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Q: Now that you have discussed ad nauseum Pitt's talent deficiencies at quarterback, a question comes to mind: Considering Dave Wannstedt's skills as a recruiter, how could he find himself in this situation? He has obviously tried with the recruiting of Bostick and Cross however, as you have made clear, neither is an upgrade over an inconsistent Stull with his myriad limitations (though both were considered excellent recruits at the time). Do you think it is a matter of Dave and his recruiting staff not being effective evaluators of quarterback talent or has Matt Cavanaugh been ineffective at coaching the young quarterbacks to maximize the talent that they do have. Some coaches are particularly skilled at this whereas others are better at developing game plans.

Joe Vitullo, Rennerdale

ZEISE: I think quarterback -- like offensive line -- evaluation is hit or miss. I think there are some measurables you can look at but you can't ever tell how a kid will respond when the lights go on and 300 pounders are whizzing past him and trying to knock his teeth out, or how he'll react when those throws he made in high school against 5-foot-8 slow corners don't quite get to where they need to get to against those 5-foot-11 corners who run a 4.3 40. With that being said, let's look at the quarterback recruiting and/or development:

1) Bill Stull was brought in late in Wannstedt's first recruiting class. He was local, he was available and if you remember he had committed to Kentucky where Paul Dunn was the offensive line coach. Dunn then joined Wannstedt's first staff at Pitt and recommended Stull to Wannstedt, who was looking for a quarterback to fill out his class and fill a void left by Luke Getsy's transfer to Akron. He was not recruited as the big-time quarterback coming in to be the guy, he was recruited with the idea that despite his limitations, he had lots of production in high school and perhaps could become what he is today -- a serviceable starter. I'm not sure what more can be asked of him.

2) Kevan Smith. He was a kid who was recruited because he had incredible physical tools and a great attitude. He had almost no quarterback experience. He was brought in with the idea that if he turns into something, his upside potential is unbelievable. And we've seen this from him -- he has raw, physical talent. He was never considered anything more than a project and it is a project that is still ongoing. He is much better today than he was a year ago and will continue to get better with more reps and more time in the film room.

3) Pat Bostick. Obviously he was recruited to be the guy; he is one of the highest rated quarterbacks Pitt has signed and he had, like, 15 other scholarship offers, from places like Louisville and Tennessee. He obviously hasn't panned out yet but he is still young. It appears as if he was overrated coming out of high school but if he was misevaluated by Cavanaugh and company they sure had a lot of other people looking over their shoulders seeing the same things, so it is hard to kill them for this. They thought they had their franchise quarterback and perhaps they do and he's just developing at a slower pace than they'd hoped.

4) Greg Cross. A change of pace kind of guy who was not brought here to be the starter, but rather a guy who can run some option and spread stuff. He's been effective when he has been in there in very limited opportunities and it has been somewhat head-scratching as to why they haven't developed more of a role for him. I'd say of all the quarterbacks on the roster, if there is one you can criticize the coaches for a lack of imagination/ability to coach/ability to develop whatever you want to say, this is it. It seems like they've left a potentially explosive alternative weapon on the table.

5) Tino Sunseri. He's a freshman, he's redshirting and a lot people around the program say he's the best passer of the bunch. So we'll what happens with him in the future.

In short, I just don't think you can make a decision on the coaching staff's ability to evaluate or develop quarterbacks based on this limited body of work. A heckuva lot of other teams wanted Pat Bostick and the other guys were all to some degree projects given their limitations and all have improved over the years.

Q: Paul, after reading more of the trials and tribulations of the Pitt quarterback situation now and into the near future, any chance of a junior college quarterback being brought in to compete next year?

Michael Milliron, Pittsburgh

ZEISE: Please, stop. You guys are killing me with this quarterback thing. I could have filled up every Q&A this week and through the bowl game with quarterback questions and all of them are very similar in tone -- they are either "our quarterbacks stink so what can we do to make the situation better?" or "you are an idiot if you think Bill Stull is better than (choose one or more options) Pat Bostick/Kevan Smith/Greg Cross/Andrew Janocko/Dan Gustine/Spencer Whipple/Tino Sunseri/the ghost of David Priestly etc., etc???."

First off, let me state this one more time for the cheap seats, you are out of your mind if you think there is a better option on this team right now at this point to play quarterback for Pitt than Bill Stull. He is better than Pat Bostick. He is better than Kevan Smith. And he is better at what Pitt's offense is designed to do than Greg Cross. This is not even a question or an arguable point, despite the best attempts of some of you to try and make it.

Tino Sunseri might be better, he might actually be the best passer on this team, but they are not going to burn his redshirt to play one game and a bowl game. So I don't consider him an option for this year. He will compete for the starting job next year but, again, given the amount of experience ahead of him and this coaching staff's affection for experience, he will have to be dynamite to have a chance to leap over the other three.

Second, there are already going to be five scholarship quarterbacks on the roster going into spring training, so bringing in a sixth to compete is not going to be practical or logical in many ways. It just isn't going to happen, particularly since there is no guarantee the junior college guy will win the starting job and in that case all you will have done is added another scholarship that gives you no production.

For better or worse, the quarterback situation is what it is for at least one more season which means, all of you who are so down on the quarterback play of this team (and it is understandable) are reduced to hoping that a great offseason for all of them brings out the best in all of them and whoever emerges at the end of training camp next season is capable of playing at a much higher level than we've seen over the past two seasons.

Q: Do you know if Pitt scripts it's first offensive drive/ fifteen plays before the game? It seems like the past few games they have come out looking very solid on offense and then when they get into the game where they have to react to defensive adjustments they start to fall flat.

Ryan Tomsheck, Mount Joy, Pa.

ZEISE: A script question that makes sense? Say it ain't so??????.(sorry, couldn't resist)???and the answer is yes, the Panthers script their first 10 to 15 plays depending on the game and this is something that Dave Wannstedt addressed at the news conference this week when he was asked why the production drops off so dramatically after the first or second drive every game. One of the interesting things he said was that maybe they (meaning the coaches) should take a look at and revisit some of the plays that worked early in the game and use them later in the game, but I would hope they already do that and he just misspoke or we misunderstood what he was trying to say???.

Q: What is your opinion on Pitt's receivers? I don't think that we as fans have seen just how talented a lot of these guys are due to the offense that we run. Who do you think may have a chance at the next level?

Larry Harris, Beaumont, Texas

ZEISE: I don't know, these receivers had played well but the past three games they've dropped too many passes and, in some ways, have been as much to blame with the passing game woes as Bill Stull. And Jonathan Baldwin has loads of talent, but he has a long way to go in order to become a dominant receiver. He needs to become a better blocker, a more physical player, he needs to attack the football more and he needs to understand that you don't get to take plays off. All of those are signs of a young guy still learning and he will learn those things and if he does, then no doubt he's a next-level kind of guy. I think Oderick Turner has the physical tools to be a next-level player but he has to develop some consistency in the same areas that Baldwin does. The only difference is, Baldwin is a true freshman and Turner's clock is ticking as he is a redshirt junior. T.J. Porter, Derek Kinder and Cedric McGee are all reliable options but none of them have that game-breaking ability of some big-time receivers, though Kinder and McGee are physical players and excellent blockers and that should help them find their way into an NFL camp. At that point it is how well they perform if they make a roster or not.