Deadlift Vs Squat

Here's an update. Me & John (the machine) Machin have been having an ongoing discussion. The two best basic absolute strength moves are deadlift & squat. He prefers the deadlift as a lift, I prefer the squat - purely personal choice really, both are excellent & you should do some form of both.
I was listening to a podcast of Gray Cooke (of FMS fame - well known in corrective exercise circles) & he believes deadlifts are superior (& he's a much cleverer guy than me). He believes athletes should do a 3 or 4:1 ratio in favour of the deadlift (that is 3-4 times as much deadlifting as squatting) for athletes. His reasoning was the deadlift was bio-mechanically safer than the squat & we learn to deadlift as small children, so it is a more natural move.
I found this argument a little odd when applied to athletes, ok it may be bio-mechanically safer for athletes (I'm not going to argue that point with a guy who knows 100 times more about the subject than me), but a squat has been shown to increase both vertical jump & sprint in athletes & I'm pretty sure a deadlift wouldn't get the same results....think about the lifts, a squat is knee/hip powered movement the two things you need to get a big vertical jump & sprint (ok fully taxing the ankle across it full range may be missing, but 2 of the big 3 you need for higher jumps & faster sprints are covered). In the deadlift you've got hip & back, yes there is some knee (just as there some back in the squat), but the knee usage is much less & the back much more. I'll use the adage of American football, a squat will get you to the ball first, get you flying in the right direction & dodging about at speed, the deadlift will get you tossing the opposition aside as they try to stop you.
Depending on the sport though it may well be the case that a focus of squats would be an advantage rather than a deadlift, I personally think Mr Cook is being a little too over protective of his athletes & being good at squatting might just give them a winning edge over someone who Gray Cook coaches in certain sports. I thought I'd just comment though as it's a point in John's favour in the deadlift/squat discussion.
By the way the conclusions of the differences between deadlifts & squats are my own, I'm not claiming infallibility & may be wrong about some of my conclusions, the fact that the squat improves sprinting & vertical jump has been shown, but as far as I know a head to head squat Vs deadlift hasn't been done, nor the differences in results catalogued, these are purely conjecture & I'd be happy to change them in light of new research as it appears.

Dead lifts... Squats...?
And why not both?
I follow one of the older Weider 4-day splits that call for Dead Lifts on one day, and Squats two days later on another.
It's probably a matter of personal choice, or "following what your body says," but I find Dead Lifts easier than Squats, and I like to tell myself that there's less chance of injury with Dead Lifts.
However, there's a discussion on Sq vs DL here: http://www.criticalbench.com/deadlift-versus-squat.htm

Yea I think both me & John do both - it's more of a long running joke as my favourite move is the squat (all it's variations) & with John he's a deadlift freak.
Apparently in the latest Mike Boyle DVD series "Functional Strength Coach 3" he argues against ANY form of bi-lateral (2 legged version) squat - hopefully I'm not misquoting him here - I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive, but that's the hype on the net about the product..here's Mike himself talking about the death of the bi-lateral squatting & why you need to work one leg versions Death of Squatting video click
It's certainly a issue worth considering...I'm not sure I'd give up bi-lateral squatting, but I might consider moving towards a more uni-lateral type of lift if the evidence is there? Have to wait until I get the stuff through before I can make up my mind.