Jake Locker showed enough flashes of talent this year to give Washington plenty of hope for the 2008 season. Nick Doan/Icon SMI

MAILBAG Submit a question or an opinion to Stewart. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

Last season Illinois finished 2-10. Kansas scraped into bowl eligibility with six wins. Fast forward one year, and both teams are playing in BCS bowl games. Huh?

Do you see any similarly mediocre (or just flat-out bad) teams who have the potential to take such a leap between 2007 and 2008? Are their any particular qualities that hint that a team might be on the verge of such an explosion, or did the stars just align favorably for Illinois and Kansas?
--Avery, Seattle

There are at least a couple of teams every year that exhibit such dramatic improvement, but I'm not sure you can pinpoint any one, common characteristic other than their coaches recruited better players. Obviously, that's not the only factor, but it's the most essential. There are just so many other things that go into it, however, that are simply impossible to predict. Who besides the most rosy-eyed Illini follower would have envisioned previously undistinguished running back Rashard Mendenhall morphing into a 1,500-yard rusher? Who besides Mark Mangino knew that quarterback Todd Reesing -- who attempted 24 passes last season -- would emerge as the nation's ninth-rated passer?

If there's any program out there that reminds me of where Illinois stood a year ago, it's Washington. Like Ron Zook (who went 4-19 his first two seasons), Tyrone Willingham took over a program that sat at rock bottom three years ago and, despite seemingly upgrading its talent level, has yet to see it pay dividends in the wins column (going 11-25). Like Illinois' 2006 team, which turned in a couple "signs of hope" (most notably against No. 1 Ohio State) during an otherwise forgettable 2-10 season, the Huskies' recently completed 4-9 campaign included an upset of Boise State and near-upsets of BCS teams USC and Hawaii. And like Juice Williams a year ago, Washington QB Jake Locker showed flashes of brilliance throughout an often rocky freshman season. I certainly expect Washington to be much-improved in 2008; whether it will wind up in a Rose Bowl berth, I couldn't begin to guess.

As for the Kansas comparison ... take your pick. The Jayhawks went 7-5 and 6-6 the two seasons prior to this one. Next year's Kansas could be South Carolina (8-5 and 6-6). Or Oklahoma State (7-6 and 6-6). Or any number of other middle-of-the-pack teams. I think if I had to put money on somebody, however, it would be ... Pittsburgh. Obviously, as evidenced against West Virginia, the Panthers were a much better team by the end of the year than their 5-7 record indicated (they also beat top-20 Cincinnati). They finished with the No. 7 defense in the country, they've got a heck of a budding star in tailback LeSean McCoy, while Dave Wannstedt has recruited extremely well since he's been there. His three-year record so far: 16-19. Mangino's record the three years before this one: 17-18.

The Cotton Bowl used to be one of the premier bowl games. Can you shed any light on its demise in stature?
--Michael, Los Angeles

The biggest reason is it lost its most important partner when the Southwest Conference shut down in 1995. The league had been sending its champion to that bowl since its 1937 inception. The Cotton had been included in the short-lived "Bowl Coalition" (1992-94), an early precursor to the BCS, but without an anchor conference (the newly formed Big 12 chose to align with the more lucrative Fiesta Bowl), the bowl was dropped from the subsequent Bowl Coalition (which gave way to the BCS).

Obviously, the BCS designation has become the single biggest factor in determining a bowl's prestige, so that contributed heavily to the Cotton Bowl's reduced stature, but I also think it's suffered from lack of a clear identity in the post-BCS era. At first it was a Pac-10 vs. Big 12 game, now it's Big 12 vs. SEC. For whatever reason, those matchups haven't elicited as much intrigue as the Big Ten-SEC New Year's duels in Florida (Capital One and Outback).

I have a feeling, however, that the Cotton is in the early stages of a comeback. As I wrote previously, the bowl lucked into the best non-BCS matchup of the season this year in Missouri-Arkansas. Meanwhile, the game is moving from the dilapidated Cotton Bowl stadium to the new $1 billion Cowboys stadium -- which will feature potential expanded seating for 100,000 -- in 2010. The next BCS contract will kick in a year later, and you have to think that if the BCS does opt to expand to a plus-one format (or perhaps even if it doesn't), the Cotton will be first on the list of candidates for a new site to host one of the games.

While Jordana Spiro waits for production on My Boys to resume, she's taking a similar track as fellow Crush Jenna Fischer in working on a Will Ferrell film. Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Stewart, I heard that new episodes of The Office are done until the Writer's Strike in Hollywood ends. How are we going to survive?
--Russ, Dyersville, Iowa

Believe me, it's already been plenty painful. While I sympathize with the writers' cause 100 percent, the strike becomes harder to stomach when you turn on the tube on a given night and your only choices are Clash of the Choirs, I Love New York or assorted network reruns. While I do miss The Office, I take heart in knowing that our girl Jenna Fischer is doing just fine, now that she's a big movie star (though for whatever reason, Walk Hard bombed at the box office last weekend).

I was a little more concerned about current Crush Jordana Spiro, however, seeing as her career was just starting to take off, but now My Boys, like every other sitcom, is in limbo.

So, for the sake of all the similarly concerned readers out there, I decided to check on her. (As if I needed an excuse to place that call.)

Stewart (after exchanging assorted pleasantries): So how are you being affected by the strike?

Jordana: We're all on hold right now. We're scheduled to start shooting [the new season of My Boys] as soon as strike ends, whenever that will be.

Stewart: So what do you do every day in the meantime?

Jordana: Read Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls, of course. (I swear, people, I don't tell her to say these things -- though I can confirm she possesses a copy of the book.) Actually, I'm very fortunate to be working on a movie that Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are producing. It's called The Goods. Jeremy Piven stars as a car salesman. We're shooting it right now.

Stewart: See -- I knew your newfound prestige as Crush would pay off.

Jordana: I know. I can't afford to lose steam now.

Stewart: So what happens if the strike's still going once the movie shoot ends?

Jordana: I'll be hitting you up for a job. Do you need a proofreader for the sequel? Or, I'll be available to do the audio version of your book.

Stewart: Hmm ... the last time I brought that up, you had some pretty steep demands. I take it those have gone down?

Jordana: Yeah -- if the strike's still going, I'll do it for M&Ms.

Please, studio heads, come to your senses and help end this thing already -- for Jordana's sake and ours.

Stewart, we know you make every effort to remain impartial, but you're only human. Which do you fear most from the BCS title game: an Ohio State victory, which would produce a flood of "The Big 10 was underrated" e-mails; or an LSU victory, which would open the torrents of "The SEC is the Greatest Conference EVER" e-mails?
--Russ, New York

Ah, that's where the beauty of the "delete" key comes in. I'm more concerned for the streets of New Orleans in the hours immediately afterward. That's a whole lot of pent-up bragging rights set to come out, one way or the other -- and I can't imagine alcohol will make any of it more rational.

One programming note: Because New Year's falls on a Tuesday (the day I usually write the Mailbag), and because I'll be kind of busy that day, next week's Mailbag will run on Thursday (Jan. 3). I'm sure you guys will have no shortage of new material by then.