QB or not QB?

Stellar quarterbacks just one reason for high-scoring bowl games

MAILBAG MAILBAG Stewart Mandel will answer questions from SI.com readers each week in his mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

Hey, kids. Did you miss me?

(Don't answer that.)

It was nice to get some much-needed time off to focus on the finer things in life -- sleeping, eating and watching endless Saturday Night Live reruns on Comedy Central. As of this writing, however, I'm on a plane bound for Pasadena, ready to soak in Part I of the national championship game.

Before we get to your questions, a few college football observations from the past few weeks ...

What is up with the scoring in bowl games this year? It seems more like college basketball than college football. Is defense at the collegiate level being ignored? -- Art, Houston

In terms of the games played so far (New Orleans through Continental Tire), I think if you looked at the NCAA defensive rankings you wouldn't find too many of those teams in the upper echelon. That, combined with players like the aforementioned quarterbacks, and you've got a perfect recipe for 52-49.

However, as we get closer to New Year's, the quality of teams is going up, and so too are the defenses. I wouldn't expect too many shootouts when dealing with games like LSU-Oklahoma, Ohio State-Kansas State and Georgia-Purdue.

Will Florida State keep Chris Rix as QB next season? Or will the Seminoles dump him and go with someone else? -- Rich Vail, Taylor, Mich.

Who are they going to go with? Fabian Walker? A kid they're currently recruiting? There isn't exactly a long pipeline of quarterbacks in Tallahassee these days. I'd have to say 'Noles fans are stuck with him for another year, which might not necessarily be a bad thing. There was certainly nothing to complain about from his performance against Florida, and if by chance he can follow it up by beating Miami in the Orange Bowl, he's going to be riding pretty high going into next season. In fact, he'd probably be near the top of some preseason Heisman lists, strange as that sounds.

With Cal boasting an impressive bowl win over a school that receives plenty of East Coast attention, and with most of their players back next season, what is the Bears' early outlook? -- Jason, New York City

Between that game and the USC win, I would hope most of the country is well aware of what's going on in Berkeley at this point. With Aaron Rodgers back at quarterback and with the defense a year older, I'd imagine the Bears will be picked fairly high in the Pac-10 next season and probably start out in the Top 25.

By the way its teams play, the MAC is now a serious football conference. But in the way it's viewed by the rest of the country and (maybe more importantly) the way it pays its coaches and funds its programs, it is still decidedly second-rate. What will it take to make the MAC into the conference its teams demonstrate it could be? -- Chris Stvartak, Chicago

You mentioned a very important word: funding. If you were to look at a list of the most consistently successful programs in the country over the past 10 years and a list of the schools that have spent the most money on their programs, they'd be nearly identical. MAC schools have been investing more financially recently than ever before, and it's started to show dividends, but to take it to the next level they're going to need more revenue. And while TV and bowl money helps, for the most part you need fans buying tickets, which, despite all the MAC's on-field success, continues to be a problem. Of the bottom 10 teams in attendance in Division I-A this season, six were from the MAC, and only two league teams, Miami of Ohio and Toledo, averaged at least 80 percent of capacity.

Therefore, I'd say that until fan interest at these schools catches up to the quality of the product, there's going to continue to be a huge gap between conferences like the MAC and conferences like the Big Ten in terms of exposure and prestige, no matter how many MAC teams beat Big Ten teams on the field.

If Maurice Clarett becomes a reformed college kid and suits up next season, would you place the Buckeyes in the top five next year? -- Fred, Columbus, Ohio

Let's get one thing straight. You and I have a better chance of contracting Mad Cow Disease from a McDonald's burger than Maurice Clarett has of ever suiting up for the Buckeyes again. Last we heard, America's most infamous "student athlete" was flunking out of phys ed and was repeatedly dozing off during African-American Studies. (This from the Columbus Dispatch). Ohio State would be making an absolute mockery of itself to restore his eligibility. And even if it did, based on Clarett's indignation and ensuing lawsuit over the way his case was handled, it doesn't seem like he'd be particularly eager to do the university the service of providing them with a couple thousand yards rushing next year.

Why is Tommie Harris not on the SI.com All-America team? How can the Lombardi winner not even be honorable mention? -- Brad Schaefer, Omaha, Neb.

Seems more than a few people noticed that one. However, the question I'd be asking isn't how was he left off the All-America team but how the heck did he win the Lombardi?

Harris is a superb athlete and I don't doubt he'll draw much attention from the NFL if/when he comes out this spring. However, we wanted players on our team who actually turned in All-America seasons. Fact is Harris, with 34 tackles, four sacks and nine tackles for loss, doesn't even come close when you compare him to the other defensive tackles who did make our team: LSU's Chad Lavalais (57 tackles, seven sacks, 16 tackles for loss) and Florida State's Darnell Dockett (52 tackles, 17 tackles for loss). Oklahoma's coaches will tell you it's because he gets double-teamed, but you can't tell me other elite linemen don't draw the same kind of attention. The ones who manage to overcome it deserve the All-America honors.

Unfortunately, when it comes to awards like the Lombardi, reputation and hype often win out over actual performance. Take the Ted Hendricks Award for the nation's top defensive end, won by Georgia's David Pollack. Like Harris, Pollack came into the season with a monster pedigree, thanks to a consensus All-America sophomore season in which he had 14 sacks and 23.5 tackles for loss. He didn't come close to that kind of production this year, notching just 4.5 sacks, yet managed to beat out UCLA's Dave Ball, who led the country with nearly four times as many sacks (16.5).

I'm a Penn State student. What's your take on Joe Paterno coaching next year? -- Ted Neville, Oklahoma City, Okla.

Penn State was definitely bad this season, but not quite as bad as its 3-9 record. The Nittany Lions lost a lot of close games. So I don't doubt they'll be better next season, maybe even break .500. In terms of the big picture, though, the longer Joe stays, the longer it will take for the Nittany Lions to return to national prominence.

I heard that at his end-of-season press conference he said the team was "really close" to competing for a national championship. You've got to be freakin' kidding me. You're telling me a collection of average-at-best Big Ten talent is going to suddenly spring from 3-9 to 11-1, all the while running the same outdated system it's been running for 30 years?

My advice to Joe would be to take a look around. The game is changing drastically. LSU and Oklahoma are in the Sugar Bowl running two of the most unique defensive schemes the game has ever seen. USC is in the Rose Bowl with a passing offense no one ever dreamed could work outside of BYU. The only way he's "really close" to winning anything is if he's "really close" to putting his 1966 playbook into retirement and going out to scour the country for some new ideas.

Why is it you seem to be the only voice of reason in the press regarding college football and the BCS issue? -- Stan Orr, Glenwood Springs, Colo.

At the time I wrote that stuff, I was heavily sedated.

Stewart Mandel covers college sports for SI.com.