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Joey Harrington

(Bruce Ely/The Oregonian)

EUGENE -- Do not get Joey Harrington wrong: The former Oregon quarterback understands why current Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota is described in superlatives. He's as guilty as anyone.

"There is no doubt it in my mind when he leaves, whenever that time comes, he will be the greatest quarterback to ever play at Oregon," Harrington said Friday.

The former Duck quarterback was fourth in the 2001 Heisman Trophy race and is now an analyst for Fox Sports 1. He will call Saturday's 7 p.m. matchup between No. 2 Oregon (6-0, 3-0 Pac-12) and Washington State (4-2, 2-2) from Autzen Stadium. It is the experience gained from his former job at Oregon, and his current one, dissecting national college football, that leaves Harrington gushing more about Mariota's subtleties than his big highlights, however.

Mariota's total package has put him on track to be a finalist for the Heisman Trophy in December and Oregon on track for a possible appearance in the BCS national championship game one month later.

This season Mariota has passed for 1,724 yards with 17 touchdowns and zero interceptions on 165 attempts. He's run for 426 yards and eight touchdowns and averages 10.4 yards per carry. Three weeks ago, before the Ducks went into Boulder, Colo., and routed the Buffaloes, Heisman Trophy expert Chris Huston ranked Mariota No. 1 in his Heisman projection. All the redshirt sophomore quarterback from Hawaii has done in the two games since is score 11 touchdowns in barely seven quarters.

It would be hard to find a part of Mariota's game that can be called underrated given the sheer amount of analysis critiquing him each week. But his ability to put his teammates in the right position is what Harrington calls Mariota's most under-appreciated trait. So far, it's enabled the undefeated Ducks as a whole to be right where they want to be, too, after six wins by at least three touchdowns.

"What is so impressive about Marcus is he puts the ball exactly where it needs to be as opposed to relying on the receiver to run a great post-corner route and lose the defender to give you a wide-open lane. He will throw a ball to the correct shoulder to make sure they're open," Harrington said. "Those are the things that distinguish good and great quarterbacks."

Oregon does not have an expansive "route tree" of possible routes for receivers to run, he said, "but there is a smaller package and they do it very well." In particular, Harrington points out Mariota's handling of the seam route, a route that a quarterback can throw three ways, with all of them tricky.

"When defenses play a zone you have to throw the ball up the hash marks but you have to throw it over the top of one defender and then in front of a second," he said. "You have a very small window to get the ball up and down. When you're throwing the ball against man coverage and the defender is trailing the receiver the ball has to be one step in front of your receiver. When you're throwing man coverage and the defender has good coverage on him, the ball has to be on the receiver's back shoulder.

"Those are the little details that people miss, because he makes it look so easy."

Harrington said Mariota's combination of big-play potential with peerless turnover management is the result of experience and his comfort running the offense "through him." Last season, as he became used to the job, running back Kenjon Barner offered a buffer of all-American quality for the young quarterback. In Mariota -- who doesn't turn 20 until Oct. 30 -- Harrington sees a quarterback who, as he put it, literally embodies Oregon's tradition of quarterbacks.

"He is a combination of all the great quarterbacks that have come through there," he said. "You can take a piece of Akili (Smith), you can take a piece of Kellen Clemens, you can take a piece of myself, you can take a piece of Dennis Dixon and put them all together and that's kind of what you get."

Five of the pink helmets Oregon will wear this weekend to benefit the Kay Yow Cancer Fund will carry autographs of current or former Ducks, including Harrington's. UO coach Mark Helfrich, former players Dan Fouts and Ahmad Rashad and Nike co-founder Phil Knight will also autograph helmets that will later be auctioned.