ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

So many letters this week that I had to split the mailbag up into two parts. Love it. Keep the questions coming.

Jason from Tampa writes: I am so sick of hearing about Matt Grothe and him being a Heisman candidate.. How is this guy's name even being mentioned with his steller 1:1 TD to Int ratio last year? Every time he throws a TD pass he throws one to the other team. Maybe he is color blind?

Brian Bennett: Grothe needs to cut down on his interceptions, for sure. But he also makes a lot of plays with his feet. Remember that he also rushed for 10 touchdowns last year and has been his team's leading rusher for most of his career. He's a guy who can make highlight plays, but he also needs to make the simple ones more often.

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CardfanDan from Louisville writes: You want more questions Brian? I'll give you a few (and as an added bonus I won't ask a single question about Louisville). Question #1: Obviously the hottest coaching seat in the Big East belongs to SU Coach Greg Robinson. If the Orange tank again this season, who do you think are a few of the best candidates to replace him? Question #2: Bill Stewart won the Mountaineers a bowl game last year and will likely continue to carry on the winning tradition in Morgantown this year, but the fans have got to be a little bit worried about future recruiting right? A significant portion of the former staff left with Rich Rodriguez, do you think that the loss of staff (and their relationships with high school coaches) will translate into recruiting difficulties in the next few years? Question #3: Everyone realizes that USF is an up-and-coming program in a recruiting hotbed, but it seems that everyone outside of the Big East is overlooking what Coach Brian Kelly is doing at Cincinnati. Ohio is also a fertile recruiting ground; do you think that the Bearcats have as much potential as South Florida to become a dominant program in college football? Question #4: In last week's mailbag you said that you didn't think that there any viable candidates to add a ninth Big East football member. I submit the University of Memphis. The Tigers are in a good recruiting area, have adequate facilities, and could easily be competitive in the basketball league as well. I know that the basketball league is already huge, but why not push out a weak, non-football member to make room for Memphis?

Brian Bennett: Whew. That's a mouthful. I'll take them in order: 1) I don't feel right speculating about a new coach when the old coach is still in place. But I think Paul Pasqualoni is available. 2) From what I've heard, and again, I'm no recruiting expert, recruiting has been going well at West Virginia. Stewart brought in supposed ace recruiter Doc Holliday for just that purpose. 3) I know that neither I nor the people who follow the Big East have overlooked Brian Kelly one bit. He's done a great job. The question is whether he'll be there for the long haul. Cincinnati doesn't have the best facilities -- I love Nippert Stadium, but it only seats 35,000 with not much room to expand -- and the fan base hasn't been the most enthusiastic. South Florida has the local recruiting pipeline and plays in an NFL stadium. 4) I can't see Memphis joining the Big East. Doesn't make much sense geographically (though that hasn't stopped leagues before), and the Big East isn't going to add another basketball member or kick anybody out of the current alignment. And Memphis won't want to come just for football and not hoops, too.

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Adam from Pittsburgh writes: About that ninth BE member: apparently talks are heating up again to schedule Army and Navy to a conference scheduling contract rather than adding a ninth team. This was rumored a couple of years ago too. I'm not sure how I feel about this even though it appears to be the best option. If they were to bring in a 9th football team it would screw up everything. They don't want more associate members like they used to have (Temple). They don't need a school that can't help their marketing (Marshall). Not to mention that bringing in more schools would blow up their basketball and Olympic sports programs schedules. I don't exactly know how to fix it, but I don't think they want anything to change. The only other school I've heard floated is Memphis, but their football program doesn't show much promise and it would still complicate their basketball schdedule (no matter how good Calapari's guys get). Since you suggested they need a ninth team then what would you propose?

Brian Bennett: Adam is referencing a New York Post story from this summer that Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese totally shot down at Big East media day in July. I wouldn't be surprised, though, for some sort of arrangement between the service academies to eventually be reached. There aren't a lot of great candidates for that ninth team, which is the problem. East Carolina is a candidate, but will that program have sustained success? Central Florida is a natural fit because it gives the Big East two teams in Florida, but I don't see any way how South Florida would allow that to happen. And again, you need a football-only member.

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Daniel from Frostburg, Md., writes: It's interesting that you brought up the idea of looking for another team to join the Big East, after the rumors of Army and Navy being considered league games the idea of adding one or two more teams seems important. It seems like there a bunch of qualified programs. Appalachian State has to be one team to be considered after their dominance in the lower league. The best team would be Notre Dame, but everyone knows they will never give up the money that NBC offers. What about ECU or another team? Why arn't these possibilties? Also I like your best case scenario for WVU, but instead of Ohio State it is an SEC team just to make it clear how overrated the SEC is.

Brian Bennett: More talk about an extra team. Appalachian State is not a realistic answer at this time because it's still in the FCS, and you don't just make that jump overnight. And you're right, Notre Dame will never happen.

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Jared from Williamsburg writes: So you still want to say UConn's worse than Louisville and Pitt???
Let me modify my question a bit, you still think UConn is worse than Louisville, Pitt, AND Rutgers???

Brian Bennett: Nope. Check my new power rankings today.

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Nic from Tampa writes: First,when will you be covering a USF home game? Save for the hurricanes the weather is much more pleasant here than in Louisville. Second, the USF Bus Engineering tailgate is second to none.

Brian Bennett: I'll be there next week for the Kansas game. Looking forward to it.

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Kurt from Birmingham, Ala. writes: Why does everyone ALWAYS love West Virginia? Sure they're decent, but they play in the Big East, and yes the Big East is the lowest conference of all BCS conferences right now. I mean they beat Villanova and you write an article about how good Pat White and the coach looked? Why not talk up Penn State? They beat Coastal Carolina pretty bad.

Brian Bennett: I wrote about West Virginia because I cover the Big East and that's
the game I was attending. I'll leave Penn State to Adam Rittenberg, our fine Big Ten reporter. And secondly, here's why West Virginia gets some love:

• West Virginia 38, Georgia 35, 2006 Sugar Bowl.
• West Virginia 48, Oklahoma 28, 2008 Fiesta Bowl.

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Kyle from Milford, Conn.: Is beating Temple enough for you to start analyzing UConn as anything past a team that bends and doesn't break or a team that gets by with little talent. It's all been written before, why not analyze how the defense and special teams always comes up big and the running game should be one of the tops in the Big East. Apparently if you don't run an offense geared towards the air you have suspect ability to win games? Stop dodging UConn questions with non answers like we'll wait and see or too early to tell.

Brian Bennett: Even Randy Edsall admits Connecticut is not the flashiest or the most talented team in the Big East. Nothing wrong with that. I can't make much of a judgment on UConn from a game against Hofstra. And really, you want to use Temple as a measuring stick?

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Rob from Seattle writes: You wrote in your Big East mailbag that WVU allowed 21 points to Villanova but what most of you guys who didn't actually watch the game don't realize is that the final 7 points came with 1 second on the clock. Seriously, who calls a timeout when you're down 34 with 4 seconds to go... Pathetic!

Brian Bennett: I might be wrong, but I think they keep score for 60 minutes.