CFB AM: Oregon's Marcus Mariota should be first unanimous Heisman winner ever

Published Nov. 30, 2014 11:00 a.m. ET

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Teddy Mitrosilis

Since the Civil War was playing out at the same time as the Iron Bowl, not many people probably watched No. 2 Oregon beat down Oregon State, 47-19.

Too bad.

What those folks also missed was the final exclamation point in Marcus Mariota’s Heisman campaign – yes, he’ll have another next week in the Pac-12 title game, but this race is over – and probably one of the last marks on a historically great season that we won’t fully appreciate until we look back on it.

Mariota went 19-of-25 for 367 yards and four TDs (no picks), while adding another 39 yards and two TDs on the ground.

This stat is insane: Mariota now has 47 total TDs to only two interceptions on the season. TWO! He also leads the country in yards per attempt at 10.4 and is completing 68.6 percent of his passes (sixth in the nation and about 2 percent better than Jameis Winston last year when he ran away with the Heisman).

He’s playing quarterback as well as it can be played, and no disrespect to Melvin Gordon, who’s had an incredible year at RB for Wisconsin, but Mariota should become the first unanimous Heisman Trophy winner of all time. He deserves to get every single first-place vote.

One great moment from Saturday night: Mariota struck the Heisman pose mid-run without even knowing it. Check out this brilliant work by Brian Davies of The Register-Guard.

I’m not sure we’ll see another QB quite like Mariota in the college game, and much of the country probably hasn’t appreciated him as much as it should have. We have possibly three more games of him in an Oregon uniform before he’s most likely off to the NFL. Enjoy them.

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1) Saturday was an emotionally brutal day for Ohio State. The Buckeyes beat rival Michigan, 42-28, for which they should be proud as it moves them a step closer to a possible playoff berth. But in the win, they lost stud QB J.T. Barrett for the rest of the season with a broken ankle. Barrett’s last words to his teammates as he was carted off the field were about beating Michigan, but the challenge now becomes much greater than that. Ohio State goes into next week’s Big Ten title game against Wisconsin with sophomore Cardale Jones under center and needing to show the playoff committee that they are still a potent team without Barrett.

It’s possible the Buckeyes do that, as they still have RB Ezekiel Elliott (17 carries, 121 yards, two TDs vs. Michigan) and a swarming defense, but it’s impossible to overstate how much Barrett has lifted the Buckeyes this year in the absence of Braxton Miller. The best moment to come out of the Michigan game, by far, was this image of Wolverines QB Devin Gardner consoling Barrett on the ground as Ohio State’s training staff put his leg in an air cast.

What a powerful image and moment, and it surprises nobody that it was Gardner who did that.

2) For the second straight year, the Iron Bowl delivered a phenomenal game. No. 1 Alabama beat No. 15 Auburn, 55-44. After being down 36-27 with less than four minutes to play in the third quarter, the Crimson Tide rattled off four straight touchdowns to gain control of the game. QB Blake Sims played  two different games Saturday night, throwing three picks in the first half and scoring four TDs in the second (three pass and one run). Sims finished at 20-of-27 for 312 yards, four TDs and three INTs. WR Amari Cooper had a monster game, setting a new Iron Bowl record with 224 yards on 13 catches to go along with three scores. RB T.J. Yeldon had 127 yards and two TDs on 19 carries, while Derrick Henry racked up 72 yards and a TD on only five carries.

The game didn’t start well for the Tide, as Auburn came out attacking the Tide’s secondary. Sammie Coates had 153 yards and two TDs in the first half, while Nick Marshall kept the Tide D on its heels. Saban was a little ornery with the way things were going – he even chewed out OC Lane Kiffin after the Tide scored a touchdown, although it was the defense that was killing Bama.

But the Tide figured it out. Saban gave a gut-check speech at halftime, writes Michael Casagrande. Auburn decided  to defend Cooper like he was “any other person,” writes Brandon Marcello. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. Auburn wraps up the regular season at 8-4 (4-4 SEC), while Alabama wins the SEC West at 11-1 (7-1 SEC) and moves onto Atlanta next week to face Missouri in the SEC title game.

3) The Egg Bowl lost a lot of its luster with Ole Miss out of the playoff hunt and Mississippi State hanging onto the fourth spot by a seemingly slim margin, but it turned out to be a great game. The No. 19 Rebels knocked off No. 4 Miss. State in Oxford, 31-17. The loss officially knocks the Bulldogs out of the College Football Playoff race with two losses and opens the door for TCU, Baylor and Ohio State to make a case.

Ole Miss QB Bo Wallace didn’t play particularly well on Senior Night – going 13-of-30 for 296 yards, no touchdowns and one pick – but he got another memorable moment to take with him as he wraps up his football career. Beating Alabama and winning the Egg Bowl at home ain’t a bad way to go out. All year we wondered when Ole Miss would need some kind of running game to emerge to help Wallace, and it finally did against Miss. State, with Jaylen Walton rushing for 148 yards and one TD on 14 carries. The Rebels also used some trick plays to attack the Dogs. "We came in thinking we were going to shoot all our guns," co-offensive coordinator Dan Werner told reporters after the game. "We felt like we could win the game without that stuff but might as well use it. It's the last game of the (regular) season, and let it all hang out."

Credit to Ole Miss’ defense, as the Rebs held Dak Prescott to 22-of-37 for 282 yards and one TD and only 48 yards and one TD (on 24 carries) on the ground. They also completely shut down RB Josh Robinson, who struggled for 44 yards on 12 carries. Afterwards, coach Hugh Freeze got a kiss and a Gatorade shower. His poor wife …

Also: Miss. State was involved in a bus accident after leaving Oxford, but the school reports everyone is OK and it was not serious.

THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

1) No. 3 Florida State did it once again. The Noles didn’t look good at all, but they beat Florida, 24-19, to stretch their win streak to 28 straight and conclude their second consecutive perfect regular season. Jameis Winston had the worst game of his career, going 12-of-24 for 125 yards, two TDs and four interceptions. The Gators just couldn’t take advantage of those mistakes, as they coughed up two of their own, including a pick six inside the red zone. If one Winston photo summed up his performance, it would probably be this:

Florida had some moments, particularly on D with those four Winston picks, but it was apparent the Gators couldn’t even compete with the Noles. Any decent team would have probably had FSU in a three-touchdown hole after Winston threw three picks in the first quarter. Instead, the most memorable thing to come out of the game for UF was this ridiculous cheap shot by freshman DL Gerald Willis.

With that, the Will Muschamp era at Florida officially comes to an end. The parting image will be FSU players carrying a Gator head around the field after dropping Muschamp’s team to 6-5.

2) The most underrated game of Week 14: Wisconsin-Minnesota. The No. 14 Badgers beat the No. 18 Gophers, 34-24, to win Paul Bunyan’s Axe and earn a trip to the Big Ten title game as the West representative. RB Melvin Gordon had a ho-hum day – which means he ran for 151 yards and a TD on 29 carries – while Corey Clement added 89 yards and a TD on seven carries. I’d like to give a quick nod to QB Joel Stave, who battled a mental block with his throwing earlier in the year and overcame it to help the Badgers in the second half of the season. Stave went 11-of-18 for 215 yards and two TDs (no picks) against Minnesota. Good for him.

One fun Minnesota thing: Senior Marcus Jones had a little fun on the field during “Jump Around,” which plays between the third and fourth quarters at Camp Randall and gets the entire Wisconsin crowd shaking. The regular season ended at 8-4 for Jerry Kill’s Gophers, and I’m sure they’re a bit disappointed to not be going to the conference title game, but it was another great year for the program and they’ll have a chance to finish it with a solid bowl game. Nice to see Jones enjoy a moment in his second-to-last football game at Minnesota.

3) This might be a bit of surprise but it’s definitely not a stunner. No. 16 Georgia Tech beat No. 9 Georgia on the road in overtime, 30-24, to end UGA’s five-game winning streak in the series. D.J. White picked off Georgia QB Hutson Mason in the first OT – after GT had scored a touchdown but missed the extra point – to secure GT’s 10th win of the year, marking only the fourth 10-win season for the Jackets since 1966, writes Ken Sugiura. Here’s the game-winning pick.

Running back Zach Laskey deserves a shout out, as he went for 140 yards and three TDs on 26 carries. GT now heads to Charlotte to face Florida State in the ACC title game, which should be a phenomenal game. The Jackets might be FSU’s first real test in a while – they’re too good of a team for FSU to mess around with turnovers and sloppy play and hope to survive it.

THREE THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO KNOW

1) Go crazy, Clemson fans. The No. 21 Tigers finally beat South Carolina, 35-17, to end their five-year drought against the Gamecocks. "They played better and they coached better, and we got beat, simple as that," Spurrier told reporters after game. "They're a real good team. Their defense stymied us pretty well most of the day, and they ran for a bunch of yards here and there on us. So give those guys credit. They're better than us."

And this is crazy: After the game, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney revealed that QB DeShaun Watson was playing with a torn ACL that would require surgery to repair after the season. Watson, a freshman, was brilliant – 14-of-19 for 269 yards and two TDs, along with two rushing TDs. Swinney said doctors determined Watson couldn’t do any further damage to his ACL by playing, so he decided to play and will play in the bowl game, with surgery to follow. That sounds a little crazy to me – that guy is the future of your program and you’re gonna run him out in a non-playoff game with a torn ACL? – but if doctors believe there is no risk involved, then have at it. Incredible performance on Saturday.

It also appears to have been the last game at Clemson for OC Chad Morris, as he’s expected to become SMU’s next head coach.

2) No. 7 Baylor beat Texas Tech, 48-46, but the news of the game was Bryce Petty suffering a “minor concussion,” which should of course concern Bears fans. I’m not sure any concussion can be diagnosed as “minor” these days, but that’s what the Bears called it. Baylor is in fine playoff position, with one big opportunity to make a statement next week with Kansas State at home. Win that and we’ll see if the committee leaps them ahead of TCU and Ohio State into the fourth playoff spot.

Also: Baylor’s Shawn Oakman with a little extra curricular stuff here after a sack, kneeing Tech’s QB in the face. We’ll see if that gets any kind of response from Baylor or the Big 12.

3) No. 22 Louisville beat Kentucky, 44-40, which in and of itself isn’t that notable (although it was a really fun game, and the Cards might have found their 2015 QB in freshman Kyle Bolin – 21-of-31, 381 yards, three TDs, one pick). What’s notable is that the two teams, including coaches, got in a mild scuffle before the  game, which gave us this pissed-off Bobby Petrino photo:

I’m dying to know what Kentucky’s assistant coaches say to Petrino in the middle of a fake fight. Dying.

LASTLY

* USC crushed Notre Dame, 49-14, behind six TDs from Cody Kessler. I always love this rivalry, and it's kind of disappointing it was so off the radar this year. 

Hope you all enjoyed Week 14 and are ready for championship week and then bowl season. It's been a phenomenal year -- as always, thanks for reading CFB AM. Have a great Sunday.

Teddy Mitrosilis is an editor and writer for FOXSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TMitrosilis and email him at tmitrosilis@gmail.com.

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