HONOLULU -- When the phone call that changed Marcus Mariota's life finally came -- 10 minutes after some among his friends and family had hoped -- a small room of around 300 of his supporters went so quiet so fast it sounded like a record scratch.

It was not the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the line. As expected, they'd selected Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston with the first pick of the 2015 NFL draft Thursday minutes earlier. It was not Chip Kelly, either. Though the Philadelphia Eagles coach and former Oregon boss was the sentimental favorite for some in Mariota's camp and tried doggedly to move up 18 picks to draft his former quarterback, he couldn't deliver.

It was instead the Tennessee Titans calling, holders of the No. 2 pick. And upon making Mariota the first Oregon Duck player ever taken at No. 2 and turning his childhood dream of being an NFL quarterback into reality, the Titans told him ...

Uh, hello, Nashville,

you there

?

"They actually hung up on me," said Mariota, who reconnected with the team only after they called the phone of his mother, Alana, too. "I think it was just my phone."

After four months of crossed signals, anonymous concerns from NFL personnel and skulduggery that mark the modern NFL draft process -- but particularly this one, where the Winston vs. Mariota debate raged till the very end -- perhaps there was no more fitting conclusion than the dropped call: one final, last-minute twist before ultimately going chalk with its first two picks.

"This," Mariota said afterward, wearing traditional Polynesian floral leis, "is going to be a lot of fun."

Mariota, the All-American and Heisman Trophy winner with the Oregon Ducks who transformed in just five years from a junior varsity quarterback to the highest-drafted Hawaiian-born player, is now a Titan. Only one other Duck in school history has been picked higher: Quarterback George Shaw went No. 1 in 1955.

Inside the packed alumni center of Mariota's high school, Saint Louis, where he chose to watch the draft's first round amid barbecued local food and hundreds of local faces rather than attend in person in Chicago, the moment of his call was so hushed that his side of the conversation with Titans brass could be heard by some in the very back.

Then came the noise -- a whole island, seemingly, cheering a favorite son all the way to Tennessee. Amid the din, he embraced his parents, Toa and Alana, and gave them his own message: Thank you.

"I know every TV set at Saint Louis High School, every TV set on the islands in high schools and homes were cheering today when the No. 2 pick came out," said Darnell Arceneaux, the Saint Louis coach when Mariota finally won the starting job as a senior. "The word Ohana is family and that's statewide, all the islands. That's everybody. It's so hard not to root for this kid."

Mariota wasn't the only Duck whose selection received cheers from Hawaii on Thursday, however. An hour after Mariota became the 13th Ducks quarterback ever drafted in the first round, the San Francisco 49ers selected defensive lineman Arik Armstead at No. 17. It marks only the third time two Ducks have gone in the first round in the same draft, joining 1972 and 2013.

Offensive tackle Jake Fisher was not selected, as some projected, but he remains likely to be drafted early in Friday's second round.

Mariota became a star through his ability to play on the fly in Oregon's uptempo offense, and he'll now have to learn quickly with the Titans. Moments after making the pick, head coach Ken Whisenhunt said Thursday he's operating under the assumption Mariota will start Week One of the regular season over backup Zach Mettenberger.

"That's the plan," Whisenhunt said in Nashville.

That first-game opponent? Winston and the Buccaneers.

"It's tough to really put all the emotions into words," Mariota said. "It's a little ways away from home but I'm excited."

He boarded a flight bound for Nashville late Thursday and will be introduced in a press conference Friday. He is expected to attend the spring game at Oregon on Saturday, where his close friend and position-mate, Jeff Lockie, will continue his attempt this spring to succeed Mariota. It's a tough act: Mariota is the first quarterback in Pac-12 history to earn first-team all-conference honors three consecutive seasons and account for 5,000 yards of total offense in a single season. In his junior, and final, season at Oregon last fall he led the Ducks to their first Pac-12 title since 2011 and eventually the College Football Playoff national championship.

He did so by running an offensive scheme that was often derided throughout the draft process by NFL personnel for not asking Mariota to do enough, whether it be dropping back, calling plays or huddling.

But by Thursday, enough teams wanted Mariota badly enough that they dangled considerable trade bait in front of the Titans in exchange for their spot. They passed.

"It was going to be difficult to convince us to back out," Titans GM Ruston Webster said. "We had conversations with different teams, but nothing to the point of us not picking Marcus."

The Titans have been down this road before with mixed success. In 2006, they drafted Texas' Vince Young at No. 3, and five years later took Washington's Jake Locker No. 8 overall. Those two combined for 73 starts and 10 seasons but zero playoff victories.

"There are going to be some things he's had success with in college we'll incorporate in what we do," Whisenhunt told reporters in Nashville. "I don't think it's going to be that challenging. I'm excited about doing that."

An hour before the draft he huddled with his representation in a quiet room away from the guests. At the time the Eagles were reportedly offering a king's ransom to both the Bucs and Titans. The lack of a deal means Kelly could not add a 10th Duck to his roster.

"(Kelly) has been kind of a mentor figure for me," Mariota said. "He always just said good luck wherever you go. And he said always play well but don't play well against the Eagles. It'll be a lot of fun to one day play against him."

Amid all the rumors and speculation, Mariota tried to stay above the fray. Last week he golfed nearly every day at Waialae Country Club and body boarded early in the morning, before onlookers arrived, at his favorite place, Sandy Beach. He and his girlfriend spent Thursday morning hiking up Koko Head, a 600-foot rock cone that creates the southeastern shore of Oahu before arriving at his party alongside his parents and younger brother, Matt.

The routine was jarringly normal for a day that was anything but. Outside on the patio of the party, old friends and classmates still couldn't wrap their head around what has just happened.

"It's crazy, it's like you're living the dream with him," said Shay Long, a classmate who took AP biology with Mariota. "It's just really surreal."

But Mariota has become accustomed to such scrutiny, and says he won't change now.

"It's just me trying to be myself," Mariota said. "I don't change that for anything. No matter whether I'm in Nashville or in Honolulu, I'm always going to be who I am."

-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

503-221-8100

@andrewgreif