Runnin’ down the dream

Early in quarterback Marcus Mariota’s stay at Oregon, coach Mark Helfrich gave him a bit of advice that has stuck like Velcro.

"He told me to ‘just run through all the smoke,’ " Mariota said.

At the time, "He was talking about pulling on a zone-read play and he meant don’t hesitate in the hole — run with passion, run with assertiveness — while taking care of the ball," Mariota said.

But there was also a wider message about playing with focus and purpose that the Saint Louis School graduate has also clung to. "Probably something that I’ll keep with me for the rest of my life," Mariota said.

Undoubtedly for weeks like this when it has particular application as the Ducks (4-0) play Arizona

(4-0) on Thursday on ESPN and there is plenty to obscure the avowed goal of a national championship.

With Mariota’s name atop the Heisman Trophy polls, renewed talk of his being the first pick in the 2015 NFL Draft and an urge to see the Arizona game as revenge for last year’s disappointing loss in Tucson, there is a lot of "smoke" that can get in the way.

Little of it spared by Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez, who enthusiastically endorsed Mariota for everything but a Nobel Prize when given the opportunity on the Pac-12 coaches conference call Tuesday.

"He’s got all the skill sets that you would want. I mean, he is big, strong and fast," Rodriguez said. "He can make all the throws. He has the ability to make people miss. He can extend plays that needed extending and he can execute the ones that are there, cleanly. And he seems like he has kind of a quiet leadership ability that everybody follows. So, there are no negatives, I’m talking about none. And everything is not just a positive, it is a high positive. That’s why I think he is the Heisman frontrunner and, maybe, the first pick of the draft."

Much as he is able in this age of instant communication, Mariota says he has tried to blot out what comes with being the leader of the No. 2 team in the nation.

"I mean, most people don’t even talk to me about it (the Heisman)," Mariota said. "And, for me, it is really early in the season and there is so much that can happen." He maintains the draft is something "I can’t control."

Teammates and coaches, however, have seized their own opportunities to keep things loose and in perspective.

"The only thing we’ve done is give him a hard time for being on the cover of Sports Illustrated," Helfrich said. "That’s about as far as we go in terms of that (Heisman) discussion. I don’t know if I’ve ever had any discussion about (the Heisman) with him, ever."

Helfrich said, "We made fun of him, which is fun because you never get an opportunity to make fun of Marcus. And so when there’s any sort of door open you have to take advantage of it. And he’s handled it in a very Marcus (like) fashion of, ‘Oh shucks, gosh, gee-whiz,’ and laughed. But that’s been fun for some of his teammates to have a little fun with him at his expense."

The reality is, as Mariota maintained in announcing his December decision to forego a shot at the 2014 NFL Draft, that the ultimate prize is a national championship.

"Marcus wants to win the national championship," Helfrich said. "Marcus wants to be a part of this process of that whole deal. All that other stuff, as a result of that, maybe. And that’s great icing on the cake. But Marcus is back, first and foremost, as a teammate and as a competitor. I don’t think the Heisman part of that was really any part of his thinking at all."

Just trying to run through the smoke, after all.

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