Mariota joins a exclusive fraternity of college football greats
New York City was the place to be on the night of December 13, 2014. History was made as millions nationwide tuned into ESPN as another college football superstar carved their name and legacy into the trophy books like the past greats that put on a helmet and shoulder pads. Junior quarterback Marcus Mariota became the 80th recipient of the Heisman Trophy, as he was selected as the nation’s best college football player of the 2014 season. Mariota became the first Hawaiian native and Oregon student athlete to ever win the prestigious award. In addition, Marcus received the 2nd highest percentage of possible points (90.92) to be selected as winner in Heisman history, trailing 2006 winner Troy Smith of the Ohio State Buckeyes with 91.66%. Finishing second in this year’s Heisman running was Wisconsin’s running back Melvin Gordon with a grand total of 1,250 votes while Alabama’s Amari Cooper came in 3rd place with 1,023 votes.
In a season where he lit up the stat sheet, the Hawaiian great cleaned house, basically winning almost every prestigious collegiate football award that exists. The 6’4 junior became the 9th quarterback to win the Maxwell, Davey O’Brien and Heisman Trophy awards in the same season. The last quarterback to accomplished this feat was Cam Newton during his 2010 season, one in which he led his Auburn Tigers to a BCS National Championship. In case you werent sure what the big hype about this standout is, check out the outrageous numbers he put up this year.
Marcus completed 68.3 pct of his passes for a ridiculous 3,783 yards. His total of 53 total TD’s he’s responsible for is a single season Pac 12 conference record. 38 of his touchdowns were reached by his powerful arm strength and tenacious accuracy. Not bad for the humbled standout who many draft experts are nodding him as a unaimous NFL lotttery draft pick.
Now that the Heisman trophy buzz is officially out the way, we are now approaching the most exciting time of the year, the inaugural College Football Playoff. This is the time when regular season greats prove their mark when it really counts. In this case, this is where Marcus can really introduce himself to America in front of a millions of college football fans watching nationwide. On January 1, 2015 at 5 p.m, the #2 ranked Oregon Ducks will be going up against last year’s Heisman trophy winner Jameis Winston and the defending national champions, #3 ranked Florida State Seminoles in the legendary Rose Bowl. This highly anticipated match up will make it the 4th time ever that two players who already won the Heisman do battle against one another. Expect big plays, big tackles, and elusive juke moves being displayed as both teams fight to land a spot to partake in the first ever College Playoff Football national championship being held at the AT&T stadium, the house Jerry Jones built. So college football fans….get your popcorn ready. New Years day’s game is a classic matchup in the making.
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-Omari White (@SmooveGuyO)
