I Don’t Believe in Marcus Mariota

By: Connor Lenahan

Earlier today when my buddy Matt Bruzzano texted me “Calling it now, Mariota is going to be a huge, ginormous bust,” I was elated. That’s because I have thought the exact same for most of the last calendar year. I have absolutely no idea why, but I root against Marcus Mariota more than just about any college football player in the game today.

I think my problem with Mariota stems from how everyone was willing to place this man at the top of football despite the fact that he is only the latest in a long line of Oregon quarterbacks to succeed in the blur offense. I have problems accepting that Mariota is a franchise changing player in any way other than that you need to change your franchise to fit his style. He produced big numbers playing for the Ducks, however he was doing so in an offense designed to inflate his statistics as much as possible.

There is a very good chance that I will be totally wrong about it. I have an irrational tend to hope Mariota permanently walks on Legos for the rest of his life despite the fact that his Oregon teams never gave me any reason to root against them. I just want to watch him try to tear through defenses when he isn’t on a team with absurdly fast players. The Tennessee Titans are not the Oregon Ducks. Now he has to prove himself outside of the bubble of the Autzen Zoo.

He very well could end up the answer to Tennessee’s problems. If you ask me? You’d have been better off trading the pick. Let someone else try to figure this guy out. I wouldn’t want him. I don’t believe in Marcus Mariota.