Marcus Mariota is the first ever Oregon Duck to win the Heisman Trophy. Mariota won in style, receiving the 
second-highest percentage of possible points (90.92%) in Heisman history.
Mariota earned the award with an amazing season. He has led the Ducks to the inaugural National Championship playoff while accounting for a total of 53 TDs, 38 passing, 14 running and one receiving. He threw for 3,783 yards, completing 68.3% of his passes, while only throwing 2 (!) interceptions. At 6’4”, 219 lbs (193 cm, 99 kg) and being able to run a 40-yard-dash in 4.5 seconds, Mariota has the size, strength and speed needed to be a great quarterback in the pros.
Ballots were emailed to 870 media personnel across the nation plus 58 Heisman winners and one fan ballot, for a total of 929 electors. The ballots were received and tabulated by the independent accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche, LLP. Mariota polled 2,534 points to capture the award over Melvin Gordon of Wisconsin (1,250 points) and Amari Cooper of Alabama (1,023 points). The point total is reached by a system of three points for a first-place vote, two for a second and one for a third.
Marcus Mariota will be officially honored at the 80th annual Heisman Memorial Trophy Dinner Gala on Monday evening, December 15, 2014, at the Mariott Marquis in New York.
| 1. | Marcus Mariota | Oregon | QB | JR | 788 | 74 | 22 | 2,534 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2. | Melvin Gordon | Wisconsin | RB | JR | 37 | 432 | 275 | 1,250 |
| 3. | Amari Cooper | Alabama | WR | JR | 49 | 280 | 316 | 1,023 |
| 4. | Trevone Boykin | TCU | QB | SR | 8 | 45 | 104 | 218 |
| 5. | J.T. Barrett | Ohio State | QB | FR | 0 | 19 | 40 | 78 |
| 6. | Jameis Winston | Florida State | QB | JR | 4 | 10 | 19 | 51 |
| 7. | Tevin Coleman | Indiana | RB | JR | 2 | 8 | 22 | 44 |
| 8. | Dak Prescott | Mississippi State | LB | SO | 2 | 4 | 28 | 42 |
| 9. | Scooby Wright III | Arizona | RB | SR | 0 | 4 | 13 | 21 |
| 10. | Bryce Petty | Baylor | QB | SR | 1 | 3 | 4 | 13 |
Here’s a tribute to Marcus created by the local Eugene newspaper.
The College Football Bowl season begins Saturday.
College Football offers a smorgasbord of Bowl games starting 20 December. The bowl season culminates in the inaugural National Championship Playoff game 12 January. The playoff participants are #1 Alabama (12-1), #2 Oregon (12-1), #3 Florida State (13-0) and #4 Ohio State (12-1).
The four teams were chosen to play by the new Selection Committee composed of 13 notable members. Starting mid-season the committee met each week to rank the teams. The most important ranking criteria were wins and losses. But also important were margin of victory, “game control” and strength of schedule. Teams who played and beat stronger opponents were given credit for this feat. Thus even though Florida State went undefeated, Alabama and Oregon played and survived a much more difficult slate of opponents.
ROSE BOWL – Oregon vs. Florida State
This New Years Day the Rose Bowl hosts one of the National Championship Playoff semi-final games. Defending national champion Florida State, led by last year’s Heisman Trophy winner quarterback Jameis Winston, face the Oregon Ducks, led by Heisman Trophy winner quarterback Marcus Mariota. This match-up will make the 101st Rose Bowl one of the best ever.
For Oregon fans this year has been almost perfect. In the second week of the PAC-12 season Oregon lost to Arizona 31-24. At that time Arizona was an unknown force, not ranked. It looked like a terrible loss and that Oregon’s title aspirations would once again fall short. However from that point on Oregon has rolled!! First Oregon dispatched #18 UCLA in Los Angeles 42-30. The game was not as close as the score, Oregon led 35-10 at the end of the third quarter. Next Oregon cruised through Washington, California, STANFORD, #17 Utah, Colorado, and finally Oregon State, in the Civil War. In all these games Oregon never scored less than 44 points. The season culminated in a rematch of Oregon vs. Arizona in the PAC-12 Conference Championship. After defeating Oregon, Arizona was able to win the PAC-12 South division and was ranked #7 in the nation going into the game. This time Oregon was ready … no contest. Oregon ran away with the game 51-13. (Oregon led 30-3 at halftime.)
Here is the Motivational video watched prior to the PAC-12 championship game (of course motivational videos are always best listened to LOUD!)
The most interesting, odd, strange, “hard to believe” moment of the Oregon season occurred in Utah. Early in the second quarter, with Utah ahead 7-0 it looked like Utah had struck again … but no.
Marcus MariOta has won the Heisman Trophy and numerous other prestigious awards. But he could not have done it without his teammates. Here is a nice tribute to one of his linemen. OT Jake Fisher anchors Oregon’s line. Jake is 6’6” 300lbs (198cm 136kg). Its good to be big.
