Heading Into the Post-Mariota Era
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Thursday, August 06, 2015
Hank Stern, GoLocalPDX Contributor
A program-defining quarterback leaves the University of Oregon with a winning percentage as a starter approaching .900.
Mariota departing the Ducks after the 2014 season took Oregon to the national championship game? Yep.
But that first sentence also describes the situation after Joey Harrington left the Ducks following the 2001 season.
And that memory from 14 years ago merits revisiting because of something Coach Mark Helfrich said last week.
Interviewed during Pac-12 media days in Los Angeles on “1080 The Fan,” Helfrich was asked how Oregon would replace the irreplaceable Mariota this upcoming season on the field.
“From a standpoint of something that’s identifiable to Oregon fans, it’s like when Joey left,” Helfrich said in that interview. “When Joey Harrington left, it was like ‘Oh my God, what are they going to do? It’s going to be 1978 again. The sky is falling.’”
Helfrich went on to say you’re not going to “one-for-one” replace a Mariota and that the 2014 Heisman Trophy winner’s absence provides a chance for other Ducks each to do their jobs a little better in 2015. All true when talking about the prospect of filling in for Mariota, who went 36-5 as a Ducks starter.
But what’s troubling is the part of the answer that cited the era after Harrington, who went 25-3 as a starter at Oregon.
Because while the aftermath of Harrington’s departure certainly did not boomerang Oregon football to the dark days of 1978, the three seasons of 2002-2004 are certainly not a stretch designed to ease Oregon fans’ worries heading into Season 1 of the post-Mariota era.
In order, Oregon went 7-6 in 2002, losing six of the last seven games after a 6-0 start; 8-5 in 2003 after a 4-0 beginning that plunged downhill after a huge win over Michigan was followed by a Washington State rout at Autzen Stadium; and a 5-6 record in 2004. Duck fortunes finally turned back upward in 2005 when Oregon went 10-2.
While a cumulative 18-17 record from 2002-2004 might not have elicited a “sky is falling” response from Oregon fans a decade ago, it certainly would today among newer fans spoiled by years of double-digit win seasons and in an athletic department charging $120-plus for a ticket to this season’s home games against Oregon State and Southern California.
In fact, just one .500-ish season, much less three, would be cause for panic and empty seats at Autzen.
Certainly, Oregon’s program is on much sturdier legs now than in 2002 with a steady diet of top-20ish recruiting classes and hugely successful seasons culminating in high-profile post-season games.
But then again, the rest of the conference is on sturdier legs too than at the start of the 21st century.
Heading into the 2002 season, four teams in the then-Pac 10 were ranked in the preseason top 25. Heading into the 2015 season, six teams in the Pac 12 are ranked in the preseason top 25 and the Pac-12 is even in the conversation with the SEC when it comes to college football’s toughest conference.
Much of the story line when Oregon starts fall camp on Aug. 10 will be whether holdover Jeff Lockie or incoming Vernon Adams will succeed Mariota at quarterback when the 2015 season begins.
Put your money on Lockie but whoever wins the battle faces a lot more expectations in 2015 than quarterback Jason Fife did in 2002 after he succeeded Harrington.
And anything short of a 10-2 season with a trip to the Pac-12 title game will look a lot more like the “sky is falling” than Helfrich or Ducks fans want to admit.
Such is the benefit – and the curse – of expectations that have left the post-Harrington era well in Oregon football’s rearview mirror.
A native Oregonian, Hank Stern had a 24-year career in journalism, working for more than a decade as a reporter with The Associated Press in Oregon, New Jersey and Washington, DC. He worked seven years for The Oregonian as a reporter in east Multnomah County, Washington County and Portland’s City Hall. In 2005, he became Willamette Week’s managing news editor and worked there until 2011.
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