The dog days of the offseason don't bring a lot of genuinely exciting news, but tomorrow (Thursday) actually promises to be a rare exception. That's when Bobby Petrino will emerge from a fog-shrouded temple atop an Ozark mountain and produce a stone tablet engraved with the name of the starting QB for the 2009 football team. At least that's how I assume it will work...
Despite the fact that Ryan Mallett stands 7'4" tall, weighs 350 lbs and can throw a football from Fayetteville to Little Rock, Tyler Wilson's strong play this spring has led to the first legitimate QB battle in eons (not counting last year's Battle of the Dicks, of course...and yes, I just typed that to make one last cheap Dick family joke). In fact, in an excellent recent post on the Slophouse blog, Brandon Marcello breaks down the numbers and points out that Wilson actually has better scrimmage stats than his more-heralded rival.
But, Mallett leads in the all-important category of Best Offseason Mug Shot, and most leading experts expect that to be enough to push him into the #1 slot. Either way, the Hogs are in better QB shape than they've been in a loooooooong time (and people are taking notice).
Next season should be fun. Let us know what you think about the QB battle in the comments section...