Cold, Hard Football Facts favorite and Tennessee quarterback Vince Young has truly hit the big time: he’ll be featured Sunday night on 60 Minutes.

 

In the interview taped this summer, Young admits “he was angry about not winning the Heisman trophy in his final season at Texas,” according to the Tennessean of Nashville.

 

Young, you might remember, finished second to USC’s Reggie Bush in the race for the 2005 Heisman, and by a sizable margin: Bush received 784 first-place votes, to just 79 for Young. Bush received a total of 2,541 points to 1,608 for Young.

 

The Cold, Hard Football Facts, long-time readers might remember, were a bit perplexed. Young was the nation’s most highly rated passer and one of its most devastating ball carriers in 2005. We knew then that he was better than USC’s three-headed monster of Bush, LenDale White and 2004 Heisman winner Matt Leinart.

 

Young was a classic victim of the media hype machine that favors glitz over substance and coastal big-market performers over those from bedrock Middle America. The Cold, Hard Football Facts, of course, favor substance over everything but beer and the occasional bourbon on the rocks. So we knew Young was a spectacular if still underpublicized performer at that point in his career.

 

He proved his mettle with a spectacular performance in the Longhorns’ spectacular come-from-behind 41-38 victory over USC in the national title game, played that year at the Rose Bowl. He passed for 267 yards ran for 200 more. He also scored three TDs, including two in the final 4:03 of the fourth quarter. Bush, meanwhile, committed one of the game’s costliest errors, throwing away the ball in the open field, in an ill-advised attempt at a lateral that was recovered by Texas.

 

We’ve seen Young’s superiority as a football player in the pros, too. He won NFL Rookie of the Year honors in 2006 and almost single-handedly helped turn around a Tennessee franchise that was mired in suckosity before he arrived. They’ve gone 10-6 with Young as a starter, after winning just 4 of their previous 19 games.

 

His passing performances, too, widely criticized in his rookie year, have improved dramatically in the early part of new season:

Bush, for his part, was touted as the can't-miss kid coming out of college but is closing in on under-achiever territory. His team was a surprising 10-6 last year, but is 0-3 in 2007 and has scored just 12.7 PPG. He’s generated 1,457 yards from scrimmage in those 19 games, on 288 touches, an average of 5.06 yards per touch, and 3.51 yards per rushing attempt (184 for 645).

 

We haven’t heard the 60 Minutes segment yet. Young may come across as a whiner or a cry baby. And that will be too bad. He should probably have kept his mouth shut.

 

But he was right: he deserved the Heisman. He proved he deserved it before the voting. He proved he deserved it before the big Rose Bowl win over USC. He clearly proved he deserved it after the big Rose Bowl win. And he’s proven, at least to this point, to be the better pro performer.