And thus, the My Sister's Dog Award, given as necessary to sports mediots, was born. Today's winner is CBS Sportsline.com's Dennis Dodd. Dodd's online columns are easy pickings for mockery under normal circumstances, but Monday's pre-pre-preseason Top 25 is a real gem:
12. Auburn: Trips to Arkansas and Florida keep the Tigers from the top 10 and the SEC title. Have faith in the defense and in Carl Stewart to replace tailback David Irons.
It's not often that you see a national writer, working for a major network and presumably with at least one editor, make not one but two major goofs of fact in the same sentence.
Memo to Dodd: Carl Stewart is a fullback (and a darn good one). Not a cornerback, which was David Irons' position last season. Nor a tailback, which means he won't be replacing Kenny Irons in the offensive backfield; that duty falls to Brad Lester, who led the Tigers in touchdowns in 2006. You can look it up--if you could be bothered to check facts, that is.
(Just for the record, I don't have any beef with the actual ranking. Given AU's schedule and uncertain state on the offensive line, it's probably a bit generous.)
UPDATE: Either Dodd or his editor airbrushed in a correction (without noting it as such) on January 18.
3 comments:
Not to defend a moron, but didn't Stewart start off at AU as a tailback, before getting moved to fullback? Didn't he also line up at tailback early in the season? My guess is that Dodd didn't do more than glance at last year's press guide before embarrassing himself.
As for the real tailback, Brad Lester is fine, but I'm looking forward to what happens when Mr. Tate gets some carries against real opposition.
Stewart is listed simply as a "running back" in the roster but he played at fullback in the two-back sets for pretty much the entire season. He did play a little one-back in some situations (that 40-yard wheel route vs. uat, for instance), but I don't think he was ever in the two-deep or even three-deep at tailback. Irons and Lester were beyond question the "team" tailbacks, and Lester is a lead-pipe cinch for first-team next year, followed by Ben Tate.
What did this guy have to say about that young upstart Tuberville fella that is due to replace Pat Dye this fall?
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