Ohio State player impersonates Marcus Mariota in practice

Ohio State redshirt freshman quarterback Stephen Collier has been tasked with emulating Oregon QB Marcus Mariota in the team’s practices leading up to the National Championship game.

For Stephen Collier, this has certainly been an interesting NCAA football season. The redshirt freshman quarterback will not see a snap in the National Championship game, as has been the case all season. Should something befall 3rd string QB Cardale Jones, Ohio State would likely turn to former high school quarterback Jalin Marshall, who has played more of an h-back role for the team this season.

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What makes this all very interesting though, is Collier’s actual role with the Buckeyes this year. The team has turned to the freshman signal caller out of Lee County High School in Leesburg, Georgia to impersonate potential opposing quarterbacks. Last week, it was Blake Sims. This week, for those of you that have been keeping up with the college football playoff, it is University of Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota.

Collier is aware of the challenge in the task that has been presented to him. Due to his ability to carve up opposing defenses with arguably the greatest display of dual threat prowess we have ever witnessed from any college player, Mariota is certainly the toughest quarterback the Buckeyes will be facing all season. The freshman has zero delusions regarding the matter. “Between Connor Cook’s passing and Keenan Reynolds from Navy, who obviously did a great job of running, those are two separate deals, but Marcus has them both. So that’s probably been the hardest,” said Collier.

Collier has a similar build to the reigning Heisman Trophy Award winner; he is 6’3″ 230 pounds, while Mariota is 6’4″ 219 pounds. So, in hindsight, it should not have been much of a surprise when arrived at his locker last week to be unexpectedly met with a cardboard cut out of the latter. If that was not enough to envelop him into the practice role, the team has also been calling him “Marcus” in the time leading up to the game.

“It’s been kind of a fun deal. I’ll just be around the dorm and everybody’s like, ‘Sup Marcus.’ I get the gist now, it’s just funny,” Collier stated.

Collier should be enjoying a good laugh and taking it all in. Because on Monday night, it is all business in Arlington. He should know, more so than most others, just what Ohio State is playing for, and for a lot of people, in spite of. It is not every season that a team can overcome injuries to, not one, but two Heisman Trophy candidates at QB, an early loss to a dismal Virginia Tech squad, and still go one to play for the biggest prize in college football. But then again, this whole season has been crazy. And with the advent of the first ever FBS playoff, we wouldn’t want it any other way.

[H/T: Yahoo!]

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