Thursday, September 24, 2009

Thursday 09/24 Quickie: Tebow vs. Leinart,
Ole Miss, Vick, NL Wild Card, Kansas, More

Shocker at the Sporting News: My colleagues picked Matt Leinart over Tim Tebow as college football Player of the Decade.

This despite two things: (1) In a head-to-head match-up, fans preferred Tebow 4-to-1 (79 percent to 21 percent), and (2) the argument for Tebow is much stronger than it is for Leinart.

As you would imagine, I used the lead of today's SN column to offer a dissenting opinion to SN's choice. I think that by January, SN will want to offer a correction.

(For what it's worth, SN followed the fan choice in the other sports, even when the fan-voting margin wasn't nearly as wide as Tebow-Leinart. With one exception: Overruling the fans' 60-40 vote for Tom Brady over Peyton Manning.)

More you'll find in today's column

*Mike Vick says he is the "Wildcat originator." Not quite, but I am excited to see the single-wing evolve with a "QB-who-can-run" running it, rather than an "RB-who-tries-to-throw."

*Ole Miss is the most overrated team in the college football Top 25. It's not their fault: Voters are going on preseason hype, rather than what the Rebels have done. Here's their chance tonight.

*It's hard to imagine the Rockies blowing a 4-game lead with 10 games to play. But both the Giants and Braves seem game to make it interesting. Either will need a 2007-Rockies-style 10-game win streak to finish the season, hoping the Rockies will do worse than 6-4.

*I appreciate Les Miles' candor about his qualifications (or lack thereof) to vote in the Coaches Top 25. How many AP voters have the guts to admit that they are too busy doing their job, covering their home team, to be able to watch more than bare highlights of the rest of the games around the country. Most probably watch less of a variety of game action than your average fan.

Lots more in today's column, which you can find here. More coming later.

-- D.S.

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