If quarterback Marcus Mariota had a major and a minor at Saint Louis School, they surely would have been in perseverance and preparedness.

As much as anything, Mariota’s formative football years at Kalaepohaku taught him how to wait his turn on the sidelines and keep his chinstrap up. And, more importantly, to do it firm of purpose, not idly.

That he is competing for the starting quarterback job this spring at the University of Oregon as a redshirt freshman is testament to how well Mariota has taken the lessons to heart — and the field — at the next level.

Marcus Mariota:
In competition to start
at QB for Oregon

“I don’t know many who could have done what he did,” Saint Louis coach Darnell Arceneaux said admiringly.

What Mariota has remarkably done with just one season of full-time play in the past four years was to parlay it into a Pac-12 scholarship and emerge as a possible starter for the defending Rose Bowl champions. He started spring ball this past week dueling with Bryan Bennett, the 2011 backup, for the starting job.

When the Ducks’ two-year starter at quarterback, Darron Thomas, announced in January that he would forego his senior season in Eugene to make himself available for the NFL Draft, it caught some people by surprise. And, maybe, unprepared.

Mariota was neither.

Mariota never got on the field in 2011, his redshirt season at Oregon. But he never considered it an obligatory write-off year, either. Instead, he treated every meeting, practice and available hour of film study as an opportunity for advancement. Then, when he did get on the practice field, he demonstrated it, opening eyes.

He speed read the spread option offense, ascending to No. 3 on the depth chart, and earned weekly practice reps not as part of the scout team, like most redshirts and freshmen, but in the offense’s weekly game prep.

People at Oregon will tell you Mariota was a 6-foot, 4-inch, 200-pound “sponge,” soaking up advice and putting it to use in a way that the mistakes he made were rarely repeated.

“If you show an understanding of the offense, they say you will get a chance,” Mariota said. “And that’s the way I approached it: to just get better each day. It is definitely a little hard to just watch from the sideline. I’m a competitive guy. I want to be out there fighting the guys. For me, every day was about getting ready.”

It was a philosophy he came by at Saint Louis, where he served as a backup to Jeremy Higgins as a sophomore and junior. Long enough to become either dispirited or determined. Mariota was decidedly the latter, emerging from it better than a lot of players who might have started. Proof of that being the scholarship offers that awaited him before his senior season at the controls.

“I’ve always wanted to play and, at Saint Louis, sitting out for those couple of years taught me how to prepare and be ready,” Mariota said. “Those years were hard, but the adversity helped prepare me for anything that came,” Mariota said. “It helped me to prepare for where I am now.”

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.