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Q: I always envisioned Henry Hynoski as an Owen Schmidt type of player - excellent blocker, but with enough speed to break loose for long runs. Thankfully, Frank Cignetti realizes that he can be a great change up to Dion Lewis. Your earlier comments insinuated that he would never be a 'big-time' player as he was in high school. Lately, he's been given more opportunities to carry and I believe he's done fairly well. What's your opinion of him to this point in time?

John Butela, Glenshaw

ZEISE: My opinion of Henry has not changed one bit -- he is a very good short yardage rusher and an excellent blocker. But he should be at the very best the fourth option to get the ball behind Dion Lewis, Dorin Dickerson and Jonathan Baldwin because he's not the explosive playmaker those guys are. Hynoski is fun to watch. And I'm not sure what it is you think I "insinuated" because the only thing I've ever said is this isn't Class A football anymore and it is unrealistic to think he's going to run for 80,000 yards and 546 touchdowns or whatever it was. The guys on the other side of the ball here, are as big or bigger and as strong or stronger than Hynoski and they hit pretty hard too. He is an excellent player and great kid and fits his role perfectly -- and I think he can become a "big-time" fullback. I just think that some of the people who are fans of his from way back and are always complaining that he isn't getting the ball enough need to gain a better perspective on what it means to play Division I football.

Q: Take this year's Pitt team versus the best Pitt team of the Walt Harris era. Who wins that game and what is the score?

Rob Hightower, Jeannette

ZEISE: That is a great question. I'd say the best team of the Harris era was either 2001 (after they stopped messing with the spread and started playing football) or 2002. Frankly the 2002 team would have been a great game against this team because that team had a great defense and a great passing game and would have been able to score points against this team. I'd say it would be a close game but that team, with Larry Fitzgerald and Kris Wilson running through this secondary, would probably have won, especially since they had a good defense and would have been able to slow down this offense. So if I had to pick a score, I'd say it would have been something along the lines of -- Pitt 2002 31, Pitt 2009 21.

Q: I'm beside myself that Pitt would consider playing two Div 1-AA teams in one season. Why not schedule a weaker 1-A team or schedule a powerhouse early in the season that draws fans to the program? Early losses are easily forgiven, cowardice is not. Other than not attending two lousy games, what can a fan do to voice their dissatisfaction with the Steve Pederson overstocking the cupcakes?

Michael Casey, Etna

ZEISE: I guess just voice your displeasure via e-mail or snail mail or voice mail! The party line is and will be "well nobody else was available" but that seems to be a very convenient cop-out and it is similar to the rationalization that Rutgers used this year for putting together its ridiculously embarrassing schedule. The bottom line is you can find teams to play if you are willing to (a) take a tougher game or (b) play on the road. But everybody wants home games and I am sure given that Pitt plays Utah, Miami and Notre Dame there is a school of thought that it doesn't want to play any more tough teams because the schedule would be too hard. That's the problem with Division I football these days -- there is no real incentive to play a tough schedule because the magic number is seven (actually six) -- as in, all you need to do to get to a bowl is win seven games. In the Big East, you have five non-conference games and that means if you schedule right you can get five easy wins and from there getting to seven shouldn't be hard. Pitt would get a lot of criticism if it does indeed schedule a second I-AA team and it would deserve all the criticism it receives because that is rather bush league for any Division I team.

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