It was a sticky 93 degrees in Nashville, Tenn., on Wednesday and if Marcus Mariota couldn’t exactly see Sandy Beach from Saint Thomas Sports Park, you got the feeling that its waves were beckoning him.

After today’s final minicamp session, Mariota will have six weeks before the quarterback’s attendance is next required on the Tennessee Titans’ practice field for the July 30 opening of training camp — and there was little doubt what that meant.

"The ocean, to me, is a place (where) I’m able to kind of rejuvenate and relax," Mariota told a press conference while toweling away the sweat from the penultimate day of minicamp.

For Mariota, timely breaks in his football schedule have often meant a pilgrimage to Sandy’s. From his days at Saint Louis School and on to the University of Oregon, Sandy’s has been more than a place to body board and swim with close friends. It has been prized as a sunny — or sunrise — sanctuary with calming, restorative powers.

The kind of a place where, after seven of the most intensive months of his young life, he can wade into the shorebreak while finding some space and perspective from a period that has seen him lead Oregon to the Pac-12 championship, hoist the Heisman Trophy, guide a Rose Bowl victory, play in the national championship game and undergo all that surrounds being picked No. 2 overall in the NFL Draft.

And, then, jump right in with a team he is expected to lead back from a 4-12 season.

At Sandy’s, far in both mileage and temperament from the billboards that tout him across Nashville and the practice field he has toiled on since May, he doesn’t have to be the face of a franchise or face a battery of microphones and cameras.

"It will be good to get some time off for sure," Mariota said before acknowledging, "but the competitor in me (also) wants to keep rolling."

Of that, Titans’ head coach Ken Whisenhunt says, there is little doubt. "He’s got a good balance of family and things that he does. I don’t see that (break) being a problem. I think he’s driven to be good."

Whisenhunt said, "From what I’ve seen, he works really hard whether it is technique things or whether it is studying the game. A lot of the time guys in that position, who are really good, I don’t care what you say to them, they are always gonna work at it. So, that’s what you see in Marcus."

There is a playbook to be committed to memory and an iPad loaded with video to study. Mariota sees the next six weeks as a period in which, "You’ve got to find that balance of being able to recuperate and rejuvenate for the long haul and keep your mind focused on football."

Already, it is said, Mariota and his receivers are planning to gather and work on their own, polishing skills and cementing relationships formed through OTAs and minicamp. "We’ll find something or somewhere to be able to practice," Mariota predicted.

Some of his teammates have reportedly suggested they assemble here.

"I’m not opposed to that," Mariota told the media. "That would be a great time."

Once more, it seems, Sandy’s calls.

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