Marcus Mariota's College Football Legacy

The last time we saw Marcus Mariota in one of the many versions of the Oregon Ducks uniform, he was walking off the field at AT&T Stadium having come up short in his quest to bring a national championship to the Pacific Northwest.

It's about the only time during his storied collegiate career that Mariota didn't come through.

Mariota, who officially announced Wednesday that he would pass up his final season of eligibility to enter the NFL draft, will leave school as the most decorated player in program history. But beyond being the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, Mariota leaves behind a reputation as one of the most well-liked athletes in recent memory.

Let's take a look back at the legacy that Mariota leaves behind as he sets out on a pro career.

On the Field

College stats don't always tell the whole story, but with Mariota they do a darn good job of it. In three seasons with the Ducks, the 6'4", 219-pound Mariota started 41 games and threw a touchdown in every one of them. Overall, he threw for 10,796 yards and 105 TDs, with only 14 interceptions in 1,167 pass attempts.

Known as much for his mobility as his arm, Mariota also ran for 2,237 yards and 29 TDs, with 15 rushing scores in 2014. All told this past season, he was responsible for 5,250 yards and 58 scores, numbers that made him one of the most overwhelming Heisman winners in history.

"It's been an honor to watch Marcus develop over the last four years, and I'm excited to see what his future holds," Oregon coach Mark Helfrich said in a statement released by the school. "He's given this program everything we could have asked, and he'll be the standard by which others are judged."

Year	Comp-Att	Pct.	Yards	TD-Int	Rushing
Totals	779-1,167	66.8	10,796	105-14	2,237 yards, 29 TDs
2012	230-336	68.5	2,677	32-6	752 yards, 5 TDs
2013	245-386	63.5	3,665	31-4	715 yards, 9 TDs
2014	304-445	68.3	4,454	42-4	770 yards, 15 TDs

A 3-star recruit out of Hawaii who was the 19th-best dual-threat quarterback in the 2011 class via the 247Sports composite rankings, Mariota redshirted that first year at Oregon. In 2012, he won the starting job and went on to win 36 games in three seasons. He holds eight school career records, and his 105 passing TDs ranks him second all time in the Pac-12 behind USC's Matt Barkley. 

In addition to winning the Heisman in 2014, Mariota also won the Maxwell and Walter Camp awards given to the national player of the year, as well as the Davey O'Brien and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm quarterback awards. Mariota was also a unanimous All-American this past season, just the second player in school history to achieve that honor. 

Off the Field

In an era where many of college football's best and brightest players have struggled to keep their noses clean and maintain a positive reputation, Mariota was as close to a squeaky-clean athlete as their ever was. When a speeding ticket is the biggest blemish on the resume, you know you're dealing with one of the good guys.

ESPN.com's Ted Miller noted that Mariota is so well liked he went against the grain for what has become the expectation for high-profile players, particularly those at his position:

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Along the way to becoming a national figure who further validated Oregon as an elite power, he also became known for being quiet and nice, which isn't very quarterback-y. He's not a carouser. You don't get much swashbuckling with him. In fact, with so few obvious holes in his game, his quiet niceness has apparently become a worry for some NFL scouts, at least an anonymous one took who that position during the season in an interview with Sports Illustrated.

"

Recent Heisman winners such as Florida State's Jameis Winston, Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel and Auburn's Cam Newton all had checkered off-field lives, while 2005 winner Reggie Bush is no longer recognized by the Heisman Trust after the NCAA determined he'd received gifts while in college.

Alex Goodlett/Getty Images

None of that existed with Mariota, a humble, team-first player whose win this year helped return some prestige to an award that briefly dropped "with integrity" from the description listed on the Heisman website. Though this was due to a redesign error, it served as a reminder of how the award's reputation had been tarnished by the actions of recent winners.

Mariota helped fix that.

He's also a big deal in Eugene-area schools, as we learned when O'Hara Catholic School 12-year-old Charlie Pape spoke during an Oregon press conference earlier this season:

Overall Impact

Thanks to its connection to Nike—which has enabled the school to become a sports fashion icon, among other things—Oregon has been a national brand for some time. But Mariota elevated the Ducks to another level, one that wasn't based entirely on flash and flair but also got credit for performance. Though Oregon came up short in Monday's national championship game, falling 42-20 to Ohio State, it was the program's second appearance in the final in the past five years.

Oregon wouldn't have gotten there without Mariota, and though the Ducks have a talented roster coming back, they're not considered a favorite to return in 2015-16.

Don Ryan/Associated Press

But even with his college career over, Mariota's legacy at the school is expected to have an impact for quite some time. According to Richard Read of The Oregonian, the exiting quarterback has created a "Mariota Magic" boom in applications to the school. It's similar to the "Flutie Factor," the name given to the spike in enrollment that Boston College had after Doug Flutie's Hail Mary pass to beat Miami (Florida) in 1984.

"Spectacular success on the football field often translates to increased applications and giving, university managers and fundraising consultants say," Read wrote. "For the University of Oregon, such spikes would be timed perfectly, coinciding with the campaigns for donations and for out-of-state students who pay higher tuition."

Many of the buildings and athletic facilities at Oregon are named after members of the Knight family, major donors to the school and principles in Nike. But after what he's done for the school, it shouldn't be long before there's a structure with Mariota's name on it. 

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.