ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

I'm on my way to Morgantown via Pittsburgh this afternoon in anticipation of Saturday's showdown between Cincinnati and West Virginia. I'm really looking forward to it, since I think it will be an interesting game and both teams are full of good talkers.

Time to answer some of your questions as I make my way there ...

P.J. Schumacher from Greenville, S.C. writes: Brian, I know I may be jumping the gun but I think the winner this weekend in Morgantown between WVU/Cincy has the best chance of punching the Big East BCS bowl ticket! What do you think?

Brian Bennett: Don't forget about Pittsburgh, but I think whomever wins in Morgantown will be in the driver's seat for two reasons: A) If it's West Virginia, the Mountaineers will have at least a one-game lead on Pitt; and B) Cincinnati gets Pitt at home later this month. Still a lot of football to be played, though, and this league is week-to-week madness.

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M. McKenzie from Elkins, W. Va., writes: Brian, I saw Panthers running back LeSean McCoy is a semifinalist for the Maxwell Award. Which brings me to this question: if we were discussing if Pat White was the best player to ever play in the Big East how does his name not make this list? He has to be considered as one of the best 15 players in College football playing right now, right? If they want to talk about the teams records then you have to ask why McCoy is in the discussion then. This baffles me. What do you think?

Brian Bennett: I love watching McCoy play and think he's one of the most exciting players in the country. But when we're talking about greatest players in conference history, I believe longevity has to play a factor. McCoy has been great for one and two-thirds seasons. White has done it now for almost four years. If McCoy sticks around at least one more year, we might be talking about him as the best running back in league history, if not the best player. But remember he's eligible to enter the draft next spring. And he needs to lead Pitt to a bowl game.

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Jim from Pittsburgh writes: This is in response to the recent reader responses to Pat White. You absolutely hit the nail on the head when you said it doesn't matter what happens during a player's pro career. Some of the best college players never stick in the pros - Charlie Ward, Gino Toretta, Ty Detmer, and probably the best example - Archie Griffin. Being a Pitt fan I started to think about some of the Pitt alumni that starred in the NFL, and I immediately thought of Curtis Martin. But, look at his college numbers and they're mediocre at best. Antonio Bryant was solid, but Larry Fitzgerald far eclipsed anything Bryant did. That being said, maybe you could throw out to the readers to come up with the best players their team has ever had. I also wanted to get your take on why LeSean McCoy hasn't gotten more Heisman hype lately? I know he started out slow, but as much as Donald Brown has slowed down, McCoy has heated up. I would have thought after the Notre Dame game on national TV where McCoy basically strapped the team to his back, again, he would have garnered some hype.

Brian Bennett: Let's start with some more McCoy talk. The reason he hasn't gotten a lot of Heisman love is because his team has two losses, and someone on a team not in the top 10 has to post ridiculous numbers to earn serious consideration. McCoy has been spectacular his last five games, but for the season he has 1,004 yards (really good, but not sensational) and 15 touchdowns (outstanding). He's on pace for about 1,500 yards and 23 scores, though he will exceed those numbers if he keeps up his current levels of production. I think he'd have to eclipse 2,000 yards and Pitt would have to win out for him to become a serious Heisman candidate. But he does have a chance at the Doak Walker Award for the nation's best running back and certainly for Big East player of the year honors. And obviously I agree that players should be judged on their college careers when we're comparing all-time college greats. The NFL is simply a different game. Think about it in basketball. Christian Laettner didn't do a whole lot in the pros, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he was one of the greatest college players of all time (and most disliked).

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Dave from Savannah writes: What are the chances (if any) of an Ohio State / Cincinnati Bowl game this year? I'm orignally from Ohio and a big Bearcat fan that would love to see this matchup again. I think this matchup would be alot more heated than most people outside of Ohio think.

Brian Bennett: Theoretically it's possible, but not very likely. Here's how it could happen: Cincinnati would of course have to win the Big East and go to the BCS. Ohio State would have to win out and qualify for an at-large BCS selection, as Penn State wins the Big Ten. The Buckeyes might get passed by for the Rose Bowl if Penn State is in the BCS title game, because Rose officials won't want a USC-Ohio State rematch. So perhaps Ohio State would fall to a game like the Orange, where it would meet the Bearcats. But I doubt too many people would be all that interested in an intrastate matchup hundreds of miles away from Ohio, particularly when the last two meetings between the schools (in 2006 and 2004) weren't all that close.

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Frank from Pittsburgh writes: Did anyone mention Larry Fitzgerald in the Best Big East Player ever discussion? I'm hard pressed to argue with Pat White, but I'd consider Fitzgerald in the conversation based on his pure dominance for the short time he played at Pitt. Imagine what he could have done had he not left after his second season.

Brian Bennett: I noted Fitzgerald in my initial post on the subject, Frank, but didn't receive a lot of reader support for him. He might be the best Big East receiver of all time, but again the longevity problem hurts his case.

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Andrew from Morgantown writes: Brian, I didn't get a chance to respond to your question about Pat White being the best player in the history of the Big East, but I wanted to bring up this point. Given all of the records he has a chance to break, assuming he doesn't get injured, shouldn't he be in the Heisman spotlight? You make all of these arguments about him being the first player to do all of these awesome things, like rushing yards by a quarterback, QB rating, touchdowns thrown, bowls won. On top of that, a lot of people agree that without Pat White, WVU football would not be what it is. Maybe not today as we speak, but it is so obvious when he doesn't play how valuable of a player he is to the team. In the preseason, him, along with players like Knowshon Moreno, were in the Heisman race, but fell short because the team failed to put up expected numbers. Since then the Heisman race has had a number of different front runners simply based off of how the team was doing. I'm not trying to take anything away from those athletes, but people like Chase Daniel are no longer in the race because his team fell short to Texas. Graham Harrell is now at the top because his team beat the number one long horns. The point I'm trying to make is, the Heisman Trophy is for a player, not a team. And given the stats of this specific player, Pat White, and all that he has accomplished in his 4 years in college, s
houldn't he still be recognized even the slightest bit?

Brian Bennett: We all know by now that the Heisman doesn't necessarily go to the best player in college football, but usually to the top skill player on one of the country's top teams. That horse left the barn a long time ago. Also, it's supposed to be award based on the current season alone and not career achievements, so White's past accomplishments really don't factor in. He fell out of the running, fairly or not, when West Virginia lost two games early. And thanks in large part to injuries, he hasn't put up his usual dazzling numbers yet this season. So he's not going to have a chance, which is a shame. But it's not the end of the world. White will leave college having made a huge impact on his school and an entire conference, and he'll be remembered for a long, long time

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Steve from Rome, N.Y., writes: It's time the Big East powers-that-be give up the dream that Notre Dame will eventually join in football and kick them out of the league. They get the benefit of being in a conference in all those other sports and they can steal a bowl berth and the money that goes with it from the league while not ever playing football in it. Certainly they are very good in a lot of sports, but not great to the point that the league would fall apart without them. If you kick them out you could also interest someone like Memphis to join, thus creating the four home games per year the current teams desperately need for scheduling/monetary purposes. This also makes the basketball league even more of a juggernaut while getting the Tigers in a BCS football league and out of C-USA hoops exile. What am I missing? I can't think of anything logical so it must be contractual.

Brian Bennett: What you're missing is this: Notre Dame brings a level of prestige to the conference that can't be denied. Go and watch what happens when any Irish team -- be it women's basketball, soccer, volleyball, whatever -- comes to a Big East campus for a game. More than likely, the host team will have its biggest crowd of the year. Notre Dame adds a lot in men's basketball, especially for all the other Catholic schools in the conference. Even though the Big East bowl lineup isn't all that impressive, it would have been much worse had league officials not included the Irish in their deals, as I wrote last week. That's why the league will most likely include Notre Dame in future bowl contracts. A team like Memphis would never offer that kind of prestige and appeal. Now, I would hope that eventually the league could secure an attractive bowl lineup on its own without the Notre Dame crutch, but that time has not yet arrived. Big East officials hold no delusion that the Irish will join the league in football; they're much too smart for that. Notre Dame has no incentive to join any conference as long as NBC is footing the bills and the school can keep all its bowl revenue. The alliance between the Irish and the Big East has been mutually beneficial in many ways, whether fans want to believe that or not.