DALLAS » When Ohio State teammates started calling him "Marcus," Stephen Collier professed confusion.

When they began putting cutouts of Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota on his locker, he wondered.

And when they handed him a No. 8 jersey to replace his familiar No. 13, he knew.

"My job is to be Marcus Mariota, simulating him for our defense and get my guys ready," the Buckeyes freshman said.

"You don’t have to dye your hair and change your name, but you have to go out there and be the best at being him (Mariota) you can," Collier said he was told.

Nothing difficult, just impersonate the top player in college football in preparation for Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship Game.

The mission and heavy film study it has inspired have made Collier — a 6-foot, 3-inch, 220-pound true freshman from Leesburg, Ga. — a bigger admirer of the Oregon quarterback, he said.

"The thing that I think Marcus does best is … everything," Collier said. "There are not many flaws in his game. He is quick, he throws well, reads defenses and he leads well. That makes trying to be him really challenging."

Safety Tyvis Powell said, "He’s really good at play-action passes, I mean, he’s caught me a couple of times. He’s doing a good job prepping us."

It isn’t only in the locker room, Collier said, that he is called Marcus. "It is on campus, the library, everywhere. It is kind of hilarious, really. They want me to really get into the part."

Collier’s role as the faux Mariota comes as he is little more than a torn ligament away from seeing the field himself in the Buckeyes’ thinning QB corps.

With the season’s starter, Braxton Miller, out with a shoulder injury, J.T. Barrett sidelined with an ankle injury and the formerly third-string Cardale Jones starting, Collier says he knows he could be pressed into service. "I don’t want anything to happen to my man Cardale," Collier said.

Meanwhile, beyond the CFP Championship Game, Collier said, "anything I can pick up on that will help me later I’m going to take advantage of."

Who knows, Collier wonders, maybe some of playing a Heisman Trophy winner will rub off on him.