The big games kickoff Saturday, but that doesn't matter, there's real actual football tonight. Considering I watched an entire high school football game on TV last weekend, I'd say I'm ready.

Football provides a nice change of baseball, where losses are quickly pushed aside, because there's always another game tomorrow. These count and count big.

Here's the games of note. Make sure to get your pick' em entries in. You can just follow the links below to make your predictions.

Vanderbilt at Miami U. (7:30 ESPNU) -- 62% picking Commodores
North Carolina State at South Carolina (8 ESPN) -- 94% picking Gamecocks
#23 Wake Forest at Baylor (8 FSN) -- 92% picking Demon Deacons
Stanford at Oregon State (9 ESPN2) -- 85% picking Beavers

I think we know who Jon Wilner is taking tonight. His love affair with South Carolina begins anew. Also of note, is Ryan Perrilloux restarting his career with Jacksonville State who pays a visit to the brand new Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. That's worth keeping an eye on.

As for me, my focus is on my beloved Redhawks and their first meeting at home with an SEC opponent.

Enjoy the games, and finally, let's talk some live college football right here.

All right everyone, get your predictions in for tonight's slate of totally not interesting at all college football games. If tonight we sometime in mid-season, we'd all be complaining about what an awful night of football this is. But instead, because we're kicking of the season, it's awesome.

Today's blog goodness

1. What are the games that will best define this college football season?
2. Who's going to win this year's college football awards?
3. In preparation for tonight's games, here are some highlights from last year.
4. Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards have started a new action-packed feud in NASCAR.
5. Michael Phelps will host SNL. A look back at how other athletes did on the show.

Today's FanIQ site goodness

1. You've got one more hour to get your college football picks in this week for the FanIQ plasma screen TV contest. Hurry!
2. Don't forget the NFL picks either.
3. And because the college football season starts tonight, how about a college football quiz?

Tonight's TV goodness

Here's tonight's college football schedule, complete with announcers, courtesy of Awful Announcing.

Vanderbilt @ Miami- OH (ESPNU, 7:30pm)- Mike Gleason, John Congemi, Melissa Knowles
Troy @ Middle Tennessee (ESPN Plus, 7:30pm)- Sam Smith, Doug Graber
Hofstra @ Connecticut (ESPN Plus, 7:30pm)- Bob Picozzi, Jim Donnan
North Carolina State @ South Carolina (ESPN, 8pm)- Chris Fowler, Jesse Palmer, Craig James, Erin Andrews
Wake Forest @ Baylor (FSN, 8pm)- Bill Land, Gary Reasons, Emily Jones
South Dakota State @ Iowa State (FCS Central, 8pm)- Dan McLaughlin, Richard Baldinger
Oregon State @ Stanford (ESPN2, 9pm)- Ron Franklin, Ed Cunningham, Jack Arute

And here's what else is on.

Major League Baseball: Philadelphia at Chicago Cubs (WGN, 8 p.m.)
NFL: Preseason, Jacksonville at Washington (NBC, 7 p.m.)
Tennis: U.S. Open, men's and women's second round, at New York (USA, 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.)

Many of us remember the famous Mike Gundy rant. It was all over the place in the weeks following it, and was even spoofed on multiple occasions. Although the consensus was that he had gone a little overboard, many people were impressed with the way Gundy was willing to stand up for one of his players. But surprisingly, that player took it very differently. For those of you who don't, here's a little reminder.



Bobby Reid was the player in question. The rant was a reaction to Jennifer Carlson's article in the Oklahoman, which questioned Gundy's faith in Reid. While Gundy said nothing but good things about his young QB's character, Reid did not see it that way. After being benched in favor of Zac Robinson, Reid rarely saw the field. When Gundy said "here's all that kid did. He goes to class. He's respectful to the media! He's respectful to the public! And he's a good kid. And he's not a professional athlete and he doesn't deserve to be kicked when he's down," Reid apparently thought Gundy made some sort of reference to Reid's performance on the football field. In all reality, it had nothing to do with that. Zac Robinson was the more productive QB, so Zac Robinson was the one on the field, taking the majority of the snaps.

Reid is now saying that the rant was "offensive," and that it "was all a front, that it was all a big show. It didn't feel genuine."

In hindsight, maybe he's right. Maybe Reid DIDN'T do everything right. Maybe when he was whining and trying to quit the team because someone outplayed him, he WASN'T showing the qualities that Gundy had praised him for. Maybe he WASN'T the high-caliber person that Gundy thought he was.

It's obvious that Bobby Reid is just another spoiled young athlete with a sense of entitlement, without a real grasp on reality. Perhaps he thinks that he is owed something by Oklahoma State. Perhaps he thinks that even though Robinson had arguably the best statistical season in school history, Gundy should have put Reid in the game instead, in order to massage his bruised ego.

 Whatever the case may be, I'm not going to come after Mike Gundy on this one. Gundy may be a man, he may be 40, but he's not in the wrong on this one, and never was.

It's been a tough last year for Pacman Jones. He got in trouble for, well, pretty much everything, including his penchant for (allegedly) shooting up strip clubs with friends. Naturally, the main goal of the Cowboys has been to keep Pacman out of trouble this offseason so he can play again. Which, naturally, meant no more strip clubs.

But you know what they say, you can take the man out of the strip club, but you can't take the strip club out of the man. Or something like that. What I'm saying is, Pacman's still got a hankerin' for some partially clothed ladies.

Which is what makes this next piece of news so great.

Pacman reportedly learned that his reinstatement had been accepted by the NFL while at Hooters. Seriously.

Jones was at Hooters eating a chicken sandwich when he got off the phone with league and team officials regarding his suspension.

Here's what Jones had to say about getting reinstated: "It feels good man, you know, to get a second chance and I just have to take advantage of it. First and foremost, I don't want to let myself down, definitely my little girl down. I'm thankful for Jerry, the fans in Dallas and my teammates for believing in me. I need to keep doing what I've been doing to get reinstated staying with myself and my teammates and staying away form those knuckleheads and just stay focused."

Baby steps, Pacman. Baby steps.

By the way, Pacman has a great support group in place to help him this year.

Since being traded to the Cowboys, Jones has tried to surround himself with a better support group. He's befriended former Cowboys Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders. Jones has also become friends with several of his new teammates, including Tank Johnson, whom the Cowboys helped return from a similar suspension last season.  

Let's see, Irvin's been arrested multiple times on drug charges and been accused of sexual assault, while Tank Johnson's been arrested for carrying or owning pretty much every assault weapon on earth aside from a grenade launcher.

Sounds like a great support team to me. I can't see any possible way this could go wrong.

Adam Jones at Hooters [Cowboys Blog]