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.