Archive for the ‘Brady Quinn’ Category

Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel both won three Super Bowls as coordinators for the Patriots and now Weis is telling his friend Crennel, who is the head coach of the Browns, to trade up from the 3rd position to draft Brady Quinn.

“I’ve met Brady, and he’s a fine young man,” Crennel said Friday at the NFL scouting combine. “I know the guy who coaches Brady, and Brady has had a lot of success since he’s been in their system. I know that Brady is a good quarterback. Charlie told me that he’s really good, and we should trade up to get him.”

You have to love the job Weis does in promoting his kids to NFL teams. Some people like to try and downplay Weis’s NFL connections (like Ron Zook), but his connections to the NFL definitely shouldn’t be overlooked and if the Browns do end up taking Quinn 4th overall I can’t help but think it would be a major help in recruiting.

“Hey five star wide receiver, did you notice that Brady just got drafted by my close friend Romeo Crennel with the 3rd pick in the draft? Or that Corey Mays and Dan Stevenson ended up in the Patriots camp last year after being undrafted?”

Today’s links are a little late.  I don’t really have a good excuse either as I sat this Friday night at home.  I was messing around with some really cool new features I’m hoping to roll out for UHND this off-season though.  Anyway - here’s today’s links.

• Quinn isn’t conceding the top spot in the draft according to this MSNBC article.
• Darius Walker is still confident after leaving Notre Dame early.  It’s good to see Walker remain confident, but with most draft experts projecting him as a late first day/early second day draft pick, he might not stay that way.
• This guy thinks Russell should be the #1 pick, but someone should tell him that Russell and LSU beat Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl, not the Orange Bowl as he references at one point.
• Here’s a preview of the Notre Dame-Marquette basketball game tomorrow.  The game is a national telecast on ABC at 3:30.  Should be a great game.
• A good, fairly balanced look at Russell and Quinn.  The Leaf-Manning comparisons which we’ve mentioned here for a while seem to be picking up steam.
• The Vikings will interview Brady Quinn.  I’ve been saying for a while I will be surprised if Quinn makes it past Minnesota.  Brad Childress was groomed under Andy Reid whom he watched build the Eagles around a franchise quarterback.  Minnesota would be one of the best destinations for Quinn amongst the top 10.
• Great recap of Quinn’s media day at the combine.  For those interested, he measured in at 6′ 3 3/4″ and 232 lbs.
• Rich Rodriguez from West Virginia actually had some nice things to say about Quinn as well.  He concedes that he’d pick Russell over Quinn, but he gives a pretty fair assessment of both.
• Nice quote from Walker regarding Weis and how he doesn’t like when you are late.
• A good look at all of the position battles on the offensive side of the ball this spring from Domer Law Blog

Man is it a slow day.  I’ve been searching for links for at least an hour now and haven’t come up with a whole hell of a lot.  I did find a couple decent links about the combine and Quinn’s draft status and the BGS link is great, but other than that, it was slim pickin’s today.

• BGS posted their top 10 plays of the year.  They have videos embeded for each play so enjoy.  The only play that missed their cut that I was quite partial to was Quinn’s 60 yard scramble against ‘SC, but you can’t argue with the ones they picked.
• Lou Somogyi has an article up about the top 4 offensive line classes since ‘92.  Something tells me that last year’s crop of freshman will be making, an possibly toping, this list in a couple years.
• A very good run down of the Weis malpractice case and mistrial from yesterday.
• In case anyone missed Brady Quinn’s XBOX blog post from last week, take a look.  It’s a pretty good read about how he has been working out in preparation for the combine.
• Speaking of Quinn and video games, Sports Gamer takes a look at who might be gracing the cover of NCAA Football 2008.  Ever since the deal between Quinn and XBOX was announced I figured he was a lock for the cover next year and I still think so.  Btw, EA officially launched the site for NCAA ‘08 and will announce their cover boy on March 2.
• ArmChairGm.com has their latest mock draft up and surprisingly they have Quinn going #1 to Oakland.  It’s been a while since a mock draft had Quinn going #1.  Quinn is, however, the only ND prospect in their first round.
• Nice overview of the combine from USA Today with a couple mentions of Quinn.
• BigEastHoops.com thinks Notre Dame will secure the 4th seed in the Big East Tourney and get the last bye.  The Irish are tied for fourth right now and can take over possession of the 4th position with a win over Marquette Saturday.

Lots of basketball links tonight after the bball team’s nice win over DePaul. The Irish looked pretty impressive in beating up on DePaul and set up a really nice showdown with Marquette on Saturday. The win also pretty much makes the Irish a lock for the tourney. As always, there are also a few links on Brady Quinn and the draft.  Today’s dome pic come froms Kyle.

• The USA Today has a good article on Quinn’s goal of being the first overall selection. Scott Wright of NFL Draft Countdown called Quinn a “potential franchise quarterback in the mold of (Cincinnati’s) Carson Palmer.”
• Meanwhile, MSNBC has an article stating that the Raiders should draft JaMarcus Russell with the #1 people. Maybe the Notre Dame detractors are right, NBC promotes Notre Dame just a little too much.
• BGI has a nice preview of all of Notre Dame’s draft prospects with some expert analysis on each. Rhema McKnight as a 4th or 5th round pick would be a very nice pick up for someone.
• Good post from Black and Green Irish Men’s Basketball blog on tonight’s win over DePaul as well as an overall look at Big East basketball from the last week.
• Rakes of Mallow has another good general overview of the bball team that they posted before tonight’s game. They also have a nice side by side of the coaches from tonight.
• Irish Round Table had a live blog during tonight’s DePaul game. A different look at tonight’s win.
• We also had a recap of tonights game from Ryan over on the main site here at UHND.
• Good article from Forde Minutes analyzing who will make the field of 65. Notre Dame is mentioned a number of times for its quality wins as well as its weak strength of schedule.
• One last basketball link tonight. IE had a nice article on Tory Jackson yesterday that I missed and figured I’d include today after his nice game tonight.
• BGS has a list of nine top plays from 2006 that just missed their top 10 which they’ll be releasing soon.

Eric Hansen, who is quickly becoming my favorite Notre Dame beat writer, has a really good article in today’s South Bend Tribune about Quinn and this weekend’s NFL Combine. In it, he gives a very in depth look at the lengths to which Quinn is going in hopes of hearing his named called first in April.

“During his lunch break, Brady Quinn likes to hook himself up to a 3D vision-testing machine that, in theory, sharpens the small muscles in his eyes to give him that much more reaction time to deal with oncoming defensive linemen.”

If only he had a machine he could hook himself up to at Notre Dame that could actually pick up a blitz, maybe none of this Quinn dropping in the draft stuff would be all over the internet. Instead, every blogger on the internet has an opinion of why Quinn should or shouldn’t be dropping in the draft.

Despite all of the rumor mongering going on in the blogosphere, Quinn still really wants to be the #1 pick…

“It’s important for me to be the first pick in the draft. It’s one of the goals I’ve set for myself, and hopefully in the next few weeks, I can position myself to do that. As far as the analysts and people who make predictions, the only thing that bothers me about that is that it bothers my friends and family, because they buy way too much into that. The thing I know is that if I work hard and do what I’m capable of doing, the No. 1 slot should be there for me.”

Hansen also had some great quotes from Frank Coyle of DraftInsiders.com…

“Russell is a monster talent, but he’s going to run into a wall in the NFL. I think Quinn is the better-developed player. This nonsense of juniors coming out off a big bowl game is way overblown. Decisions have to be made off the entire body of work, not the final game. And that’s where Quinn really shines.”

It’s nice to see someone finally state what most Notre Dame fans have felt ever since LSU took Notre Dame to the woodshed in Sugar Bowl. Russell is very talented (and is a pretty smart businessman for coming out now when his stock is as high as it will ever be), but he is a rather large project at the NFL level and is no where near as NFL ready as Quinn is in terms of running a team.

Hopefully Brady impresses because obviously his 69 to 14 TD to interception ratio over the last two years apparently hasn’t impressed enough as Russell’s 43 to 17.

Here are the links for Sunday, February 18th - a nice collection of some moron bloggers who are doing their best to add fuel to the Brady Quinn draft stock dropping fire as well as some quality links.

• Meyer vs. Weis Round II - the guys over at Orange and Blue Hue have a series of posts going on comparing Weis and Meyer after two seasons.  Here is also part I in case you missed it.
• I don’t know why I link to AOL Blogs because I think let pretty much anyone willing to post write them but…. this clown seems to think Quinn could conceivably drop all the way to 29th to the Ravens… and this guy seems to think there’s no way the Panther draft Quinn 14th to replace 32 year old Jake Delhomme’s 43 INTs over the last four seasons.
• Meanwhile, the Rock Report has a nice piece today on the pressure myth surrounding Quinn.  The more I think about it, the more I keep thinking that the Quinn-Manning comparison (in terms of their draft stock after returning for a senior season) is legit.  People are looking to find flaws in Quinn’s game just as they were Manning’s.
• The bball team got hot from 3 point range and beat Cinci 76-64 today.  Collin Falls set the Notre Dame career 3pt mark and the Irish got their first 20 win season in four years.
• Jim Leyland visited Notre Dame this week and had a great time.  Leyland is one heck of a baseball coach and for the life  of me I still cannot fathom why my Phillies went with Charlie Manuel over Leyland a few years back - that one hasn’t backfired on us at all.
• The baseball team lost back to back games this weekend to Texas State after a 6-0 defeat Sunday.  The Irish also lost 2-1 to the Bobcats on Saturday.
• There is a nice discussion going for a Sunday over the football board in response to today’s 5 Things I’d Like to See in 2007 post by yours truly.

Saw this interesting post over at IRT this evening. An article from the Ann Arbor News is calling for the Lions to try to acquire Donovan McNabb from the Eagles for the 2nd overall pick.

“The fact is, a college quarterback is always an unknown commodity until he proves he’s not, which brings us to Donovan McNabb.

The former NFL Pro Bowler is suffering through a little mid-career crisis. He blew out his knee this season, and when veteran backup Jeff Garcia led the Eagles to the playoffs, Philadelphia’s notoriously fickle fans and media began to wonder whether they might be better off with Garcia at quarterback than McNabb.”

The report went on to say:

There have been weird rumbles in Eagle-ville lately, with coach Andy Reid ordering McNabb not to travel with the team for a playoff game, then canceling a news conference the quarterback wanted to hold.

This is a case of a writer not really checking his facts. The Eagles as a rule do not let injured players travel with the team on road trips. Period. This was not a case of Reid or the Eagles brass telling Donovan to stay home. No one player is larger than the team with the Eagles, and after the T.O. fiasco, they are hell bent on proving that. I will say, however, that the week before the loss to the Saints, McNabb was on the sidelines for the Giants game and there were rumblings that he was interfering with Jeff Garcia’s leadership abilities.
The article concludes with”

“But the truth is, Quinn won’t bring back any of the people who’ve given up on this team. At least not until he proves he’s more than just another Joey Harrington.

Donovan McNabb lining up under center in next season’s opener is a different story.

A story that would make the Lions interesting again, that would get people talking again, one certainly worth making a phone call in hope of.”

First off, I have made mention of my love for the Eagles plenty of times on this website. I love the Eagles almost as much as I love Notre Dame and I probably know more about the Birds than the Irish for the simple reason of being surrounded by fellow Eagles fans. And, if the Lions were to trade that 2nd overall pick to the Eagles, I would be on the Rebbok site in a second purchasing a custom made Eagles #10 jersey with Quinn’s name on it. It will never happen though.

The Eagles are McNabb’s team and the Eagles are not a young team looking to rebuild around a rookie quarterback. They were such a team prior to drafting McNabb and doing a trade such as this would mean they have given up on the current core group of players and are starting over. Unless McNabb were to demand a trade, he will not be going anywhere.

On a side note, Eagles fans would love Quinn after they see him take his first big hit and get right back up. Quinn has been one of the toughest quarterbacks in college football over the last four years. He’s taken a beating without skipping a beat, something Philly fans would eat up.

Lastly, does anyone else find it surprising that a columnist from Ann Arbor doesn’t like the idea of seeing Brady Quinn line up for the Lions? Odd they wouldn’t want a Notre Dame quarterback leading their team isn’t it?

Another gem from our buddy Pete Carroll according to SI.com:

If the Raiders don’t take LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell with the first pick of the April 28 draft, stop the presses. At a speaking engagement near Palm Springs the other day, USC coach Pete Carroll said he figured he knew his former protégé, Lane Kiffin, would pass on Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn in favor of Russell, now that Kiffin is the head coach of the Raiders. His reasoning: Kiffin likes throwing it downfield, and Russell’s downfield arm is much stronger than Quinn’s. “The kid from LSU is exactly what they’re looking for, more than the kid from Notre Dame,” Carroll said. Just another brick in the wall of the evidence that says we don’t quite know where Quinn will go, but we know where Russell is likely to go.

I find it just a little bit coincidental that Carroll would make public comments about a quarterback, Quinn, from a school he has to recruit head to head with and face every year, not being what the Raiders were looking for. Quinn going #1 overall would be huge for Notre Dame and recruiting in the future, especially at the quarterback position.

For Quinn’s sake I hope he doesn’t get drafted by the Raiders because I think Lane Kiffin is going to be an absolutely terrible head coach for the Raiders, and I would like to see Quinn go to a place where he has a better chance to succeed. Based on reports that Randy Moss has already cursed out Kiffin, the situation in Oakland doesn’t look too promising.

Back to Russell over Quinn for a second though… Does anyone else remember Russell being a likely candidate for the top overall pick before the Sugar Bowl? First the media compared Quinn to Troy Smith all season and now that Smith stank it up in the title game, its Quinn and Russell. Russell is a fine quarterback with a lot of raw talent, but any scout who watches the Sugar Bowl and doesn’t see that his gaudy stats were a result of some of the most shoddy defense in a BCS game is blind. Russell was throwing to wide open receivers and was actually behind them on numerous occasions.

Should the Raiders pass on Quinn, the Lions at #2 could very well take him. With Roy Williams at receiver and Kevin Jones at running back, Quinn would have some weapons to work with in Detroit. After a decade of incompetence from the Lions, there are certainly better situations for Quinn to walk into, but there are also plenty of worse situations.

Ben Maller of Fox Sports is reporting that the Oakland Raiders, owners of the #1 overall pick in April’s draft, are going to try to make a move for Michael Vick.

“The Oakland Raiders are preparing to make a run at Falcons QB Michael Vick, according to NFL sources. The Raiders package would include receivers Randy Moss and Jerry Porter plus the No.1 overall pick in the 2007 draft for Vick and the Falcons first round pick (10th overall).”

Should that deal go down, the Falcons would have an arsenal of wide receivers with Moss, Porter, Ashley Leilei, Roddy White, and Michael Jenkins. They would only have Matt Schaub at quarterback though. Schaub is a good quarterback, but with the #1 overall pick new head coach Bobby Petrino would most likely draft Brady Quinn.

Petrino loves to throw the football and with those receivers and quarterback like Quinn, he certainly would have the tools to bring his offense to the NFL.

I dunno though. Something about Quinn throwing to Randy Moss and being coach by Bobby Petrino just seems dirty…

[tags]Brady Quinn, Notre Dame Football, Oakland Raiders, Randy Moss, Atlanta Falcons, Michael Vick[/tags]

From an AP article on NBC Sports.com

“Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn will sit out the Senior Bowl with a minor knee injury.

Quinn still will travel to Mobile for the game, an audition for senior NFL prospects, Senior Bowl spokesman Vic Knight told the Press-Register of Mobile.

Knight said Friday he didn’t know which knee was injured or how the injury occurred.

Quinn was examined at Dr. James Andrews’ office in Birmingham, Knight said, and was advised not to play in the Jan. 27 game. “

There was no mention of when the injury occured or whether it happened during the Sugar Bowl or not.  Honestly, I was surprised Quinn was going to play in the Senior Bowl to begin with.  Usually a prospect whose draft stock is as high as Quinn’s, especially at quarterback, won’t play in these type of games.

Anyway, no Brady in the Senior Bowl which means we have officially seen the last of Quinn playing in a Notre Dame helmet (since Senior Bowl players were their schools helmet during the game).

[tags]Brady Quinn, Notre Dame Football, Senior Bowl[/tags]