After the current college football season, quarterback Marcus Mariota of the Oregon Ducks will be eligible to leave school early and enter the NFL draft. The Rose Bowl on Thursday or the College Football Playoff title game on January 12 will likely be the final game of his college football career.
Mariota has not yet officially announced if he will be entering the NFL draft this year. “Honestly, I try not to focus on that,” the latest Heisman winner replied when asked about it on Rose Bowl media day on Monday. “I understand that can become a distraction, especially with the game coming up. I really didn’t want to pay attention to any of that,” he added.
Sports analysts believe that Mariota will be the No. 1 draft pick. He is the reigning Heisman winner and has had 101 touchdown passes and only 12 interceptions in his college career. He averaged over 33 passing touchdowns per season to four interceptions. His record is 35-4 at Oregon.
The NFL draft order for all the non-playoff teams was revealed Monday. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will receive the first overall pick after finishing 2-14 this season and could potentially get a franchise quarterback. The Bucs will likely select Mariota, but could also consider last year’s Heisman winner Jameis Winston of Florida State, who is also expected to enter the draft this year. Winston and Mariota will face each other in the Rose Bowl on Thursday.
Mariota stated that he will make his decision whether to enter the draft after the season is over for the Oregon Ducks. “Whenever the last game is, I’ll take a couple days with my family and we’ll kind of hash it out and figure out what’s next,” Mariota said.
Check out the highlights of Mariota’s college football career below:
Mahalo Marcus from OregonVideo on Vimeo.
