New BlogPoll, Pryor Restraint & "AC Speech," Booing, and a Bold Prediction for the Howard game!

• The updated BlogPoll (of which my contribution constitutes 0.99009% [or 1 of 101 votes] again this week) has been posted at CBSSports.com. Cincinnati is at #22 according to this sample of the college football blogiverse.


• Click Here to see the reason that teams should consider installing some content-based version of Auto-Tune for their players during post-game press conferences. In the same way that singers who wouldn't know a B flat if it bit them on their asses can sing note-perfect on their multi-platinum Disney albums with the help of software, maybe some computer algorithm prodigy could come up with the code that would change Terrelle Pryor's "Not everybody's the perfect person in the world. I mean everyone kills people, murders people, steals from you, steals from me, whatever. I think that people need a second chance, and I've always looked up to Mike Vick, and I always will." into an athletically-correct (or AC) postgame boilerplate, "We're taking this season one day at a time. As long as my teammates and I continue to give 110 percent, we'll keep on winning ball games." Note that AC speech does not require statistical correctness; as a matter of fact, a mere "100%" is always athletically incorrect when speaking of effort.


• Speaking of sticking strictly to AC speech, Brian Bennett tackled the issue of booing in Big East stadiums last weekend in his Big East Blog on ESPN.com today. He writes at one point that "In the past, I've heard from fans who said they were just booing the coaching staff, not the players. But that's like carpet bombing a city and saying you're only trying to take out one evil guy." I don't think there's any doubt that the boos I heard in my section at Rutgers Stadium last Monday were aimed squarely at the well-paid coaching staff. Certainly most of the negative comments I heard were aimed at the men in the khaki slacks and not at the student athletes. No one ever criticizes the "Jabu package" and its drive-killing timing without praising Jabu Lovelace himself. I don't think it takes an abnormal amount of critical acumen to know when it's the coaches who are being reprimanded by the fans.


• A HOWARD UNIVERSITY VICTORY IS ASSURED ON SATURDAY! I know that I've called Beat Visitor dot com a prediction-free zone in the past, but this prediction is such a no brainer that I have to make it in bold type. Howard University will obliterate Rutgers University in the Battle of the Marching Bands on Saturday. The Marching Scarlet Knights ("The Pride of New Jersey") put some dance moves into their halftime tribute to Michael Jackson on Monday, but I predict that Thriller is going to be no match whatsoever for whatever the Showtime band has in store for us. The last time the amazing Howard band was in Rutgers Stadium, we watched them stretching on the sideline for 10 minutes before taking the field. Remember to take your drink & restroom break before or after halftime on Saturday, but not during it.

"I wasn't yelling Boo, I was yelling JA-bu!"

The heading of this article shouldn't need any explanation for anyone who witnessed one of Mike Teel's less impressive passing performances at the Stadium during his first two years wearing Scarlet. Despite his stellar performance in Rutgers' most recent game (see illustration and click to enlarge & read the front page), there may be days in his last two years on the banks of the Raritan when some of us in the stands may again express a momentary preference to see Jabu Lovelace under center.

There's a great piece by Joe Queenan on the Op-Ed page of this morning's New York Times entitled Life in the Mean Seats; it has nothing to do with Mike Teel or Jabu Lovelace, but a lot to say about the joys of booing and the fact that Washington state is considering a ban on booing (offensive chants, homemade signs, and more) at scholastic sporting events. And if this takes off on the high school level, what's next? The RU student section won't be able to yell "SUCKS!" after each opposing student-athlete's name is announced over the PA?

...it is clear that the movement is fast infiltrating the zeitgeist. First, no booing high school teams. Then no booing the Fighting Irish. Before you know it, Mets fans will be getting ejected from their own stadium for booing the Yankees. And if Mets fans can’t boo the despicable Yankees, why go on living?

Personally, I'm not a big fan of booing amateur players (I prefer making my point with sarcastic cheering and enthusiastic applause for their dropped passes and missed extra points), but well-paid opposing coaches and anyone in a striped shirt who makes an unfavorable holding call needs to be prepared for the inevitable chorus of boos and worse (and, being, like Joe Queenan, a fellow native of the City of Brotherly Love, I'd like to ask that they please keep Santa Claus out of R house; I might not be able to control myself).

(And the Rutgers Women play #1 Duke in less than an hour in their Sweet Sixteen game. If they win, will they be on their way to becoming the first Rutgers team to win an NCAA Championship?)