Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Who is the Man?



I was living in Virginia in the Michael Vick High School era. I followed closely what was supposed to be the Ronald Curry sweepstakes, with UNC beating Virginia for Curry’s services, all the while Virginia Tech silently chuckled to themselves because they had this Vick lad all locked up. I watched almost every second of Vick’s college career, and fancy myself an eye-witness to how good he was BEFORE Atlanta traded up to get him at #1 in the 2001 NFL Draft.

Then, I have lived in Texas during the Vince Young era. I followed closely the recruiting battle (had to, I was on TXCN at the time) between the big schools to secure the services of the two great state QB’s, Reggie McNeal and Vince Young. A&M won the battle the first year, with McNeal beating #1 Oklahoma on a glorious day at College Station. But, Texas silently chuckled as their franchise QB was red-shirting that year. I have watched almost every second of Young’s college career, and fancy myself an eye-witness to how good he was BEFORE the 2005 NFL Draft.

So, who was better?

I believe it is close in some respects, but not close in others. Winner = Vince Young.

I will elaborate more on the air as to why I feel this way (either today or tomorrow when we do the segment(s)), but I dug up some information on both of them from their college days that you can look at and draw some conclusions for yourself. Look at the opponents, and the game-by-game passing numbers in particular, because they both had critics saying “they are all running QB’s”. Look at yards per game (games in which each player threw for more than 200 or 250 yards) and Touchdowns to Interceptions.

Vick’s Game-by-Game Stats

Young’s Game-by-Game Stats

Again, Vick loses the comparison in my opinion, and he still was the #1 pick. Of course, did Atlanta make a poor choice? Anytime you have to trade L Tomlinson and plenty more to get your guy, you have to feel that you likely did make a poor choice.

Links:

Who would have guessed it? The Stars trade for another Finnish player! Janne Niinimaa for John Erskine …Erskine was never going to fit here it did not seem where any meltdowns on the blue line are just not to be tolerated. Like former favorite of mine, Brad Lukowich, a change of scenery might be perfect for the big tough Erskine. So much for the theory that he was a Derian Hatcher clone. Size is only one of Hatcher’s positive traits in his career.

Meanwhile, Niinaimaa is a very responsible defenseman, who while he will make a mistake from time to time, he also will not allow it to stay in his head and affect his play. Also, the coveted left-shot d-man, so they can spread out their talent a bit now on the blue-line and relax that they have some composure on that left side, rather than the freak-out play that Erskine brought.

Lendale White joins the draft …so does Wisconsin’s stud RB, Brian Calhoun…

Which reminds me that I want to start blogging mock Top-10’s for the draft now to get some credible mocks on the record. Send me the one’s you find that our credible. No offense, but blogs written by Paul in Grapevine or Jim in Denton does not constitute a credible mock draft.

Here is the January 3rd Mock from Scouts Inc:


1. Houston Texans (2-14): +Reggie Bush, RB, USC
2. New Orleans Saints (3-13): Matt Leinart, QB, USC
3. Tennessee Titans (4-12): D'Brickashaw Ferguson, OT, Virginia
4. New York Jets (4-12): +Vince Young, QB, Texas
5. Green Bay Packers (4-12): A.J. Hawk, OLB, Ohio State
6. x-Oakland Raiders (4-12): Demeco Ryans, OLB, Alabama
7. x-San Francisco 49ers (4-12): Jimmy Williams, DC, Virginia Tech
8. Buffalo Bills (5-11): +Haloti Ngata, NT, Oregon
9. Detroit Lions (5-11): Jay Cutler, QB, Vanderbilt
10. Arizona Cardinals (5-11): +Mario Williams, DE, N.C. State


They had Lendale White at #28 to Pittsburgh which seems crazy to me.

Jim Caple with a good column about long-suffering in the NFL

Bruce Sutter gets in …Jim Rice and Goose Gossage just miss…And Walt Weiss got a vote! Seriously! And Greg Jefferies got two!

Jayson Stark on the odd series of voting events


Unlike all those days when Sutter's managers handed him the baseball, though, this was no sure thing. Sutter missed by 43 votes last year. And best we can tell, he hasn't recorded a single save since. So there was no logical reason for him to pick up those votes.

But who ever said logic had anything to do with a process that forced a player this great to suffer through 13 elections before finally being anointed?

As recently as 1999, only 121 writers were voting for Sutter. By this year, he was up to 400 votes -- without throwing a single pitch in between. If you can figure that out, you're a lot more brilliant than we are.

Sutter wound up getting 56 more votes this year than last year -- which just about mirrored Gossage's increase (up 51). The Goose is now 54 votes short. So clearly, he is also going to make it one of these years -- which we'll regard as an official indication that closer-mania has finally arrived.


Finally, here are my two new fish:

Meet the Niger Trigger



And his friend, the Spanish Hogfish



All of us at the Sturm Family wish them both a long life in the family aquarium.

Busy Day, so that is all I can squeeze in this morning, except to give last night's "Shield" an A+.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice Fish!! You missed an "g" in the first one though. Seriously though, wasn't that the nick-name of that Boxer from Africa? Cue Vince McMahon: "and in this corner, weighing 275 lbs, it's "The Niger Tiger"!!!!

Another reason VY is better than Michael Vick.....VY doesn't have a little brother named Marcus!!!!

By the way, where does he get drafted?

Fine blog today Bob.

Anonymous said...

^5 vslicebornborn

Andy Douthitt said...

Bob,

I think that the name of your first fish... isn't that Marcus Vick's nickname now in Virginia? (rock me)

I have a bad feeling about the future of Mike Vick in Atlanta.. he is a china doll. He has regressed every year since he has been in the league.

Anonymous said...

Bob, did you really think you could get away with the Fish on your Blog without all of us "mature" P1's twisting it for our own amusement? Or are you that naive?

My turn: So is the purpose of the fish tank to blame the fish smell on in the house? (blow me up Dog!!)

Anonymous said...

I think the Sturminator intentionally tries to draw us off sides, because he can laugh at it, and then has plausible deniability on fault of the content.

Kinda like the preacher who laughs at your dirty joke, then says, "oh, that wasn't very nice".

Anonymous said...

I was too slow to get in on the Fish comments. Fish are gay.


To say that Texas Fan "silently chuckled" about Vince's struggles before this past year is revisionist history at it's finest. 14 months ago every one of them was wondering if he could play QB in the Big XII. Good luck to Vince at the next level, but let's not kid ourselves that "we knew he was that good all along".

Sturminator said...

Boom-

I think if you go back and re-read it, I was suggesting that UT was not too worried when McNeal was having his big freshman year. They knew they had someone with a pretty nice upside, too-

As for my poor persecuted fish, I should have known.

Unknown said...

I expect this kind of homer-ism down here in Houston...but I held out hope that my fellow north-texas natives would be more rational. Is no one willing to concede that there is a high (or medium) possibility of failure for Vince in the NFL (especially considering the rarity of a consistently successful running QB)?

As for the belief that Vince will be more durable than Vick since he's bigger...ask Donovan how much being "bigger" helps durability.

Anonymous said...

The difference between VY and McNabb or Vick is that NO ONE got a kill shot on him in 3 years of big time college competition. That's why it's pretty safe to assume he'll be more durable than the other 2 QBs mentioned.

Vince has the talent to be a top notch NFL QB, only time (and circumstances - a lot depends on which team takes him) will tell if he ever becomes one.

Anonymous said...

I know Jay is aggy, and I should know aggy can't read. Find an educated person and have him/her read you the stat's Bob posted about VY vs. Vick. Vick is a running QB. VY is not a "running QB." He is pass first, then run when you have to. He is a freak and does not fit your "running QB" mold that you want to put him in. He has proven everybody wrong in the last 2 years. Only aggy wouldn't know it is a good time to shut up to avoid looking foolish when VY tears it up in the NFL a 2-3 years from now.

Your 23 and aggy. You have much to learn. Add that to living in Houston, I see why you are so bitter.

Anonymous said...

McNeal, Young, Vick. None are going anywhere. I wouldn't be shocked if none of them do very well. Vick's not sporting anything to write about these days and I doubt the other two wil either.

~Jef

Anonymous said...

i dont want to sound queer or anything, but fish rule! i need to revamp my tank for salt

Unknown said...

Brian Urlacher was just on the Dan Patrick show (I resort to that since I'm in Houston) and was asked who he'd be more worried about facing between Reggie Bush and Vince. Without hesitation he said Reggie Bush is the better player, hands down. He said that Reggie is the better athlete and better playmaker. He went on to say that Reggie has a lot of power and more speed than almost any other football player. Vince, he said, is a product of U.T.'s offense (zone offense) and the nature of college football (slower game, smaller linebackers). He also said that he's a fine athlete, but what he has wouldn't work in the NFL.

Well, well, well...looks like "aggy" has the NFL's defensive player of the year in "agreeance" with him. Who can "homer" cite??

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't it make sense to table this argument and re-visit in 2 years? It just sounds like the ol' "which weighs more: a pound of feathers or a pound of lead" disagreement to me. Vince and Bush will both probably be very good in the NFL.

Anonymous said...

Bob,
Good luck with the Niger...You should try a Bluethroat Trigger--WAY more colorful, and actually is the most timid of triggers, so much so you can keep it in a reef tank. Check it out. And while you're checking out stuff, you should check out Aquatic Design Aquarium on Parker and Alma in Plano. Their animals are about 50-70% cheaper that Dallas North's. Have good.

Anonymous said...

im looking to convert my freshwater to salt, lot of money buying all new stuff.
that hogfish looks really nice.

Unknown said...

Let's give Mel Kiper and all of these scouts all the cred and trust in the world (since they agree with you), but let's not trust an NFL player (since he isn't a U.T. homer). I mean what would Brian Urlacher know about football skills?

re: Reggie's power. I did see Reggie push a U.T. defender down by his head while he hit the corner. But that one play couldn't mean anything...I mean since it doesn't show how great "VY" is and all.