Who is the greatest offensive football player Oregon ever?

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duck023
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Re: Who is the greatest offensive football player Oregon eve

Post by duck023 »

Quietduck wrote:Dan Fouts, Bobby Moore, Norm Van Brocklin?? Just because they aren't modern doesn't make them less great.
Norm Van Brocklin was great but doesn't get talked about enough. I'm also a Ram's fan so he was a legend on both of my football teams. Sort of the same thing with Chris Duarte. I'm a Pacers fan so it's pretty cool drafting an Oregon player that I like. Although the Pacer's also drafted Joe Young but I don't think he was given much of a chance.
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Re: Who is the greatest offensive football player Oregon eve

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UOducksTK1 wrote:Mariota is the goat. I’ll take heisman winner over all else.
The Heisman is important but Lamichael James went against Cam Newton and Andrew Luck. I wonder if Mariota would have beaten those guys. I personally think he is better than those guys especially in college but Heisman is more of a popularity contest so he might have taken 3rd too if you have two guys that ESPN was absolutely in love with against him.
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pezsez1
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Re: Who is the greatest offensive football player Oregon eve

Post by pezsez1 »

The Heisman is important but Lamichael James went against Cam Newton and Andrew Luck.
Yep. Any other year, LaMike's resume is likely enough to win the Heisman. It's silly to say MM is the undisputed winner simply because he won and LaMike finished third in the balloting.

MM was fantastic, obviously, but if we're going to pretend that LMJ as always running through canyons then let's also pretend that MM was constantly throwing to wide-open receivers because defenses were always preoccupied by Oregon's lethal rushing attack. That argument goes both ways so it's not really worth the oxygen.

Ultimately, we're talking about two elite players who played at the top of their respective positions. This may seem unfair to MM, but the fact his performance seemed to decline when faced with extreme adversity (i.e. Stanford, the national championship game) is partly why I give LMJ the "greatest offensive player" edge. I never saw weakness from LMJ, even from the get-go when he was thrust into the starting lineup when Blount got suspended. He was ready and amazing from Day 1. And it wasn't just his yardage, but HOW he got that yardage, often squirting through the smallest of holes or spinning out of impossible situations for huge gains. LMJ pretty much carried us to an undefeated season in 2010 and he might have carried us to a national title had DT not made a couple of crucial redzone read-option errors.

It's super close, but LMJ was a special kind of dangerous and I can't shake that.
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duck023
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Re: Who is the greatest offensive football player Oregon eve

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pezsez1 wrote:
The Heisman is important but Lamichael James went against Cam Newton and Andrew Luck.
Yep. Any other year, LaMike's resume is likely enough to win the Heisman. It's silly to say MM is the undisputed winner simply because he won and LaMike finished third in the balloting.

MM was fantastic, obviously, but if we're going to pretend that LMJ as always running through canyons then let's also pretend that MM was constantly throwing to wide-open receivers because defenses were always preoccupied by Oregon's lethal rushing attack. That argument goes both ways so it's not really worth the oxygen.

Ultimately, we're talking about two elite players who played at the top of their respective positions. This may seem unfair to MM, but the fact his performance seemed to decline when faced with extreme adversity (i.e. Stanford, the national championship game) is partly why I give LMJ the "greatest offensive player" edge. I never saw weakness from LMJ, even from the get-go when he was thrust into the starting lineup when Blount got suspended. He was ready and amazing from Day 1. And it wasn't just his yardage, but HOW he got that yardage, often squirting through the smallest of holes or spinning out of impossible situations for huge gains. LMJ pretty much carried us to an undefeated season in 2010 and he might have carried us to a national title had DT not made a couple of crucial redzone read-option errors.

It's super close, but LMJ was a special kind of dangerous and I can't shake that.
I will say I didn't think Oregon would ever get the Heisman because it is a popularity contest, so I understand why it is so important. However, I think carrying the team from the running back position is much harder. I actually put Lamichael ahead of Reggie Bush for this reason. Reggie Bush was an explosive player, but Leinhart was the main guy that moved that offense and I'd also argue there were days when Lendale White played better. So I don't think Reggie Bush carried that USC team. However Oregon had Darron Thomas and the WRs were solid but they needed Lamichael James to be as good as they were. So I agree with you.
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Re: Who is the greatest offensive football player Oregon eve

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When Marcus left Oregon he had either the most efficient or 2nd most efficient season for a QB - EVER.
His junior Heisman-winning season was spectacular. He threw for 3,783 yards and 38 touchdowns with just two interceptions while also rushing for 669 yards and 14 scores (he also caught a TD pass) as the Ducks finished the regular season with a 12-1 record. His 53 total touchdowns tied Sam Bradford for the most in Heisman history. Mariota led the nation in touchdowns, passing efficiency (186.33) and total offense (4,452 yards). His winning Heisman vote was the third-highest vote total in Heisman history and he appeared on a record 95.16% of ballots.

https://www.heisman.com/heisman-winners/marcus-mariota/
Among FBS quarterbacks with 100 or more TD passes, Marcus Mariota has the fewest interceptions.Marcus Mariota, one of the most efficient and accurate quarterbacks in college football history, announced Wednesday he will leave the University of Oregon with a year of eligibility remaining and make himself available for the NFL draft. The 2014 Heisman Trophy winner is the No. 2 player on the Scouts Inc. Big Board and No. 1 in Todd McShay’s first mock draft.

Mariota finished his Oregon career with the lowest interception percentage in FBS history (1.2 percent). Among quarterbacks with at least 14 starts, his 88.8 career Total QBR is the second best in the past 10 seasons. Of the top five players on that list, three were drafted No. 1 overall (Cam Newton, Andrew Luck and Sam Bradford).

https://www.espn.com/blog/statsinfo/pos ... nd-mariota
There is not a single Oregon player who did more on Offense than Marcus did and everyone else is competing for 2nd against him.
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Re: Who is the greatest offensive football player Oregon eve

Post by UofDuck »

07 is exactly right. LaMike was tremendous and a fan favorite, but no way was he a better offensive weapon than our Heisman winning by a landslide QB - who happened to be lethal running the ball too.
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Re: Who is the greatest offensive football player Oregon eve

Post by SuperDuck »

There are so many great players to choose from. It's super hard to make a clear definitive choice. I'm going to choose my top pick and then throw a few 1A choices along with it.

#1. Marcus Mariota

#1A:

LMJ
DeAnthony Thomas
Bobby Moore (Ahmad Rashad)
Justin Herbert
Jonathan Stewart
Dennis Dixon
Dan Fouts
Norm Van Brocklin
Penei Sewell (Not a skill position player, but definitely belongs)
Max Unger (Not a skill position player, but definitely belongs)
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Re: Who is the greatest offensive football player Oregon eve

Post by dd10snoop28 »

SuperDuck wrote:There are so many great players to choose from. It's super hard to make a clear definitive choice. I'm going to choose my top pick and then throw a few 1A choices along with it.

#1. Marcus Mariota

#1A:

LMJ
DeAnthony Thomas
Bobby Moore (Ahmad Rashad)
Justin Herbert
Jonathan Stewart
Dennis Dixon
Dan Fouts
Norm Van Brocklin
Penei Sewell (Not a skill position player, but definitely belongs)
Max Unger (Not a skill position player, but definitely belongs)
This is reasonable, but I think you have to include Barner?
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