Matt Hayes

Please, everyone, hands and feet inside the car. This is going to be a wild ride.

Marcus Vick is better than Mike Vick.

There, I said it.

I don't mean he's better than Mike in certain aspects of his game. I don't mean he's better than Mike compared to where Mike was at this point in his college career. I don't mean he does better things than Mike or that he has more potential than Mike or that one day he'll eventually be better than Mike.

I mean he's better than Mike. Period.

I mean if I were starting an NFL team — and I hate NFL analogies because it does a disservice to the college game and because, frankly, the NFL is about as exciting as C-SPAN — I'd take Marcus. He's a much better thrower, he's just as good a runner, and he has a thicker body frame to absorb big hits. He plays with intensity, he wants to win, and whether he admits it or not, he's always playing with an I'll-show-you attitude because some dude before him tilted the bar to 10.

Marcus is a quarterback in every sense. Mike is a highlight film — a strip of dynamic frames that sputter in the projector when he's forced to make plays with his arm. Marcus is comfortable with his role in the Virginia Tech offense. Mike plays as if everything were riding on his performance.

So I threw these thoughts by Hokies quarterbacks coach Kevin Rogers, who never worked with Mike but knows a little something about dual-threat quarterbacks, having coached Donovan McNabb at Syracuse. I expected to be: a) laughed at, b) called an idiot or c) hung up on.

Instead, I got this: "I think we've just begun to see what Marcus can do," Rogers says.

And that's the difference. With Mike, it's almost as if he has tapped out. He's incredibly scary when he breaks containment and uses his legs, but does his arm really throw fear into opponents? Then there's Marcus, who Mike admits is better than he is — though one certainly can deduce that Mike is being generous.

I'm not.

SPECIAL REPORT Compare brothers Marcus and Michael

Marcus can make any throw: with velocity or touch, on the run or in the pocket. NFL scouts call it body control — the ability to make any throw from a variety of body positions. He's extremely accurate, to the point that the Tech staff is confident calling any play in any situation. When Mike was running around Blacksburg, there always was the understanding that it only took the slightest hint that he couldn't complete a specific play call or that the play was breaking down and Mike would turn to his legs to bail him out.

Earlier this season against West Virginia, Marcus hit tight end Jeff King on a skinny post for a touchdown, and he threw off his back foot while avoiding the rush. The play had called for a five-step drop, but Marcus couldn't get three steps before the rush forced him to turn his body slightly to the left and short-arm a throw with velocity and accuracy.

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"In this business, you see a lot of big-time players," Rogers says. "There are times with Marcus when we look at each other and say, 'Did you just see that?'"

Look, in no way is this a slap at Mike, who revolutionized the game. His talent led to a new offense (spread option) and the use of dual-threat quarterbacks (Alex Smith, Vince Young, Reggie McNeal) as never before. Marcus simply is doing it better than anyone else, including his older brother.