Big Ten forensics season opens Saturday.

The marquee debate will be held, appropriately, in the Big House.

Your orators for the afternoon will be Michigan wide receiver David Terrell and Wisconsin cornerback Jamar Fletcher. Don't let the fact Terrell has suddenly turned into a choirboy in public fool you. He's quiet now. He won't be Saturday.

"I know he is going to come out and have some words," Fletcher said. "I'm going to have some words. We're going to have to get it on."

Rebuttal? Not now. But there will be. This is a matchup that Terrell has been looking forward to since Michigan media day in August.

"When it's Jamar," Terrell said before the season, "he's a lot of fun. He's a great athlete.

"He's a lockdown corner."

Let's hope neither Terrell nor Fletcher develops a case of lockjaw before Saturday.

	Wisconsin's Jamar Fletcher won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's best defender.

Terrell, a 6-foot-3, 213-pound junior, is arguably the best wide receiver in the Big Ten and among the best in the nation. Fletcher, 5-10 and 174, was the preseason favorite to win the Thorpe Award, given each season to the top defensive back in the nation.

Both are first-team members of the All-Trash Talk team.

"You've got to take the bitter with the sweet," said Terrell, who has 21 catches for an 18.2-yard average this season. "I'm going to give you some sweet if it's a good game and some bitter if it's a bad game. It depends on the game and it depends on the mood."

Fletcher's mood brightens when he dreams of matching up with Terrell. And lately he's been dreaming of shadowing Terrell all over the field, just as he did to Michigan State's Plaxico Burress last season.

"I don't think I'll have to ask," Fletcher said, when asked if the Wisconsin coaches would assign him Terrell all day. "But if it's looking like I might have to ask, I'm going to have to do that.

"I'm definitely going to have to go everywhere he goes."

And everyone will hear about it. No one is safe. Referees, ball boys, cheerleaders, fans, lineman, other backs. Everyone will get an earful.

And like anyone granted a chance to witness some of the great speakers of our time, they can't wait.

Wisconsin defensive tackle Wendell Bryant will have his hands full with Michigan's offensive line Saturday. But that doesn't mean he isn't looking forward to listening to the Terrell-Fletcher matchup.

"I want to see him go against David Terrell," Bryant said. "I want to see who talks more stuff.

"Because Dave -- wooo -- is a very vocal man. Dave likes to show off.

"They are going to be going at each other. Fletch is going to be doing it. David is going to be doing it. It's going to be a war of words."

Terrell claims to have beaten former Michigan basketball player Jamal Crawford, a first-round NBA pick, on the court. He has challenged teammate Drew Henson, saying he could hit Henson's best stuff from the mound.

Fletcher, meanwhile, was a three-sport star in high school whose future appeared to be in baseball before he fell in love with football.

When Terrell and Fletcher met last season, Terrell had seven catches for 88 yards and scored on a 45-yard reverse as Michigan beat Wisconsin in the Big Ten opener, 21-16.

"I matched up in man coverage about seven or eight times," Fletcher said of Terrell. "He had two catches (against me)."

Terrell and his teammates won the game, though, beating Wisconsin for the third consecutive season.

"I don't think it is a big deal to us," said Fletcher, who had three interceptions in his lone appearance this season. "Yeah, we lost to them. But it's no big deal. It's a new year. We're a good team. They're a good team. We're just going to come out and play."

And talk.

"Nobody can do it like me," Fletcher said. "He knows that, too."

Talk or play?

"Both," Fletcher said.

Rebuttal?

You'll have to listen in on Saturday.