You know I couldn't let that go, right?
Here is the deal. The kids would show up for TopGun with their shiny new Hornets or older Tomcats, loaded for bear. We would take them out to the Mojave range and beat them up until they understood that the airplane was not going to be the difference maker. The Fleet taught everyone about the 1-2 circle crap, reversals, vertical stuff, but very rarely was there much discussion about energy maneuvering and reading energy state in your adversary.
Even a Hornet can get bogged down after holding G too long, because its engines are not that powerful. So we would beat up everybody until they got a clue. By the time Hornet kids graduated TopGun, they should win best 1-2 of 5 every time against an F-5 or 3 of 5 with an A-4. But if we were in the F-16N, they really didn't have a chance if we stopped teaching and just killed them. We were light and had too much engine for them.
Hornet vs. Tomcat?
With equal pilots, it depends on the environment. Up high, the Hornet should win if the Tomcat doesn't run. Down low, the Tomcat should smoke the Hornet every time or just run away from it if it loses the advantage. The Tomcat has beautiful low speed handling with the wing. Now, everything I said, assumes a B or D Tomcat. The A is another story.