Every few years, the college football world gets a chance to witness a transformative player, and this year happened to be one of those with Oregon’s Marcus Mariota. The Maxwell Club made the obvious choice to pick him to win the Maxwell Award for Player of the Year on Thursday night, and proved that often the more obvious choice is the best one.
Mariota led his team to the first-ever college football Final Four — at least at the FBS level — by throwing for 38 touchdowns and only two interceptions this season. No less of an expert than Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly recruited him, and you know Kelly would love to be able to give away a lot of assets just to be able to draft Mariota in 2015. Kelly predicted Mariota, now a junior, would win the Heisman Trophy when his then quarterback was a freshman. Mariota is now only a couple of days away from that, and the Maxwell Club stole a little bit of New York’s Downtown Club’s thunder, but it was the right choice. Mariota also won the Walter Camp Award as the nation’s best player. He still has a year of eligibility left, but there will be little reason to stay in college now.
Mariota’s 38 touchdowns against just two interceptions will make people pay attention, but his best quality is as a leader and a winner. He has also rushed for 669 yards and 14 touchdowns, and in an NFL that increasingly values a mobile quarterback, he should be a top-two first-round pick.
That makes him too rich for a team like the Eagles, but for a New York Jets team that needs a transformation, they could not pick a better player to transform them. Sometimes the obvious selection is the right one, and the Maxwell Award winner is the latest example of that.
Mike Gibson is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @papreps , “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.