin. He was on target, completing nearly 65 percent of his passes and had a reasonably good TD/interception ratio at 41-17, but nothing like Mariota’s.
And here’s the real difference: Aikman rushed for minus-4 yards at UCLA. He’s more than 1,600 yards behind Mariota.
“Mariota breaks so many tackles in the pocket and makes big plays out of them,” Rodriguez said. “It’s the X-factor. A running quarterback can kill you.”
The passing accuracy of today’s spread offenses is the most significant change, era to era, among the league’s ranking QBs. Washington’s Sonny Sixkiller threw 51 interceptions, Arizona’s Tom Tunnicliffe had more interceptions (56) than touchdown passes (46). Oregon’s Dan Fouts was intercepted 54 times and Stanford’s Jim Plunkett 48.
Mariota has 10. That’s ridiculous. That’s a joke.
My nomination as the league’s Best Ever Quarterback would be John Elway. He played on fair to middlin’ Stanford teams but he compares to Mariota in most ways: Elway completed 62 percent of his college passes, far ahead of his 1980s contemporaries.
Elway was big (6-3, 220), durable and could escape a pass rush. But in the offenses of the early ’80s, a pocket passer, Elway had minus-279 yards rushing once yardage lost to sacks was added in.
He threw one more TD pass, 77, than Mariota’s current 76, but Mariota would have to throw 29 more interceptions this season to reach Elway’s career total of 39.
Not a joke.
