Brady’s bunch

Between Ronald Reagan winning one for the Gipper in one era and Rudy’s walk-on part in history in another, Hollywood has helped foster so many wild aspirations about playing for the “Fighting Irish.”
For most children, their hopes remain just that. But on Jan. 2, one of those crazy dreamers, a self-confessed “Rudy” addict, will lead Notre Dame against Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.
There is something wonderfully appropriate about Notre Dame’s present revival coming about under the stewardship of a quarterback from Dublin. Okay, it might be Dublin, Ohio but with a name like Brady Quinn, a maternal grandmother called Peggy McDonald, and a high school career spent starring for the Coffman Shamrocks, his Irish heritage is unquestioned.
Coming to the end of his third full season as starting quarterback, the 21-year-old already owns every single passing record in the Notre Dame book, including the most touchdown passes in one game, one season and one college career. And he’s got another year on campus to amplify every one of those marks.
“Brady just seems to be one of those fortunate kids who has been blessed with some ability but also has had things fall into place for him,” said his mother Robin Quinn. “It just seems everything is set up to take him hopefully to his golden dreams.”
Ironically, the Quinns live just ten minutes from Ohio State’s stadium. From the moment he began starring for Coffman, their son was heavily courted by the local college and institutions from Michigan to Tennessee, yet he ended up accepting a scholarship from then-coach Ty Willingham at Notre Dame. If that was a fateful decision, the subsequent arrival of former New England Patriots’ offensive coordinator Charlie Weis as head coach earlier this year was the moment his career trajectory changed forever.
Almost as soon as he took over, Weis had Quinn and his mother in for a chat during which he explained what he expected from his player. He then proceeded over the following few months to show the junior just how hard quarterbacks are treated in practice by NFL coaches.
“I thought, ‘This guy is the real deal, he’s not talking any nonsense,'” said Robin Quinn. “I knew he was going to be a straight shooter. He said what he wanted to do, and that’s what he’s doing.”

Under his wing
Before the season began in September, Weis told journalists covering the team that Quinn was going to be the player to watch under his regime, and so it proved. Over the course of the fall, a good college quarterback started to become great. From the moment he’d won the starting quarterback job four games into his freshman season in 2003, Quinn was regarded as somebody with the potential to maybe, perhaps, one day turn pro.
These days, he’s being talked about as a guaranteed first-round pick in the NFL draft and already mentioned as a probable number-one selection if he waits until 2007 to leave Notre Dame.
“I spent as much time with him as N.C.A.A. rules allow,” said Weis about their preparation in the off-season for what turned into a stellar campaign.
“I don’t know how much that is, but that’s how much time I spent with him. We don’t put anything in the offense that the quarterback can’t handle. We don’t put anything in the offense that the quarterback doesn’t like. If we put something in the game plan and he doesn’t like it, I throw it out. He’s a very bright football player. You usually only have to tell him something once. Even when he makes a mistake, he understands why as soon as you say it. I obviously have a lot of confidence in him because he really controls everything we do,” he said.
Apart from handing him a more quarterback-friendly offense and causing drooling fans to start comparing him to the Patriots’ Tom Brady, Weis affected Quinn’s character. The handsome guy who teammates call “Mister Abercrombie” learned to talk a little tougher. He developed the sort of brashness and confidence that are essential to the make-up of any top athlete, even going as far as to warn receivers in the huddle he was about to throw them touchdown passes.
“No matter what’s happening in that huddle, even if we’re set and ready to go, when he comes in, there’s an added component of calmness in that huddle,” said center Bob Morton. “That’s a great thing to have in a quarterback.”
On the way to a 9-2 record that included the epic defeat by number-one ranked USC in one of the college games of the decade, Quinn became the first quarterback in Notre Dame history to throw for over 3,000 yards in a season. Everybody knew Weis was an offensive genius. Few people guessed Quinn could be this good a quarterback.
“He’s really taken charge of the offense and looks confident,” said Joe Montana, the most storied Notre Dame quarterback of all. “I always thought that Brady had the ability to be this type of player.”

Snubbed?
Perhaps nothing summed up the progress he has made better than the angry reaction of the Notre Dame faithful to the announcement Quinn wasn’t being invited to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony earlier this month. Nobody thought he would win college football’s most prized individual award but they figured after such a stellar season he’d at least deserve a place on the shortlist and podium alongside Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and Vince Young.
“I wasn’t surprised, I was disappointed to tell you the truth,” said Weis of that decision. “I didn’t understand why. I made a phone call to the guy that runs the show and I told him that. Their rationale was that there was a clear drop off between three and four and they felt in the past they had as few as three and as many as six. They thought that three was the magic number. I just disagreed.”
That he will contend for the trophy again next year goes without saying, especially since those who work closest with him feel he can improve further.
“He comes to work every day,” said quarterbacks coach Peter Vaas. “I don’t think there’s been a play on tape that we have watched that he hasn’t taken a note. He is self-critical, he is self-analytical and if he continues to do those things and listen to the people around him and has the desire to get better, he will get better.”
Whatever happens against Ohio State, an encounter where Notre Dame must try to end a run of seven consecutive defeats in bowl games, the thought of an even better Quinn helming their team next fall already has some Domers dreaming of a national championship. The script would be pure Hollywood. Like everything else Quinn has managed so far.