Amateur Career
During his high school career in Yuma, Arizona, Maas gained his first notice as a football player when the Phoenix Prep Sport magazine selected Maas as the most outstanding high-school quarterback in the state of Arizona as a senior.
Maas went to college at the University of Oregon starting in 1994 but was buried deep on the depth chart for the first two years of his career. In his second year, Maas threw only eighteen passes in unimportant situations. However, in his third year, Maas was considered a solid bet to take Oregon's starting job, until the arrival of high-profile transfer Akili Smith. Smith was drawing rave reviews from the football establishment as a better pure athlete, but Maas's numbers early in the year were comparable. Maas drew rave reviews by throwing for five touchdowns in a game against Stanford, but it was Smith who ended up taking the long-term starting job.
Maas spent the rest of his time at Oregon as a backup, finishing with career totals of 120 completions on 226 attempts, 1,763 yards, nineteen touchdowns and eight interceptions. Both Maas and Smith left Oregon in 1999, and while Smith was drafted third overall by the Cincinnati Bengals, Maas took a Bachelor of Science in sociology and, undrafted, tried to continue his professional career the hard way. The pattern of losing a starting job to a flashier new arrival despite his own strong play would repeat itself twice later in Maas's career.
Read more about this topic: Jason Maas
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