Q: Do you care to try and defend Bill Stull again? How can you possibly defend Bill Stull after the past few weeks? Don't you think it is time to bench Bill Stull? Why do you continue to make excuses for Bill Stull? How in the world can you still justify Stull as the starting quarterback?

Bob Fitzmaurice, St. Pete Beach, Fla.; Michael Danowski, Cary, N.C.;

Paul Ladd, Chicago; Greg Levine, Pittsburgh; Greg Smith, Providence, R.I.; Scott Krit, Pittsburgh; Mike Costanzo, Collierville, Tenn.

ZEISE: My, oh my -- these were just the printable versions of the question. But here is what I'd like to know -- when did I become the great defender/apologizer of/for Bill Stull? The only thing I have maintained through all of this is that Stull has limitations, but he is a gritty guy, a guy with leadership ability and most importantly the best option Pitt has. That's what I have said all along. I don't think he is a great quarterback, I don't think he is the second coming of Dan Marino, Rod Rutherford, Alex Van Pelt -- or for that matter John Turman. He is a serviceable quarterback with limitations who plays with some heart and grit and can make enough throws to give Pitt a chance to win. That's it. But the more important part of the equation is this -- there is NO better option on this team right now. Yes, I get it, he didn't play well the last two weeks, and that's probably being too kind. He made bad decisions, bad throws and bad turnovers. But do any of you remember what the passing game with Pat Bostick and Kevan Smith was? Does anyone remember how overmatched both of those guys were when they played? I mean, seriously -- Bostick made a few decent plays in the Notre Dame game but his limitations, at this point in his career, make him less serviceable than Stull, and Smith is just not even close to being ready to play. He just doesn't have enough confidence in himself and in what he is looking at and he has frozen up every time he's been in the games. And the idea that this late in the season Pitt is going to throw Cross in there and change to a spread team is ridiculous. Bill Stull, for better or worse, is Pitt's best hope. Now if that is defending him, I guess I am guilty as charged. But to suggest, after what we have seen, that either Bostick or Smith would definitely be an upgrade is ludicrous.

That being said, I'd have gone to the Wildcat with direct snaps to McCoy and Stephens-Howling about midway through the third quarter and taken Stull completely out of the equation. They did this for the most part anyway when they ran like 11 times in the final 12 plays from scrimmage, but I'd have done it even earlier because Friday might have been Stull's worst day as Pitt's quarterback.

Q: Paul, I wanted to know why the coaching staff leaves Bill Stull out there when he has been very poor all year round and the receivers aren't at that level yet. Is it time we see Greg Cross take over the offense and use Pitts only strength, running?

Connor Whelan, Fox Chapel

ZEISE: Like I just wrote -- Stull, for better or worse, is the best option if you are going to have a quarterback in the game. It is way too late in the season now to try and use some sort of a spread to get Greg Cross in the game -- that should have happened long ago -- and anyone who believes Pat Bostick or Kevan Smith would be an upgrade at this point has just not been paying attention. Perhaps down the road, but not right now. Again, I think there are only two options -- Stull in your traditional offenses handing it off 45 times or LeSean McCoy taking 45 snaps in the Wildcat.

Q: Throughout the season you have maintained that there will not an open competition at quarterback in the spring or next fall but after Bill Stull's last two performances do you think that is still true?

Jon F., Reading

ZEISE: What I have maintained is this: Given what we know about the way this coaching staff views experience and given how hesitant it has been to playing less experienced players regardless of their talent level -- it will take an absolutely magical performance in the spring by Tino Sunseri, Kevan Smith or Pat Bostick for it to become a competition. There will be a competition and I'd love to tell you it will be wide open and Sunseri -- who many people within the program and other observers will tell you is the best of the bunch in terms of throwing the football and doing so with velocity and accuracy and delivering it on time -- will have a legitimate chance. But what has this coaching staff done in three years to suggest that it will put a redshirt freshman out on the field, even if he's more talented, over an experienced fifth-year senior and that's especially true at quarterback. I just don't see it happening. It took an injury to LaRod Stephens-Howling to make LeSean McCoy a starter last year, if you remember. I hope I am dead wrong on this one and it is an open competition because this team will not win a Big East title next year or get to the BCS unless the quarterback play is upgraded significantly in the offseason (either by Bill Stull becoming markedly better or by someone else who is markedly better stepping in). The kind of erratic play at quarterback we've seen this year will make it very difficult for the team to win consistently enough to win a conference championship.

Q: Can Greg Cross be redshirted this year if he does not play any more this year? And why hasn't he been used?

Bart Hill, Hilton Head, S.C.

ZEISE: The only way he could be redshirted is if he had some sort of injury and the Pitt coaching staff can prove it is what kept him out of the rest of the games after he last made an appearance. He did have some kind of a hand or wrist injury, but we were told it wasn't that serious so I'd be interested to see how that one would go over with the NCAA if it were petitioned for medical redshirt for him. He hasn't been used because coaches made the decision that they'd rather have the ball in LeSean McCoy's hands if they are going to run the ball and it is hard to argue that. However, given the deadly combination that Steve Slaton and Pat White were, I have a hard time believing they couldn't come up with some packages in the spread, or read-option or whatever you want to call it with Cross and McCoy. That, to me, would put a lot of pressure on defenses.