Mariota's Debut An Afternoon To Remember
by Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
TAMPA, Fla. — For the young quarterback versed in the spread-option, it was a day he’ll never forget.
On Sunday, Hunter Watts of Tampa turned 15 years old. He celebrated by attending the hometown Buccaneers’ game against Tennessee — and did so sporting a No. 8 Oregon jersey, while hoping for an encounter with the man who made it famous, new Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota.
Around 2 p.m., Watts camped out in a corner of the stadium from which he knew the Titans would emerge, on their way from the locker room to the field. Then, he waited. As much of the Tennessee roster emerged to warm up on their own, and Mariota remained cloistered away from the field, Watts waited. And waited.
Finally, about 50 minutes from kickoff, the first group of Titans emerged for formal warmups in uniform, Mariota among them. The rookie was all business as he prepared to take the field for his first regular-season game. Behind the helmet visor shielding his eyes, Mariota stared straight ahead, his focus acute.
At the end of the tunnel, Watts was perched, having waited some 90 minutes to see his hero. Like Mariota, Watts is an option quarterback for his youth team. Once Watts saw Mariota playing for the Ducks, he was hooked. The kid from the Southeast became a fan of the Heisman winner from the Northwest. And here, just a few feet away, was Mariota himself.
As he emerged from the tunnel, Mariota gave little indication anything was on his mind but football. Until, just before hitting the field, he raised his right arm, reached out and gave a quick slap to the outreached hand of Watts.
It was a simple gesture. Blink and you missed it. But it’s what makes Marcus, Marcus. And it helps explain the outpouring of pride expressed by Oregon fans around the country — the world, even — as Mariota, over the next few hours, enjoyed the best debut ever by an NFL rookie quarterback.
“Best gift I got for my birthday,” Watts said a few minutes later, still beaming.
Once the game began — and after Watts got another high-five, as Mariota left the field following warmups — the nation was left to marvel at Mariota the football player. He had already touched their hearts with his emotional Heisman Trophy acceptance speech in December. Now, amid doubts about his ability to transition to the professional level, Mariota brilliantly orchestrated and executed an NFL offense, with a few familiar wrinkles thrown in.
Mariota’s first attempt was incomplete, a short pass to a running back in the flat that probably had a little too much air on it. His second career pass also was incomplete, dropped by the same running back.
After his first start for Oregon, that bravura three-touchdown performance against Arkansas State to open the 2012 season, Mariota admitted getting nervous before games. He said then that his father, Toa, told him that nerves were natural; that kept his anxiety from compounding.
Perhaps that explains how Mariota responded to the two incomplete passes to begin his pro debut Sunday. In 14 more attempts, he had just one more incompletion. That also came in the first quarter, after which Mariota completed his final nine passes, for 111 yards.
For the game he finished 13-of-16, for 209 yards and an NFL rookie record-tying four touchdowns. His 158.3 rating, perfect on the NFL’s scale, was the best ever for a rookie on the opening weekend of the season.
In the postgame press conference, Mariota was asked if he experienced any pregame jitters similar to those before his college debut, when his father was there with counsel. Turns out there was another father-son moment before this game as well.
“I was very fortunate that my parents were in town,” Mariota said Sunday. “It’s the same thing— you kind of talk through it, and then it’s just playing football. Get that first play out of the way, and continue to play the game you’ve always played.”
Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt said afterward Mariota “was excited to play.” But in a sign of his maturity over the last three years, Mariota wasn’t as nervous as he was for his Oregon debut. That at least according to his father, after the two spoke pregame.
“He was more focused,” Toa Mariota said Sunday evening, while waiting outside Raymond James Stadium to see his son off. “Because this is a job now. It’s different. … He was prepared. He was ready to go.”
Mariota’s mother, Alana, chimed in: “The passion’s there. He was ready.”
The passion from Oregon fans was there as well. Across social media, Duck fans expressed an outpouring of pride in their former star. They spent three years endeared not only to Mariota’s skills on the field, but his grace off of it. Their appreciation for those traits didn’t end when Mariota left Eugene.
TV executives were sure that Oregon was among the regions of the country to get the Titans-Bucs broadcast. Duck fans no doubt still were nursing their wounds from Oregon’s narrow defeat Saturday night at Michigan State. But as he did so many times over the last three years, here came Mariota to the rescue.
In the postgame press conference, Mariota expressed gratitude to the Titans staff for preparing him to thrive in his debut. He offered the same to his teammates, turning questions about his own performance into answers about how well the offense operated as a whole.
To those watching back in Oregon, it was all very familiar.
“He did a nice job,” Whisenhunt said. “He handled himself well.”
He handled himself, as ever, like Marcus.
