There simply is not a greater Oregon Duck to ever don the green and yellow than Marcus Mariota. The University of Oregon seems to agree with that sentiment, naming him its honorary captain for the Ducks’ Week 1 showdown against the Georgia Bulldogs in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta.
We spoke with Mariota at a press conference held after the announcement, and he explained what it meant to him to be on the sideline with his alma mater at his new home, Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“It’s a privilege,” he said. “I’m very, very excited to be able to be here in Atlanta for this game. It’s really cool, and I’m looking forward to it. I’m excited to see how our guys play. It’s something truly special for me.”
Mariota, who is entering his eighth season in the NFL and first with the Atlanta Falcons, was the first Oregon Duck to win the Heisman Trophy back in 2014. He helped an already exciting program advance to the next level, leading the Ducks to the inaugural College Football Playoff and a spot in the 2015 National Championship Game. He remains the program’s all-time leader in passing yards and touchdowns, and he currently ranks seventh all-time in rushing yards and third in rushing touchdowns.
He spoke fondly of his time in Eugene, a place ostensibly different from his hometown of Honolulu.
“I’ve always thought of Eugene as a second home. It’s a place where really I grew up,” Mariota said. “Those are some of the best years of my life. The support that I’ve received throughout my career is something that is hard to measure. Eugene is a small community, and I come from a small island in the middle of the Pacific, so a lot of those things really coincide.”
Mariota is a hero amongst heroes in the Oregon Ducks community. He was heavily under-recruited out of Saint Louis School, and Mark Helfrich and Chip Kelly offered him a scholarship after flying to Hawaii to watch him throw. Mariota had never started a varsity game at the time of the offer. He redshirted his first season in 2011, but once he took the field, he was electric from the jump, and his resumé speaks for itself. The Oregon athletic department even erected the Marcus Mariota Sports Performance Center in 2016, which features many of his trophies. His Heisman Trophy sits in the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex at the Oregon football facility.
The Ducks community will forever be proud of “the Flyin’ Hawaiian,” but we asked Mariota himself what he is most proud of when he looks back on the eternal legacy he left in Eugene.
“I feel like truly we as a team made a difference in the community,” Mariota told The Transfer Portal CFB. “We just had a lot of really good guys. I’m speaking about Hroniss Grasu, Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, Dwayne Stanford, Tony Washington, guys that were not only good football players, but they’re good people. And when you get a collection of those types of people in your locker room, winning is fun and going to practice is fun. It’s fun being able to go back and share stories about…it’s not even stories about what we did on the field. It was more stories about waking up at seven o’clock during Christmas break to go to practice.
“I really think that my legacy is more toward just everything that we’ve done as a team and as a group. I’ve never been focused on myself personally. I play a game for a living, and I value that and am very grateful for it. But I think our impact off the field is what’s most important, and I think we just had a lot of really good guys that made a difference in that community.”
Mariota stayed true to his values that he set even when he was a rising star in Eugene: a team-first mentality, one that led Oregon football to its highest peaks.
But this Oregon football team, led by first-year head coach Dan Lanning, has a chance to build toward a new peak with an influx of talent accrued on the recruiting trail, as well as an all-star coaching staff. Lanning has made it a point of emphasis to lean on the legends of the program like Mariota, De’Anthony Thomas, Haloti Ngata, LaMichael James, and more.
Mariota appreciates the values that Lanning has installed early in his tenure, especially after meeting with him this summer.
“We got together with our wives and I got to know him a little bit. I just appreciate the fact that where he’s coming from, he really values what Oregon was and what it continues to try to be,” Mariota told The Transfer Portal CFB. “I think moving forward, he’s got a great plan, and I’m excited to see how it goes for him.”
Mariota explained that Eugene isn’t like your Baton Rouges or your Tuscaloosas, and he is relieved that the new coaching staff has embraced the football-centric culture.
“It’s different than some of the bigger programs in the country. Eugene is a small college town. It’s got kind of a cult following, which is something special,” he said. “I think when you have a new staff coming in, for them being able to understand what that means and being able to bring those kinds of family values is important, and I think Dan [Lanning] has really embraced that.”
The three-time All-Pac-12 First Teamer also spent time on campus in Eugene to meet with some of the players, including quarterbacks Bo Nix and Ty Thompson. He explained how he has made himself a resource for them to reach out to if they ever need it.
“I can understand the pressures of playing at a program like Oregon,” Mariota said. “Week in and week out, you’re playing for your season. The expectations are so high that you can’t really have a slip up. So just trying to be a voice of support and somebody they can reach out to.”
The starting quarterback has not yet been announced for the Ducks, but it will be quite the stage for whoever makes their first career start for. Mariota, who played in his fair share of big games at Oregon, passed along some advice for the quarterbacks.
“Be yourself. Don’t try to do too much. Don’t go out there and try to be somebody you’re not. Play your game,” he said. “At the end of the day, these are what you come to Oregon for. This is why you come to play at a school like Oregon is to play in games like this.”
Whoever the quarterback might be, they will have an exciting new offense with an encore cast of explosive pieces surrounding them. Several players in the spring and fall camp expressed the similarities between the new offense under offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham and the offenses they grew up watching with Mariota, Helfrich, and Kelly.
Mariota told The Transfer Portal CFB that it sounds like the offense will live up to the hype, and he’ll get a front-row seat to watch its debut on Sept. 3 as the Ducks’ honorary captain. The Oregon all-time great will certainly be given a warm welcome by the visiting Ducks fans, as well as many of the Georgia Bulldogs fans whose fandom also lies with the hometown Falcons.
“It will be very surreal,” Mariota said of his emotions when his name is announced. “I never really felt the impact that I had while I was in school. I didn’t understand it. I always felt a big responsibility to Hawaii and representing that the best way that I could, but now that I’ve gotten to the NFL and I’ve been away from Eugene for a few years now, I really believe that I represent Hawaii and Eugene because I feel like those are places that have really made me who I am.
“So stepping out there for the game on Saturday is going to be surreal. It will be emotional for me because there was a lot of hard work and sacrifice that has been put in to be able to stand where I’m at today. I’m just going to try to take it all in.”
About the author
I am an Oregon Ducks fan who graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor's degree in Journalism. At the UO, I did on-site reporting with Duck TV Sports and KWVA Sports 88.1 FM and have covered events such as the 2020 Pac-12 Football Championship Game and the 2021 Pac-12 Women's Basketball Tournament. I previously wrote for Ducks Digest on the Sports Illustrated network.
