The Inside Track : Morning Briefing : Early Handicap on McNown: He’s Average

Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune is not enamored with Cade McNown, the former UCLA quarterback now playing for the Bears.

”. . . From the evidence in preseason games, McNown has been the typical rookie: reckless, confused and earnest. This is as expected, even to non-professionals who have always seen less in McNown than those who are getting paid to polish him.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the NCAA Division I-A record for most points scored in a game against a major college opponent?

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Orphan team: Tom FitzGerald in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Small Hang-up: News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch married Wendi Deng, 32, on his yacht in New York Harbor, just two weeks after completing his divorce from Anna Murdoch.

“ ‘They would have married a week earlier,’ says comedy writer Jerry Perisho, ‘but there was trouble with the prenuptial agreement. In the event of a divorce, neither of them wanted possession of the Dodgers.’ ”

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He has company: Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post on his goal to get better at golf: “I still struggle to break 100. The ultimate goal among senior golfers is to shoot their age, I’m lucky to shoot my body temperature.”

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Recount: Archeologists have uncovered nearly 20 bodies of Confederate sailors underneath Johnson Hagood Stadium, The Citadel’s football facility.

Said Athletic Director Andy Solomon: “I’m considering petitioning the NCAA to increase the attendance figures for all of The Citadel’s home football games since the stadium opened in 1948.”

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Class of his own: Bill Lyon of the Philadelphia Inquirer, commenting on Tiger Woods: “He is evolving into exactly what we had been expecting, which is just about the hardest thing to do in sports.

“Now he is beginning to make good on all those lavishly outrageous predictions that we put on like cement shoes.”

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Close call: ESPN co-anchors Rich Eisen and Stuart Scott were interviewed in Gear magazine. Eisen: “Howard Cosell was one of my idols--he and Marv Albert. I grew up emulating them.”

Scott: “In which way?”

Eisen: “‘The professional way.”

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God speed: An Associated Press item on the first marathon of 2000 to be held Jan. 1 in Vatican City ran under the heading: “On your marks, get blessed, go.”

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Ouch! John McGrath of the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune on Oregon State’s football media guide: “There is an undergraduate on the Beavers named T.J. Houshmandzadeh. I’m not sure what T. J.’s grade-point average is, but he is already a man of letters.”

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Trivia answer: Marshall Faulk of San Diego State, 44, against Pacific on Sept. 14, 1991.

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And finally: Woody Paige of the Denver Post is obviously not a tennis fan, writing: “Tennis is as scintillating as a catheterization. Who is going to win the U.S. Open--Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Martina Hingis? Who cares? Wake us up when it’s over.”

“Francis Bacon had it nailed in 1605: Tennis is a game of no use in itself.”