From UC:

University of Cincinnati quarterback Dustin Grutza (Maysville, Ky./Mason County) was named the BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week for the week ending Sept. 1, the league office announced Tuesday.

Grutza completed 21-of-28 passes for career highs of 296 yards and three touchdowns without an interception while finishing with a rushing touchdown and 33 yards on the ground in Cincinnati’s 40-7 win against Eastern Kentucky. Grutza amassed a BIG EAST-leading 329 yards of offense and became the eighth quarterback in Cincinnati history to surpass 4,000 career passing yards (4,159).

This is his fourth-career weekly BIG EAST honor. He also earned league honors on Sept. 17, 2007, Oct. 30, 2006 and Sept. 3, 2005.

Defensive end Connor Barwin (Hazel Park, Mich./U of Detroit Jesuit) earned a spot on the weekly honor roll after tallying a team-high tying five tackles along with two sacks in his first start on the defensive side of the ball. Barwin spent the previous three seasons at tight end.

West Virginia linebacker Mortty Ivy and placekicker Pat McAfee earned the conference’s defensive and special teams Player of the Week honors, respectively.

Cincinnati returns to action this weekend against No. 4/4 Oklahoma. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. EST from Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla. The game will be televised by ABC.

Not to pimp myself, but yesterday I thought Chad Johnson Ocho Cinco's comments were really, really interesting.

The part I found most interesting was the self-realization when he was asked about being a leader: "you don't want me doing the ho-rah. You don't want me doing the team speech. No. No. I'm an odd-man out when it comes that."

I know it's not good in sports talk radio to say one of the team's best players shouldn't be a leader, but Chad shouldn't. And knowing that is very, very important.

And on that subject, I always hear about how Carson Palmer isn't a leader. Funny, I hear that from people not in the locker room. I always get a sense that he is -- in some very subtle, interesting ways. And what Chad said yesterday just solidified my opinion on that.

Chad was talking about his injury and how Carson Palmer was helping: "As soon as I got hurt, he told me to take it seriously. He thought I'd just go in there and get treatment. He said my rehab is actually a six-month process, which is the whole season. He told me even if I feel fine, pretend like I'm still hurt. He was right. As soon as I feel fine, like right now? I don't feel like going to rehab. They're forcing me to go, because I feel good. I'm back to lifting, I'm able to run, I'm lifting my normal weights. You keep pretending you're hurt and keep it strong."

Anyway, maybe it was just me, but he seemed sincere and there was less of the usual Chad B.S.

* As for what to call him, his name is legally Chad Ocho Cinco. When he gives Jack Brennan the word that he wants it changed on the roster, I'll go with just Chad Ocho Cinco. Until then, I'm not sure. He was asked yesterday what he wanted to be called in the paper and he kinda sidestepped the issue. There is precedent, remember Nick Luchey?

* It's officially Flacco for the Ravens on Sunday. If the Bengals don't win this game, it's going to be a really, really, really long season.

* As one person pointed out yesterday, it's going to be a really, really odd scene in Baltimore with no Jonathan Ogden or Willie Anderson on the field.

* Is there anything more exciting in sports than a Reds-Pirates series in September?

* Playoffs in Louisville and Dayton start tomorrow.

* I gotta say, I love the scoreboard intro for the Bearcats. (I'm a sucker for the Sopranos)

* One week in, the Bearcats are up in Big East rankings.

* My man Josh Katzowitz has another update on his UC football book.

* What a game last night. UCLA's been a sleeping giant -- just as USC was before Pete Carroll, and Rick Neuheisel may have been the exact right choice for them (and, well, Norm Chow helps, too).

* I wish I were still at my college daily just so I could have fun with the fact that a QB named Smelley is starting for South Carolina. Just sayin'

* I've got to admit, I do love me some 90210. Yeah, I'll probably watch the New 90210 tonight, but even if it stinks, at least it brings us some retrospectives of the old show -- even from the New York Times.

* Although my Georgia Bulldogs won on Saturday, my Nile C. Kinnick High School Red Devils were crushed, 35-0. My other high school team, the Flour Bluff Hornets dominated with a 38-14 victory, so that helped.

* Here's a handy guide to the new TV season.

With a new legal name, Chad Johnson Ocho Cinco was refreshingly open and honest on Monday at Paul Brown Stadium.

Among other things, he didn't want to talk about his new name, said his shoulder was "100 percent", said he's focused on the Ravens, said he's not a leader, said he didn't play well last season, said he's going to put up, but not shut up this season among many, many other things in an enlightening, entertaing 15-minute interview.

* On the name change: "Nothing on that. I want to talk about football. I want to talk about the Ravens. Ray Lewis and McAlister and Rolle."

* On his turbulent off-season and demands for a trade: "I got to be super extra focused. I gave a lot of making up to do to a lot of people, not only my teammates, coaches, you know, from the top all the way down. I pissed off a lot of people all offseason with some of my, most people call them antics, I got to be completely focused, no distractions. I have to stay an attraction. I can't be arrogant. But I have to be extraordinary at what I do. I have to make up to you all, too (media). It's easy to take shots at me, so I have to walk a straight line."

From the top down? "Yeah, start with Mr. Brown and Katie and work my way down."

* On replacing the leadership of Wilie Anderson and Rudi Johnson: "It's pretty easy. You got 9 (Palmer), you got Reggie Kelly, Big Boss Bobbie (Williams), as far as the offense goes. T.J. is a leader. We're fine on our end."

* On the new improved Ocho Cinco: "No lessons, no maturity. I'm still the same. I'm still pissed. If we lose, I'm going to be pissed. If we go 7-9, I'm going to be pissed. I'm going to fuss again if we lose, nothing has changed, but I'm here so my motive and my focus has to change. I said what I said, I've said my piece and now I’m here. No I have to shut up and put up. I'm not going to shut up, but I’m going to put up. I'm going to put up. For those that I did piss off, now I've got to give y'all a treat."

* On the start of the new season and if the offense will be ready: "It's hard to tell. Looking at the preseason it's hard to tell, but the preseason doesn't mean anything. It starts this week. The first four games will tell our whole season. If we hit these first four rolling, you already know what's going to happen in the second half, there's no big drop off. It's either you're up or you're down and you stay consistent."

* On his disappointing 2007 season: "I talked with Coach Brat and Carson, and Carson will tell you, T.J. will tell you, Coach Lewis, every week I'd go in and ask Coach Brat, 'Is it me, or am I playing that bad?' I remember every week something would go wrong and Coach Brat telling me, 'to be a seventh-year player, you're not as consistent as you should be.' I couldn't figure it out, because out there on the field, I'm working. I'm busting my butt and it wouldn't translate over to the game for some reason. I made plays, but I wasn't nowhere near the player I should have been."

So his goal is to be more consistent, to 'put up'? "The numbers look good, but it's not where it should be. Carson and I talked in minicamp, he watched film all last year and all the balls he threw to me, including the ones I dropped -- I'm human, I'm going to drop balls -- but he said we left 1,800 yards out there easy. Easy. Easy, easy, easy. 1,800 or more. He adds up all the drops, all the yardage on plays I could have made and should have made and he put it together and easy, it's about consistency."

* On Palmer's help in rehab: "I rehabbed with Carson today in the weight room. As soon as I got hurt, he told me to take it seriously. He thought I'd just go in there and get treatment. He said my rehab is actually a six-month process, which is the whole season. He told me even if I feel fine, pretend like I'm still hurt. He was right. As soon as I feel fine, like right now? I don't feel like going to rehab. They're forcing me to go, because I feel good. I'm back to lifting, I'm able to run, I'm lifting my normal weights. You keep pretending you're hurt and keep it strong."

The Bengals voted for their five team captains on Monday, they are T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Dexter Jackson, Dhani Jones, Carson Palmer and Bobbie Williams.

Also, DE Eric Henderson, a second-year player from Georgia Tech, was added to the practice squad. The Bengals now have seven players on the practice squad and permitted nine, including international practice squad player Carl-Johan Bjork.

Nice weekend of college football, unless, of course, you're like my sister and went to Texas A&M.

Enjoyed seeing Bowling Green knock off the always-overrated Wanstache-led Pitt Panthers. And speaking of overblown expectations? How about Clemson? Julio Jones didn't have the game I thought he might, but he didn't have to. 'Bama looked good. Really good. That only makes my Dogs' schedule look tougher -- their three SEC West games are LSU, Auburn and Alabama -- clearly the class of that side of the conference. No way the Dogs go through the season with fewer than three losses. Darn shame too. As is the loss of Jeff Owens. But this debut was awesome.

Hated to see Beanie Wells go down. Hope he's back in time for the USC game. Even though X-rays were negative (I've never been comfortable with that terminology -- did that mean they didn't find a foot? That would be bad!), foot injuries are tricky. Always are.

Oklahoma is scary good (Yes, I know it was UTC). Hope UC can give them a little run for their money. We'll see.

How about Louisville? Yikes.

* Speaking of bad omens -- but good for the Bengals -- looks like Joe Flacco is going to start for the Ravens.

* Good new for the Ravens, Haruki Nakamura made the squad. 'Ruk is one of my favorite guys I've ever covered. Good for him.

* On the Reds side, great job, as always, by Doug Gray, wrapping up the Sarasota Reds' season here. I hope Drew Stubbs is one of the players called up after the end of Louisville's season. I want to see him defensively. And offensively he can't be worse than K-Pat, right?

* How much better would Bud feel if Scott Boras just went away?

* The official scorer in Pittsburgh gives his side of the C.C.-No no-no story.

* It's a crazy world when you're on Google reader and you see a photo you took a year ago on one of your favorite sites.

* Vintage rock shirt hall of shame.

* I don't know why this made me laugh as much as it did.