When Chattanooga resident Vincent Moorer saw the Tennessee Titans select Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota with the second overall pick in last month’s NFL draft, he immediately began jumping up and down.
“I was ecstatic,” the 50-year-old said late Saturday afternoon after collecting autographs from veteran Titans Chance Warmack and Karl Klug, as well as radio play-by-play man Mike Keith, during the team’s annual caravan stop at the Academy Sports + Fitness store in Hixson.
“I believe he’s what we’ve been lacking since Steve McNair retired. He’s the guy to get us back to the playoffs on a regular basis.”
The late McNair, of course, got the Titans within one yard of forcing overtime against the St. Louis Rams in the 2000 Super Bowl that wrapped up the 1999 season inside Atlanta’s Georgia Dome. They haven’t come close to that lofty perch since then, failing to make the playoffs a single time since the 2008 season.
Not that such failure has run off Moorer, who arrived at Academy wearing a Titans ballcap and a McNair No. 9 jersey, his arms soon laden with autographed posters and pictures, as loyal to the many-hued-blue crew as when the franchise moved from Houston to Tennessee for the 1997 season.
And according to Keith, Moorer is far from alone in his excitement over Mariota, a quarterback who appears capable of running and passing with equal ease and success, having gone 36-5 as Oregon’s starter. The Ducks played in this past season’s FBS championship game opposite eventual champ Ohio State.
“I haven’t seen our fan base this excited since we drafted Jevon Kearse in 1999,” Keith said as he signed autographs. “And they’re not just excited about Marcus as a player, but also as a person. They really related to his Heisman acceptance speech. I know I did.”
The Hawaii native’s words alone won’t lift the Titans from last season’s 2-14 disaster, however inspirational. To turn the franchise around, the 6-foot-4, 212-pound Mariota must not only prove superior to second-year QB Zach Mettenberger but must also become the 2.0 version of Seattle’s Russell Wilson or San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick, mobile young quarterbacks who can turn a probable 10-yard sack into a 20-yard gain by either land or air.
“You look at most playoff teams, and the quarterbacks are typically pocket passers, guys like (Peyton) Manning and (Tom) Brady,” noted Klug, a defensive lineman. “But then you look at the success Wilson and Kaepernick have had, and even the young pocket guys like (Indianapolis Colts’ Andrew) Luck can run some and you know the game’s changing. Right now, I’m for whatever helps us win.”
But it’s off the field where Warmack, the third-year offensive lineman out of Alabama, believes Mariota can become an immediate hit.
“He seems like a humble guy, a team player,” Warmack said of the rookie. “He seems like he’ll fit well in the locker room.”
Nothing fit well with the Titans during Whisenhunt’s first season, either on or off the field. There was finger pointing, lackadaisical play, a sense that bringing in a new coaching staff was far from the only change the organization needed.
“(Whisenhunt) made us uncomfortable last year,” Warmack said. “He lit a fire under us. I think this year the thing I’m most excited about is the camaraderie I feel between the coaches and the players.”
Other than Mariota, what Keith, who spent much of his childhood in Chattanooga, is most excited about is Warmack.
“Over the last eight games of last year, he gave up no sacks and just one penalty,” Keith said of those stunning stats. “When we start winning games they’ll point to him as a key reason. He’s going to be a benchmark player on this team for a long time.”
But it’s clearly Mariota who has the fans fired up.
Thirteen-year-old Cody Swayze convinced his mother Betty to leave their Manchester, Tenn., home at 10:30 a.m. EDT to both visit her parents in Chattanooga, but also reach Academy by 3:30 p.m. for the autograph session that didn’t begin until 5.
“We’re a house divided,” she said. “We moved back here from California. My husband (Bobby) is a lifelong 49ers fan. Our other children, Kyle and Courtney, are 49ers fans. Cody rooms with Kyle and one half of the room is totally Titans, but the other half is 49ers.”
Despite Kyle being two years older, Cody isn’t wavering on his support for the in-state team.
“The Titans are going to have a big year,” he said.
The first minicamp is still two weeks away. Mariota’s initial rookie camp begins this coming weekend. There are far more unknowns than knowns, beginning with how Mariota and Mettenberger will coexist, and if gifted but troubled wideout Dorial Green-Beckham can overcome his past well enough to be the uncoverable wideout the franchise long has lacked.
Yet if the fans who showed up for the Titans Caravan are any indication, Keith may have been onto something when he said Saturday evening, “The last nine days (since the draft) have been absolutely fantastic for this organization.”
If the next seven or eight months can prove as close to as fantastic for Titans Nation as the last 11 days, fans such as young Cody Swayze may have a far less divided home to endure. Or at least one much more enjoyable to live in during football season.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.