Submit your Pitt football question

Thanks for participating in the Pitt football Q&A.

Keep the questions rolling in and I will answer them every day throughout the season and through whatever bowl game Pitt goes to and through signing day in February.

You can follow the Panthers daily here as well as our Pitt football blog.

You can also view my new daily video reports on Pitt football at PG-Plus. Membership in that site is only $3.99 per month or $36 per year.

Q: If my memory serves me right, I recall "experts" talking about Pitt having a soft recruting class for 2009 after some stellar ones and asking if Dave Wannstedt was losing his touch. But after the performances by Dion Lewis, Dan Mason, Ray Graham and company, I'd have to say its one of the better ones in terms of production out of the gate? Do you agree?

Mitch Molinaro, Ft. Mitchell, Ala.

ZEISE: I'd be very careful about making any statements one way or the other about the 2009 recruiting class. Dion Lewis, Ray Graham and Dan Mason look like they will be good ones, but there are still about 17 or 18 other kids from that class who we haven't seen play yet. And who are these "experts" or more importantly, who, outside of themselves, has declared them to be experts? I think the one thing that people did write about this class is that it wasn't quite as strong top to bottom as Dave Wannstedt's first few classes. But that doesn't mean there aren't some good players in it. I think just about every recruiting class has good players in it - the question is how many good players are in it. And that answer is never known until at least two or three years down the road. So far the three players from the class who have gotten on the field have been productive but there is still a lot of football to be played - against way better opponents -- this season and beyond before we start writing a book on even any of those three guys.

Q: I remember a couple years ago or so you were deriding fans about their desire to see Bill Stull get some work when he was a back-up to Tyler Palko. You stated that fans should not be worrying about mop up duty for Stull and you were questioning what that would accomplish. After seeing what happened with the quarterbacks in the Navy game, don't you think Dave is overly concerned about Tino getting back-up work? Or do you think this is a different situation?

Bart Cuddy, Charlotte, N.C.

ZEISE: My stance on the whole "get this backup quarterback some work" is very well documented. If it happens within the context of a game where you can get a guy in and get him some snaps that is one thing, but the idea of forcing a guy into a game just to get him some experience for "down the road" is ridiculous. You can't tell me a guy who plays four snaps at the end of some blowout - and hands off three times and takes a knee the fourth -- is "getting work." Now, that brings me to what happened on Saturday -- it was puzzling. I'm not sure why the need to get Sunseri into the game at that point - Pitt only led by 17 points, it was still in the third quarter and the Panthers were inside their own 25 - meaning, one mistake could have been a pick six. As it was, it went three-and-out and Navy went down the field and scored. So again, I just don't know what the reasoning was at that point in that game. If Bill Stull continues to play the way he has, there is no reason to get Tino Sunseri any more "work" because his time isn't until next year -- assuming he can beat out Pat Bostick in the spring.

Q: Having attended the Pitt-Navy game, two aspects were notable to me:

(A) Pitt had five personal foul penalties and that is inexcusable. Is the coaching staff not demanding discipline/accountability from the players?

(B) The crowd was quite lifeless, especially in the second half. I attribute much of this to the environment at Heinz Field because the scoreboard 'carries' the game as if watching it on TV, thus distracting fans from the action on the field and also, the nearly-constant blaring of rock music detracts from the experience, drowning out school bands, etc. In our constant-stimulation culture, can't we ever just enjoy a 'live' event?

Mark Vatavuk, Erie

ZEISE: On your first point - Pitt until this season under Wannstedt had been pretty good about penalities, so although this is two games in a row, I wouldn't get too alarmed about it. I know that Dave Wannstedt had a team meeting and discussed these penalties and he did immediately pull Jason Pinkston out of the game and benched him after his penalty. So there is not a lack of discipline or any deeper issues on the team, the penalties just happened. I would be surprised if we continue to see them because, like I said, Wannstedt addressed them. As for the atmosphere at Heinz Field - get used to it. The bells and whistles and music and dancers and anything and everything not pertaining to the game are a part of the American sports. That's just the way it is. At some point marketing geniuses figured out that Americans have attention span issues and need to be entertained every second of every day. The other thing they figured out is that if they could make sporting events a lot more about being events other than sports, then they could sell tickets to them regardless if the home team is good or bad. Take a look at the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are exhibit A of this concept. That team is closing in on 100 losses and hasn't had a winning season since Hair Metal was still cool and yet somehow they had something close to 90,000 fans go through the turnstiles this weekend.