Wooooo hooooo!!!!

For the rest of the country, you get the good stuff tonight. College football is back.

Me, I'll be in Indianapolis watching the Bengals-Colts so you don't have to (but you still have to listen to it on 1530 Homer).

Plenty of good stuff tonight.

1. UC-EKU at Nippert Stadium. Not the biggest matchup (that comes next week when UC goes to Norman), but it's a good warm-up for the season. It also gives the Bearcats a couple of extra days to get ready. Expect Dustin Grutza to put up some big numbers. I'm also curious to see how Connor Barwin plays at defensive end. Should be very interesting.

To get you in the mood, I turn to my man Tommy G. over at UC who has his own Bearcat Channel on YouTube. Make sure you go over and check out all the highlights over there.

 There's also a good read here on Terrill Byrd. Josh Katzowitz will be live blogging the game on Katzonthecats.com, I'll be following the game that way from Indy.

My pick: UC 45, EKU 10

2. Vanderbilt at Miami: Nice job by the RedHawks of getting a good game right off the bat tonight at Yager Stadium with the game on ESPNU.

The Commodores are a young team and will have some issues in the first game, and that's something a team like Miami can capitalize on.

My pick: Miami 21, Vanderbilt 17

Two other games to keep an eye out for -- North Carolina State at South Carolina (Game**** win), and Oregon State at Stanford in an early conference game in the Pac-10 (go with the Beavers).

* One of my best friends in the business, ESPN's Mark Schlabach has 25 reasons to be excited about this season.

* Also, UniWatch has its Back To School edition.

* And the start of college football season means the awarding of The Fulmer Cup -- thanks to Jimmy Johns, who sold cocaine to undercover cops five times, Alabama runs away with the title. Congrats. RTR!

* I'd be much more interested to see Barack Obama's speech tonight than the Bengals-Colts. Oh well. I'm guessing there might be some coverage of it somewhere that will get me caught up. And, if they overlap, you probably won't miss much.

* The Dayton Dragons are closing in on a playoff berth.

* Doug Gray writes about Reds prospect Zach Cozart.

* More fun from ol' Leatherpants.

* Would you count on Carlos Zambrano in a pressure situation?

* OK, ignore my Top Chef geekness for a second -- I wonder if they do foam in jail?

* Speaking of taking a TV show a bit too seriously.

* And finally, wow... how about this parting shot from the Chicago Sun-Times to departed columnist Jay Mariotti. Wow.