Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer, right, and Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich pose with the championship trophy after a news conference before the NCAA college football playoff championship game on Jan. 11, 2015, in Dallas. Oregon plays Ohio State in the championship game on Monday.For anyone questioning the George Bernard Shaw observation that "youth is wasted on the young," we give you Oregon Ducks receiver Darren Carrington.
Because Carrington reportedly failed an NCAA-sanctioned drug test, the freshman won't see the field at tonight's national championship game at AT&T Stadium. That may or may not keep his teammates from defeating Ohio State. But it's reasonable to assume that Nike U. would prefer to have a guy who caught two touchdowns and 165 yards worth of passes in the Rose Bowl rout of Florida State rather than play without him.
Instead, Carrington's selfish/stupid/clueless decision to supposedly choose a blunt over a beer will conceivably slow the fastest show on turf in the Ducks' attempt to buck the Buckeyes.
"It will not be a distraction," Oregon coach Mark Helfrich said last week.
If he's right, the Ducks should win, which would no doubt be justice for Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Marcus Mariota, not only one of the sport's best players but also one of its better people.
After a year of cringing each time 2013 Heisman winner Jameis Winston's outrageous talent allowed his outlandish behavior to keep the 'Noles in the hunt for a repeat title, it was wonderful to see a true student athlete so beloved by his region's youth that when one Great Northwest middle schooler was asked what he and his classmates talked about, he famously replied, "Jesus, girls and Marcus Mariota."
But the Buckeyes have their great story, too, in former third-team quarterback Cardale Jones, who certainly looked like a future Heisman candidate in OSU's Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama. Big, mobile and fearless, he seems to have the leadership skills of another former Urban Meyer quarterback named Tebow. All Tebow did was win, often in spectacular fashion, as witness his two national championship rings as a Florida Gator.
Let Jones win this one and he could follow Mariota to the Heisman stand a year from now.
In Tebow Tunnel Vision fashion, Jones certainly seems locked into his third college start. He recently told Fox, "I blocked every contact in my phone except for coaches and my mom. It took me like 40 minutes to block everyone on my phone."
He even blocked his teammates.
Then proving his musical tastes are a bit more refined, or at least less offensive than his teammates, he said he listens to Ohio native John Legend, whose R&B tunes have won him Grammys and wide acclaim as a throwback to Motown's most soulful talents.
Asked why, Jones replied, "To calm me down."
It's almost impossible to stay calm about the first-year success of the College Football Playoff. More than 40 million are expected to tune in tonight's game, which may be half of those that will watch the Super Bowl, but still stunning numbers for a collegiate athletic event.
It possibly helps to have relatively new blood in this one, given that there are no Southeastern Conference teams, though Oregon did lose to Auburn in the 2010 BCS title game, and Ohio State remains one of the traditional giants of the sport.
Yet for all the television viewing, experiencing it live has never been cheaper. According to CBS's website, the average ticket price is around $600, less than half what it reached on Jan. 2, the day after Ohio State and Oregon both won.
To further focus on that price, TicketCity told CBS that Oregon-Auburn tickets went for more than $5,000 apiece, LSU-Alabama (the 2011 season) went for $2,128.51 and the Crimson Tide versus Notre Dame a year later brought $2,050 per ticket.
Not that the players care. Ohio State's Vonn Bell, the former Ridgeland High star, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Sunday, "We won the first game (Alabama) and the next one is even bigger. Being in the national championship game will be one of the biggest games ever."
Added Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens: "We're a part of history."
And thanks to the action of Carrington and teammate Ayele Ford, who's also suspended, a disappointing piece of Nike U. history is likely to repeat, regardless of how much magic Mariota can conjure up.
Much like that loss to Auburn and Cam Newton, Oregon is again staring at a 6-5, 250-pound quarterback in the face in Jones. With Carrington, this game might have become Duck soup leading to a Duck dynasty.
Without him, expect Ohio State to prevail 38-35 on its way to a 2015 repeat, where Peyton Manning will conclude his first season as a college football color analyst after his retirement from the NFL.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.