EUGENE -- If things go right for Oregon football and Marcus Mariota this fall, the sophomore quarterback could threaten to succeed Johnny Manziel as the Heisman Trophy winner.



"It's conceivable,'' new Oregon coach Mark Helfrich admitted.



Already, the sophomore quarterback is nothing short of a sensation here in Eugene, a seductive blend of speed, elusiveness and pinpoint passing that makes him one of college football's most dynamic weapons.



"He's a superstar,'' center Hroniss Grasu said. "He's the mayor of Eugene pretty much.''





Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota has a lot of things on his mind before his sophomore season, but fame and attention are not among them. On Monday, he had to leave media day early to attend a biology lecture.

Last season, Mariota was slightly more accurate than Manziel. He threw for more touchdowns. Was intercepted fewer times. And although Manziel rushed for more yards and scored more rushing touchdowns, Mariota was dangerous enough running to average 7.1 yards per carry, a hair better than Manziel.

It’s right about there where the similarities end.

Mariota can’t say he has followed every offseason step of the Heisman Trophy winner, but somewhere between Manziel’s much-publicized escapades - be it from casinos, or a Drake concert, or getting booted from a University of Texas fraternity party or from the current allegations of autograph payments - Mariota figures not all has been smooth sailing since the Texas A&M quarterback won college football’s most hallowed award as a freshman last winter.

“I try not to pay attention to all of it,’’ Mariota said Monday before the Ducks opened practice as one of the nation's top teams. “He does him, and I try to be myself.’’

Not long ago, the two struck up a friendship. It was in Eugene in 2010, at an Oregon football camp when the two were still in high school. Mariota found that Manziel could make him laugh. He thought Manziel was nice.

He wasn’t the only one.

Helfrich, who at the time was Oregon’s offensive coordinator, recruited Manziel heavily to Oregon. Manziel liked the pitch and committed to the Ducks. Mariota was planning to do the same.

“We thought we were going to be teammates,’’ Mariota said. “I think that’s why we bonded so quick.’’

After their high school seasons - Manziel in Texas and Mariota in Hawaii - they found themselves together again at the National Underclassman Combine in Columbia, South Carolina.

“It was cool to meet up again, and hang out for three or four days,’’ Mariota remembered. “He was a good guy. We talked about our seasons and different things.’’

By then, their paths diverged. After Mariota committed to the Ducks, Manziel had a change in heart. He said he wanted to be closer to home. He de-committed from Oregon and signed with Texas A&M.

This summer, they found themselves together again at the Manning Passing Camp in Louisiana. It was the same camp from which Manziel was dismissed for missing meetings because he “overslept.’’

“He seemed like he was handling it all in his own way - his own right,’’ Mariota said. “That’s his prerogative if that’s how he wants to handle his life. But like I said, I haven’t really paid attention to a lot of it. My main focus is the guys here.’’

It should be noted that Mariota rolled his eyes when Manziel’s name was first brought up. He wanted nothing to do with the questioning. But once he understood the line of questioning was related to him, and his growing celebrity and the trappings associated with that, he nodded with understanding.

He knows the life of a superstar quarterback can be tough - he felt that crush at times last season - but he also knows the remedy.

“I always found relief from my family,’’ Mariota said. “If it’s overwhelming at times or if I’m not feeling it - I’m able to just bounce it off my family, my parents. That’s where I say they raised me to be humble, to represent them in the right way, the right light. They will always keep it that way, and that’s why I’m able to talk to them about different things.’’

He remembers last fall, after Chip Kelly told him he won the starting quarterback job over Bryan Bennett.

“I called my parents and I was pretty excited - I mean, I wasn’t ego driven, but I was pretty happy that I got the spot,’’ Mariota said. “But the first thing my dad said wasn’t ‘Congratulations!’ ... it was ‘What are you going to do with it now?’ It wasn’t hey son, good job, it was what are you going to do with your opportunity? I think that was probably one of the biggest realizations in my life. That hey, it’s all a life experience, but if you keep it in perspective and keep grounded, you will be all right.’’

It’s why on Monday, Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens was calling Mariota an “A-plus young man; absolutely A-plus” and Helfrich was saying Mariota was the “kid you want your daughter to marry type guy.”

“Obviously you get to see what he does on the field, but we get to see him carry himself off the field,’’ Mullens said. “And the elevation in his role hasn’t changed him one bit.’’

If anything, the Oregon coaches would like to see Mariota talk more, assert himself more, and it’s something the laid-back and composed 20-year-old is working on. By nature, he says he internalizes, again waiting until he can talk with family to let it all out.

Like last season after the overtime loss to Stanford, the Ducks’ only defeat of the season. He said he beat himself up over a failed third-down conversion in overtime. There was miscommunication in getting the play in from the sideline and he didn’t process the full play call. As a result, he missed a wide open Will Murphy in the back left of the end zone.

“I put a lot of the burden of that loss on my shoulders,’’ Mariota said. “Besides my coaches, my parents were the ones there for me. The ones who said I had to dust myself off and get going again.’’

Helfrich says that is the perfect example of what makes Mariota so special. The miscommunication of that fateful Stanford play was not Mariota’s fault; it was Helfrich’s. But instead of getting angry, instead of pointing fingers, Mariota absorbed the blame and vowed to get better.

“That’s the type of guy he is,’’ Helfrich said. “If you have a great quarterback, you are going to take the heat when it’s not your heat and you are going to spread the praise when it’s your praise. I think he gets that.’’

On Monday though, Mariota had little time to dwell about being a great quarterback. A biology course he is taking wraps up on Thursday, and he needed to attend a lecture. He’s a general science major, and hopes to turn that into a physical therapy job after football is over. But he hopes this football thing lasts for a while, particularly this year.

If that means a run at the Heisman, and even more stardom and even more popularity?

The constituents of Eugene figure the humble Mariota will have all the trappings under control. He doesn’t belong to any social media - no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram - and there are no plans to do so.

“He knows he is the guy, and that we all look up to him,’’ Grasu said. “Just the way he carries himself with all his popularity now. He hasn’t changed. His personality hasn’t changed. He is one of the most respectful guys on the team that I’ve ever met.’’

-- Jason Quick