Marcus Mariota will be remembered as one of the greatest ever to wear an Oregon football uniform and play at Autzen Stadium.

On Monday the Ducks’ dynamic quarterback will celebrate his proudest academic accomplishment inside Matthew Knight Arena.

For this meaningful Oregon event, Mariota will be trading in his helmet and shoulder pads for a cap and gown to participate in the university’s spring commencement. The already-famous Heisman Trophy candidate will be one of the smiling faces in the crowd of more than 5,000 new graduates and their families.

“For me, it’s now just kind of enjoying these moments,” Mariota said. “Coming back to college was a time to really enjoy being around my teammates and some of my friends. This is something that comes around once in a lifetime. Why would I want to run from that?”

After two dazzling seasons as Oregon’s starter, Mariota could have left school for the NFL and made millions this year.

There were a record 102 early entrants in the 2014 draft, including 39 who never had their names called, but the temptation to leave Oregon after three years was never strong for Mariota.

Shortly after the Ducks’ dramatic victory over Oregon State in the regular-season finale, Mariota and all-America center Hroniss Grasu — a fifth-year senior who will graduate with a degree in social science — announced they would be returning to take care of unfinished business in the classroom and on the field, along with cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, who’ll also graduate on Monday.

Duck fans exhaled. Coach Mark Helfrich and the team were delighted but not surprised by the news.

“I never really thought either one of them would have left because the way their families are. The way they were raised, the families really want them to get their degrees,” left tackle Tyler Johnstone said before the Alamo Bowl. “They treat our team like a family and they’re very family oriented, so they won’t leave their families any sooner than they have to.”

Fast on the field and off

Mariota has orchestrated the Ducks’ blur offense to near perfection, first under Chip Kelly in 2012 and again for Helfrich and offensive coordinator Scott Frost in 2013.

While leading Oregon to a 23-3 record, the 6-4, 218-pound fourth-year junior has thrown for 6,342 yards with 63 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Mariota has also run for 1,467 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Redshirting in 2011 helped Mariota get on the fast track to finishing his degree in general sciences three years after stepping foot on campus.

“It was honestly probably the biggest blessing in disguise for me,” Mariota said. “It allowed me to get ahead in school and focus on my studies and get a lot of general education credits done.”

During the fall term Mariota spent countless hours inside the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex preparing for football games and rehabbing a partially torn knee ligament during the Ducks’ 11-2 campaign. On many nights he would close down the Jaqua Student Athlete Academic Center studying for anthropology, chemistry and human anatomy classes.

Of course, the humble 20-year-old from Honolulu always credits his teammates for his success. Dustin Haines, a redshirt senior quarterback on last year’s team, was also a general science major who will march with Mariota at graduation.

On Sundays, when Mariota’s bruised and battered body was given a brief rest, the two signal-callers exercised their minds together during marathon study sessions.

“We were able to kind of help each get through it,” Mariota said. “We’re student-athletes and that kind of comes with the territory. You have to go through some of the tough classes, and thankfully I was able to get through them and do OK.

“It was a process, and I’m glad I made it.”

Shaping the future

Mariota said he “wasn’t the greatest student” in elementary school, but the staff at Saint Louis High, a private Catholic school in Honolulu, taught him how to thrive academically while developing into an elite football prospect.

One member of the faculty in particular, a gentleman named Lulu Lulu, made sure he was on the right path.

“Mr. Lulu wasn’t a teacher of mine until my senior year, but when I was a freshman and a sophomore he was a guy that made sure I was doing well in school and on top of everything,” Mariota said.

Whether Mariota becomes a franchise quarterback with a lucrative NFL contract, he believes his Oregon degree will allow him to do something he loves for a living. His dream job beyond professional football is to work with athletes as a physical therapist or in the sports medicine field.

Inside the program, longtime Oregon strength and conditioning coach Jim Radcliffe has been more of a mentor than taskmaster for Mariota. He has also been inspired by the innocent faces he works with every week at Boys & Girls Club of Emerald Valley.

“I think for the most part I want to be able to help athletes and this is kind of something that will allow me to do that,” Mariota said. “(Radcliffe) is somebody I kind of admire in the sense that I would like to have that type of influence in whatever I do after football. Working with young people and athletes, I would love to help shape them.”

Finishing what they started

Mariota was voted the Ducks’ most inspirational player — the Wilford Gonyea Award recipient — last season after leading Oregon to an 8-0 start and then gritting through November after suffering the injury against UCLA.

“He’s such a great leader, but more importantly he’s a great person. I think that rubs off on our guys,” wide receivers coach Matt Lubick said during spring practice. “They see the way he prepares, they see how important it is to him and how unselfish he is. He never wants any credit, he always gives it to everybody else, and they learn from that.

“Marcus is the most positive player that I have been around. He doesn’t have a negative bone in his body. I’ve never heard him say anything negative, it’s always constructive. As a player, you want to please that guy. Our guys want to run through a wall for that guy because he’s such a good person.”

After limping through the disappointing losses to Stanford and Arizona, which ended the program’s streak of consecutive BCS bowl appearances at four, a healthier Mariota put on a spectacular show at the Alamo Bowl, shredding Texas’ defense for 386 total yards in the 30-7 victory.

“I’m proud of him because I think he was judged a little unfairly when we lost a couple games, even though he played really well,” Frost said of Mariota after he passed for 253 yards and a touchdown and ran for a game-high 133 yards. “I’ve never seen a guy go from Heisman leader to out of the top 10.”

With a talented returning cast surrounding Mariota, the Ducks will enter the 2014 season as the Pac-12 favorites and serious contenders for the inaugural College Football Playoff.

Having a degree in hand will take a lot of the pressure off the program’s star, who plans to take a lighter load of courses this fall. Captaining the Ducks as a college graduate will also make Mariota’s parents, Toa and Alana, even more proud.

“It’s definitely a relief,” Mariota said. “I’m going to have an opportunity to really focus on football and not necessarily worry about my studies as much. …

“To get my degree, it was something as a family we decided this is what I went to school for. We wanted to finish what we started.”

Follow Ryan on Twitter @rgduckfootball . Email ryan.thorburn@registerguard.com .