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JC2015 -> RE: College Football (Future Vikings!) (10/1/2017 9:48:18 AM)
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ORIGINAL: Brad H
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ORIGINAL: JC2015
I see parallels with Dan Marino's bad senior season
I'm not gonna lie, I remember Marino at Pitt but I don't recall anything about his senior season.
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The Pitt football team's fortunes and Marinos's statistics dipped during his senior year, which saw the team transition from head coach Jackie Sherrill to new coach Foge Fazio, culminating in a 7–3 loss in the 1983 Cotton Bowl Classic to Southern Methodist University and their "Pony Express" of Eric Dickerson and Craig James. Marino finished ninth in voting for the Heisman Trophy in 1982, after finishing fourth the previous year.
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M arino's senior season is at the point when football helmets become covered with those tiny merit decals. This was supposed to be the beginning of the happy ending of Marino's college career. But now that his number of touchdown passes has dropped dramatically and other passing statistics have slipped, there has been booing in Pitt Stadium and persistent questions from a blitz that has turned critical.
''You throw an interception and they call you a bum,'' Marino said as he prepared for today's game at West Point against Army. ''You throw a touchdown pass and you're a hero. In a matter of five minutes, they've changed their minds.''
''Everybody's searching for something that's wrong,'' his father said. ''Everybody has their theories of what's wrong. I guess it keeps people busy. Whatever turns you on.''
Against Notre Dame last weekend, , Marino's passing statistics were the third best in any game of his college career. He completed 26 of 42 passes for 314 yards. He had no interceptions for the first time in 17 games. Yet Pitt lost, 31-16, its only defeat this season.
''He was outstanding,'' said Foge Fazio, the Pitt coach. ''The only thing is... we didn't get in the end zone.'' The goal line is Marino's bottom line. The Panthers did score, but not as a result of a Marino pass. ''And that's what people want to see,'' Marino said. The Notre Dame game was the first one Marino has started and completed without throwing a touchdown pass.
Marino has thrown 260 passes so far this year, the same number he threw in his first eight games last season. He has completed just six fewer passes this year, and his rate of completions is down just 2.3 percent.
B ut what has the Pitt Stadium perfectionists upset is the fact that Marino's passes have not had the same impact as they did a year ago. He has thrown for an average of 47 fewer yards per game. His interception total is up from 13 to 18. And, most significantly, his number of touchdown passes is down from 28 last year to 11 this year.
Marino placed second in the nation in passing efficiency last season. He is 47th in the latest statistics. ''There are reasons for that,'' Marino said. ''We're not getting the big play because people are dropping off on us, knowing we like to go deep. And if you try to force it deep, that causes interceptions.''
His critics say that is what happened in several victories, including the one over North Carolina in the season opener, 7-6. ''I was forcing it,'' said Marino, who threw four interceptions in the game. ''I just made some bad decisions.'' There was angry mail, addressed to Marino, after that game.
The criticism became so severe that John Brown, the tight end, criticized the fans and the press in an article that appeared in a Pitt game program earlier in the year.
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