Submit your Pitt football question

As promised, a Pitt football Q&A on the eve of signing day. I'll have one again on Thursday (the day after) and I'll wrap up the entire offseason on Friday so keep the question rolling because we'll get started again in mid-March when spring football starts. By this Friday we should know who the receiver's coach is -- well we're already pretty sure it is going to be former Maryland assistant Bryan Bossard, a summer intern with the Chicago Bears in 1996 and 1997 under Wannstedt -- and who the two new graduate assistants are going to be, though one is apparently going to be Norv Turner's son Scott, who was a graduate assistant at Oregon State.

But for today we'll focus on recruiting questions ...

Q: Once again Pitt is on the cusp of having another stellar recruiting class, but they have only signed two high school seniors who are projected to play o-line. With the difficulties they have had filling these positions, should D.W. have made this a recruiting priority?

Mark Schilajew, Huntingdon, Pa.

ZEISE: Well he has three linemen committed -- Lucas Nix from Thomas Jefferson, Ryan Turnley from Hopewell and Rob Houser from a junior college in California which isn't a big number. But if you look at the roster, there were five linemen in last year's class and all of them took a redshirt. That means there are now seven linemen with four years of eligibility left. And then there is a group of guys like Alex Karabin, Scott Corson and Jason Pinkston, who have three years left. In other words, the line is thin in the upper classes but there are plenty of bodies in the younger classes and I'd expect he'll try and take four or five again next year. The offensive line has been a priority this year but (1) the Panthers had a limited amount of scholarships and thus they weren't able to take as many as they'd want and (2) the crop of linemen available wasn't very deep or strong in this particular class. What will be interesting to me is to see spring football, how this line will start out and what it will be come August. It won't shock me if we see a defensive lineman or two switched to offense but as of right now the only sure things seem to be that Jason Pinkston will be one of the starting tackles and C.J. Davis will be one of the starting guards. You'd hope Houser is good enough to become the starting center, which is why he was brought here, but after that -- good luck trying to fill in the rest of the two-deep.

Q: With Pitt now standing at 20 scholarships, and the word a month or so ago was that the number could be 17 or 18 with a few defections from the current team, where are the extra scholarships coming from? Will we see more gray shirts like Taglianetti, or are there players whose illnesses will keep them from returning?

Pat V., Orange, Calif.

ZEISE: Well there are a couple of guys, like a John Brown, who have chronic injuries and are candidates for medical hardship which would mean, he's not physically able to finish his career but he keeps his scholarship to finish school. Those kinds of players don't count towards your 85 and Pitt has at least three of them possible. Also, a couple of players who are fourth-year juniors will likely graduate in April and not use their fifth season. I don't see any other gray shirts other than Taglianetti but frankly, if you take a look at what happened with Wayne Jones last year, it is possible there could be enough scholarships free'd up that he could start in September with the rest of the class.

Q: Why is it that Jeannette's Terrelle Pryor, the No.1 high school player in the US, doesn't have Pitt on his list for consideration?

Ray Abaray, Pittsburgh

ZEISE: Because he doesn't want to go to Pitt. I think it is pretty simple -- Pitt isn't going to get every kid in Western Pennsylvania and neither is Penn State -- who, let's face it, is only on his final list out of a courtesy for certain prominent Jeannette football boosters -- for that matter. The kid obviously wants to go to a place where they play an offense conducive to his talents and where he can win a national title. That being said, Pitt has done well in Pennsylvania -- 12 of the Rivals.com top 40 Pennsylvania prospects are committed to the Panthers. So yeah, it would obviously be good to bring in the No. 1 player in the country, but the fact that Pitt has been able to bring in six of the top 11 Pennsylvania prospects has been pretty impressive in its own right.

Q: I'd like to know how Pitt's victory over West Virginia in football has, in your opinion, helped with recruiting. Do you see anything that also sells the program like who else has signed to play with Pitt as being a factor also? Thank You.

Jim G., Scott Township

ZEISE: Here is what that victory did -- it showed that Pitt is on the right track and that the program is rising. It completely changed the perception of Pitt's program among prospects and recruits. If you remember, Pitt had been blown out by the Mountaineers in the each of the past two seasons and a third straight blow out would have been tough to overcome. But in winning that game, the immediate effect was Pitt brought in kids like Shayne Hale and Cameron Saddler -- both who had crossed Pitt off their list long before then -- and it enabled Pitt to convince several others that it was a program with a bright future. Now, just like everything else -- all of that is nice but if it doesn't translate into wins next season it is meaningless.

Q: Do you predict any quarterbacks to transfer before next season or further?

Mike Kube, Etna

ZEISE: Tough call -- but you'd think with three on scholarship already and three more coming in this class, yes, one might decide the job is too crowded. But I think in an ideal world Bill Stull and the junior college kid Greg Cross will handle the duties this year. Kevan Smith is the back-up. Pat Bostick redshirts along with Tino Sunseri and Zack Stoudt. But again, that is a lot of quarterbacks and so it won't be a shocker if one of them either is moved to another position (could be in the cards for Kevan Smith) or leaves to play somewhere else. And that is assuming Stoudt signs tomorrow, which all indications are that he will.